Is Vaping Addictive?

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Is Vaping Addictive?

Blake Brown

February 20, 2015

6 comments

Much like anything else these days, vaping too can be addictive.  Anytime you’re exposed to repetitious actions or become reliant on excessive use to feed a pleasurable activity or use it in a way to cope with unmanageable conflict, it can turn into an addiction.  However, it is easily addictive to someone that already has an addictive personality.  Many believe that such a personality is a psychological setback that makes a person more susceptible to addictions.

[blockquote cite=”https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200903/the-addictive-personality” float=”left” align=”left”]Addiction depends, first and foremost, upon having an addictive personality. Such people, estimated at perhaps 10%-15% of the population, simply don’t know when to stop. Do you enjoy a glass or two of wine with dinner? If so, why not have ten or twenty? Did you ever buy a lottery ticket on your birthday? If so, why not sell your house and buy 100,000? How about going to church on Sunday? Does it make you feel good? If so, why not go every day twice a day? The point here is simple: Too much of a good thing can be bad. And yet people with addictive personalities will get hooked on alcohol and gambling and religion. Believe it or not, being addicted is nothing more than an out-of-control habit. The difference between that 10%-15% and everyone else is the difference between using and abusing.[/blockquote]

As you see, people shouldn’t associate addiction specifically with a drug of some kind.  Though any addiction wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing, the association and the word itself is made to be much worse than it may actually be.  The addiction to tobacco cigarettes (or smoking) is a much worse addiction than vaping because it has an abundant amount of chemicals, which are also said to help increase those addictive traits a person may have.  But, this leads us to the question at hand… is vaping addictive?

Even knowing the information above, there was still a study that was conducted that examined the dependence level in users of electronic cigarettes, nicotine gum and tobacco cigarettes.  The objective of the study was to assess dependence levels in users who vaped, and then compare them with dependence levels in those who used nicotine gum and tobacco cigarettes.  The results showed clearly that even though some vapers were dependent on e-cigarettes containing nicotine, they are still less addictive than tobacco cigarettes.  The study also found that vaping may be as or less addictive than nicotine gum, but also made a point that nicotine gum itself isn’t very addictive in itself.

What it boils down to is that anything you do excessively can turn into an addiction.  You may think that from switching from tobacco cigarettes to electronic cigarettes that you’re just trading one addiction for another, but this way of thinking is wrong.  Vaping was never intended to be a quitting tool, even though studies have proven it has the potential.  Vaping was designed as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes, where you would endure less harm and continue to enjoy nicotine.  Additionally, there are many that believe nicotine isn’t the cause of addiction, but more so the hand to mouth movement, which goes along with the repetitious actions we shared with you at the beginning of this article.

Is vaping addictive?  Yes, it can be.

Is chewing gum addictive?  Yes, it can be.