My name is Christina. I'm 29, and I'm currently living in Sydney, Australia.
I had been vaping for about three years. I was never a smoker, but I began vaping because a lot of my friends were vaping, and you had these really nice flavoured vapes available. So, it was just really accessible and kind of something I just fell into.
There were a few reasons why I wanted to give up vaping. I could notice the health effects on me when I was exercising. My chest was really tight. I was coughing a lot more, and then there was also the financial costs. I felt like I was just wasting a lot of my money, spending it on vapes.
It took me a couple of attempts to stop vaping. A lot of my friends and my partner joined in on making the decision that we didn't want to vape anymore, so we were pretty accountable with each other, and it worked for a short time. And then over the last couple of months, I noticed that we started to kind of pick up a vape here and there on weekends, even though we weren't vaping every single day.
So, the deciding factor that I absolutely needed to stop vaping was when myself and my partner found out we were expecting a baby. I immediately worried about the effects vaping could have on the baby that I was growing. I really just didn't want to put my baby at risk.
So, what I did was kind of change the habits. I had a habit of going downstairs during work and standing outside and vaping every couple of hours just because I was addicted to it, and I switched up those habits. So, when I really wanted a vape, I went for a short walk, or I went and got myself a fizzy drink or a coffee and just did an action to replace the vaping.
Some of the benefits I felt after I gave up was I could breathe better. I just felt overall better in my general health. My cough disappeared, and I was just really happy with myself for finally being able to give up that habit, both for myself and for the baby as well.
I think some of my advice would be to just be kind to yourself and just keep trying. Even if you don't make it the first time, that's better than nothing. You can always try again, and then eventually you will get there.