I was sitting outside my office, in the howling wind and rain, taking yet another casual puff of my e-cigarette when I realized I had a serious problem.
What started as a casual alternative to the occasional cigarette quickly became a full-blown addiction.
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Here I was, a 47-year-old mother of two, behaving like a teenager sneaking off to smoke in the school bathroom.
And I’m not alone: Children as young as 7 are becoming addicted to e-cigarettes, forcing school principals across the country to install anti-vape alarms in bathrooms.
Last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced new plans to ban disposable e-cigarettes after alarming research showed they could pose serious harm to children’s health.
Five million e-cigarettes are thrown away every week in the UK, creating an environmental disaster.
I realized something needed to change, and it needed to change fast.
A few years ago I visited the hypnotherapist Max Karsten to help me kick a pretty severe tobacco addiction.
I’ve been a smoker on and off since I was about 15, with long periods of time when I didn’t smoke, but I was pretty bad at those times.
I had just given birth to my second daughter and I knew I couldn’t continue living life the way I had been.
To my surprise, it worked.
I thought I was a cynical old man, but in fact I was perfect prey for Derren Brown.
I didn’t even consider touching a cigarette again for years.
That is, until lockdown. I’m happy to admit this because I know I’m not the only one in the UK who has reverted to some pretty bad habits during those crazy times.
Realizing I was starting to go down the slippery slope again, I did as thousands of smokers have been advised to do and traded in my Marlboro Golds for disposable menthol vapes.
It sat on my shelf for months, only smoking it occasionally when my willpower was weak.
But by the time I finished that and bought a watermelon elf bar, things were getting serious fast.
Within a few weeks, I was smoking the sweet e-cigarette about three times every seven days, and it always seemed to be on hand, whether I was smoking or not.
Just two months in, I found myself not only consuming at least one disposable e-cigarette every day, but also panicking if I didn’t have one in my pocket at all times.
Plus, it cost me a lot of money.
At a conservative estimate, I spent £280 in just eight weeks, not even factoring in that a trip in central London can cost more than £5.
It was an outrageous amount that I could never afford.
I also became convinced that it was affecting my health.
I have Raynaud’s syndrome which affects blood circulation.
As I started vaping more, the pain I would sometimes get in my fingers when the temperature dropped noticeably got worse.
The problem is, vaping is too easy.
The nicotine salts used in these sweet disposable e-cigarettes are a crack cocaine version of nicotine liquid.
Max Kirsten
You can have a smoke whenever you want – in your living room, on the street, in your car, or secretly in a public toilet.
It’s much easier to hide from your kids than bad breath, dirty fingers, or smelly clothes.
I even considered starting smoking again because I thought it would be easier to quit the habit than to vape.
I tried to quit smoking regularly using willpower, but always failed within 24 hours.
I always had excuses: now wasn’t the right time, it wasn’t “that bad”, at least it wasn’t as bad as smoking, I didn’t drink anymore so I needed some vice, etc.
So I decided to see if Max Karsten could work his magic again.
He told me I wasn’t the first person to cross his boundaries, that he’d switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes and become ridiculously addicted, and that I wouldn’t be the last.
He said: “The nicotine salts used in sugary disposable e-cigarettes are the crack cocaine of nicotine liquid.”
“These devices have only been around for the last five or six years, so we don’t know a lot about them.
“But if you’re a former smoker like yourself, your body immediately recognizes the nicotine hit.
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Scan the code and you’ll get Max’s Quit Smoking NOW app for £5.99 instead of the usual price of £6.99, plus the Mp3 for half price.
“Salted nicotine is strong, it packs a punch and it replicates the hit of tobacco very well, without any of the unpleasant side effects.”
“But it’s a vicious cycle.
“You feel like you need more nicotine to make you feel good, but it’s the nicotine that’s making you feel bad in the first place.”
Max began our two-hour session with a lengthy chat about my family, background, vaping habits, memories, hopes and dreams, building up imagery to use during the actual hypnosis.
Then, sitting in a comfy chair with headphones on and eyes closed, I listen to an echoey soundtrack as he tells me how he’s going to quit smoking, the benefits of kicking the habit, and how everything will be so much better once he’s done.
To be honest, I don’t know exactly what he said, it’s just a bit of a hazy memory.
It was as if there was a battle going on in my head between that annoying little voice and a more rational voice, and it was winning.
Veronica Lorraine
At times it was hard to focus on his words and the memories I was trying to evoke.
As he counted down (yes, that really happens) and began to speak, I had a strange out-of-body sensation.
I could hear his voice, but there was a small voice in my mind wondering what on earth was going on.It also felt amazing, similar to the sensations that people who can meditate properly and reach higher states of consciousness would feel.
When I regained consciousness I was a little disappointed to find that nothing had changed, except that I felt a little sleepy and content.
At first I thought there was no way that could work, but honestly, I just didn’t feel like vaping.
Although vaping was constantly on my mind for the next few days, I didn’t act on the thought.
The pros and cons of electronic cigarettes
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, around 8.7% of people use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally.
Following NHS recommendations, many people have switched to e-cigarettes to quit smoking.
“Nicotine e-cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, and they’re also one of the most effective ways to quit smoking.”
Tobacco and other toxic chemicals in tobacco make smoking one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK and is linked to 50 serious health problems.
Switching to e-cigarettes eliminates some of these risks, but they are not risk-free.
The potential dangers are still unknown, making it even more alarming that so many children have tried e-cigarettes.
The public health charity Action on Smoking and Health found that the proportion of children trying e-cigarettes rose by 50% in April 2023 compared to the previous year, from one in 13 to one in nine.
Of these, nearly half had never smoked tobacco.
Although e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, they do contain nicotine and other chemicals that make cigarettes highly addictive.
Research has shown that nicotine can impair brain development in young people, damage the heart and lungs, raise blood pressure and cause breathing difficulties.
It was as if there was a battle between that annoying little voice in my head and a more rational voice, and that voice was winning.
As per Max’s instructions, I took a deep breath and held it for eight seconds, and the annoying voice disappeared.
The Max Kirsten Quit Smoking Now app was also really helpful for booster sessions, I listened to one in bed the second night.
A pop-up reminder appeared as part of the post-hypnotic routine to take a deep breath.
And as the days went on, I almost began to forget that I was vaping.
Sometimes I think, “Oh, I wish I’d smoked an e-cigarette in this situation.”
But I no longer panic when I find I don’t have any cigarettes in my pocket or have to sneak a cigarette at work, on the bus, or in a store.
Luckily I don’t drink anymore, otherwise it would have been much more difficult.
But after hypnosis, my heart rate calms, my Raynaud’s subsides, and the idea of sucking sugary pills out of a little plastic tube seems ridiculous.
Veronica — 1, Vape — 0.
Thank you, Max.
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Tips for quitting
The NHS recommends using lower strength e-liquid in refillable devices (a minimum of 3mg nicotine) instead of disposable e-cigarettes, which usually contain 20mg, and gradually quitting e-cigarettes.
It asks people to increase the time between vaping and set rules about where they can and can’t vape.
Gradually reduce your reliance on e-cigarettes by switching to alternative nicotine products such as gum, patches, or nasal spray.
Reveri, a self-hypnosis app developed by Stanford psychologist Dr. David Spiegel, may be able to help.
There’s a 7-day free trial available on the App Store or Google Play, with a subscription costing £89.99 per year (£7.50 per month).
Each month, 10 people will receive a 50% discount through the Reveri For Good program (reveri.com/forgood).
Try nicotine-free devices designed to replicate the act of vaping, such as Füm, Ripple, or vaping necklaces.
