After busting out one Elf Bar disposable a day, I tested hypnotherapy to kick my disgusting vaping habit

It wasn’t until I was curled up outside work, smoking another cheeky vape in the howling wind and rain, that I realized I was in serious trouble.

What started out as a refreshing alternative to the occasional cigarette quickly became a habit of full-fledged consumption.

I’m 47 years old and a mother of two, and just to be clear, here I was acting like a teenager sneaking a cunning fag in the school quagmire.

And it’s not just me. School principals across the country are having to install anti-vaping alarms in bathrooms because children as young as 7 are addicted to e-cigarettes.

Just last month, Rishi Sunak announced new plans to ban e-cigarettes following alarming research showing that disposable e-cigarettes can have serious negative effects on children’s health.

Five million e-cigarettes are thrown away every week in the UK, causing environmental damage.

I realized that something needed to change. And that quickly changed.

Years ago, I went to see hypnotherapist Max Karsten to kick a pretty hardcore tobacco addiction.

I’ve been smoking off and on since I was about 15, and there were long periods where I didn’t smoke, but it was pretty bad at that point.

I had just given birth to my second daughter and knew I couldn’t stay like this.

Surprisingly, it worked.

So I thought I was a cynical old bastard, but it turns out I’m the perfect Derren Brown fodder.

I haven’t even thought about touching a fag for years.

Until lockdown, that is. I’m happy to admit this because I know I’m not the only one in the UK who has fallen back into some pretty bad habits during these crazy times.

Realizing I was accelerating down a slippery slope, I swapped my Marlboro Gold for a disposable menthol e-cig, as thousands of smokers have been inspired to do.

It sat on my shelf for months, taking occasional swigs when my willpower started to wane.

But things quickly got serious until I finished that and bought a watermelon Elf bar.

Within a few weeks, I was consuming three sickly sweet vapes every seven days or so, and it always felt like it was on my hand, whether I was drugging or not.

Just over two months in, I realized that not only was I consuming at least one disposable e-cig a day, but I also panicked if I didn’t have one in my pocket at all times.

Moreover, it cost a lot of money.

On a conservative estimate, I think I spent £280 in just eight weeks, not taking into account the days when you could be charged over £5 for a drink in central London.

It was an exorbitant amount of money and I simply couldn’t afford it.

I also became convinced that it was affecting my health.

I have Raynaud’s syndrome, which affects blood circulation.

As I’ve been vaping more and more, the occasional soreness in my fingers when the temperature has dropped has definitely gotten worse.

The problem is that vaping is too easy.

The salted nicotine used in these sweet, disposable e-cigs is crack cocaine, a nicotine-infused e-liquid.

Max Kirsten

You can take drugs whenever you want, in your living room, on the street, in your car, or secretly in a public restroom.

It’s much easier to hide from children than bad breath, dirty fingers, or smelly clothes.

I also considered starting to smoke again, as it seemed easier to break the habit than vaping.

I regularly tried to use willpower to quit, but always failed within 24 hours.

I was always making excuses. It wasn’t the right time, it wasn’t “so bad”, at least not as bad as smoking, and I didn’t drink anymore, so I needed some kind of vice.

So it’s time to see if Max Kirsten can work her magic again.

He told me that I wasn’t the first to cross his threshold, that I’d traded smoke for vaping and ended up with a crazy addiction, and that I wouldn’t be the last.

“The salted nicotine used in these sugary disposable e-cigs is crack cocaine in nicotine e-liquid,” he said.

“These devices have only really been around for the last five or six years, so we don’t know a lot about them.

“But if you’ve smoked before, your body quickly recognizes the effects of nicotine.

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“Salted nicotine has a strong effect, packs a punch, and mimics the kick of a cigarette very well without all of the unpleasant side effects of cigarettes.

“But it’s a vicious cycle.

“You may feel like you need more nicotine to feel better, but it’s nicotine that makes you feel worse in the first place.”

Max began our two-hour session with a long conversation about my family, background, vaping habits, memories, hopes, and dreams in order to build the image he would later use when administering the actual hypnosis. Masu.

Then I put on my headphones and closed my eyes in a comfy chair and he talked about how I was going to quit, the benefits of breaking that habit, and how everything would be so much better once it was over. , spoken with an echo-like soundtrack.

To be honest, I don’t know exactly what he said. It feels a little dreamy.

It was like there was a battle in my head between that annoying little voice and the more sane voice of reason, and who won.

veronica lorraine

Sometimes it was hard to concentrate on his words and the memories I was supposed to evoke.

When he started counting me down (yes, it really happens), I had a strange out-of-body feeling.

I could hear him, but there was a little voice inside me that wondered what the hell was going on. It also felt amazing, just like how I imagine people who can properly meditate into higher states of consciousness feel.

When I realized, I was a little disappointed that nothing had changed. I just felt a little sleepy and satisfied.

At first, I thought it wouldn’t work. But, admittedly, I didn’t feel like vaping.

Over the next few days, thoughts of vaping were constantly in my head, but I never acted on my thoughts.

It was as if there was a battle in my head between that annoying little voice and the saner voice of reason, and one of them won.

Every time I took a deep breath and held it for 8 seconds, following Max’s instructions, the annoying voices disappeared.

The Max Kirsten Quit Smoking Now app was also very useful for booster sessions and I listened to it in bed on my second night.

As part of my post-hypnosis routine, I took some deep breaths thanks to a pop-up reminder.

And as the days went by, I almost started forgetting that I ever vaped.

Sometimes I think to myself, “Well, in this situation I should have just smoked a vape.”

But the panic of not having coffee in my pocket or trying to sneak a drink at work/on the bus/at the store is gone.

Luckily I don’t drink anymore, so I think it would have been even worse.

But after hypnosis, my heart rate calms, my Raynaud symptoms recede, and the idea of ​​taking disgustingly sweet drugs from a small plastic tube seems absurd.

Veronica — 1, Vape — 0.

Thank you, Max.