Mad Mensch
Member For 4 Years
Hi all,
I had a very short but intense stint with vaping and it came to a premature end just a few days ago. Let me start by saying that I was not a tobacco user when I started vaping so my experience was a little different. Most vapers that i've spoken to used vaping as a means to transition off analogs which seems to be a logical strategy. So why in the world would someone who was not addicted to cigarettes (or any other tobacco product) get involved with vaping?
The reason for me was, as unusual as this sounds, nail biting. For most of my adult life I have suffered from the addiction of biting my nails which may seem harmless, but is in fact a classified obsessive compulsive disorder. My profession is in the medical sales industry and I can't count how many times physicians, nurses, and even sick patients have commented on the conditions of my nails! As a creative effort, I tried vaping due to the fact that it addresses both the oral fixation while the nicotine assists in calming some anxiety which usually triggers the nail biting impulse for me. Surprisingly it worked to a degree.
So in the 3 months I vaped, at the very peak I was vaping 1.5 mg nicotine about 5-6 ml/day. It became a real crutch for me and I found myself constantly vaping, especially during times I would normally bite my nails. The vaping seemed to help curb my desire to bite my nails and I was pretty satisfied with that trade-off. In the beginning I started off pretty advanced with a SMPL mod and a RDA and then transitioned to a subtank mini with a Vaporshark DNA40. I also purchased a bunch of tanks, RDA's, box mods, tube mods, coils, and everything in between. All was going well and I got really into the "hobby" when something strange started happening. I woke up one morning with an intense ringing in my ear accompanied by severe dizziness and vertigo. I waited a few days, saw a Doctor, and he mentioned it was some sort of middle ear infection or inflammation and prescribed prednisone. I've never in 35 years had an ear infection or experienced any type of dizziness or tinnitus so this was completely new. Aside from the nail biting I consider myself a pretty healthy individual. So I did some research and found multiple threads/articles from individuals who experienced the exact same issues, as well as a medical journal publication on the "ototoxicty" of propylene glycol. The juice that I exclusively vape is 70 VG and 40 PG so there is obviously that probable correlation. But as with all illnesses I knew it would pass with time so I continued to go about the same daily routine (still vaping) while being more conscious of the symptoms I was experiencing. After about 3 weeks the symptoms not only persisted but they intensified. It got to a point where I was waking up in the middle of the night due to dizziness! If you've ever experienced a migraine so bad that it wakes you in the middle of the night you know how serious of a condition that is. That really caught my attention so about a week ago I decided to stop vaping cold turkey to see if that would help and that was the beginning of the end so-to-speak.
It's been about 7 days now and the tinnitus and dizziness are nearly 100% gone. At this point the only real negative symptoms I am experiencing is nicotine withdrawals. I can also admit that my nail biting has come back in full force now that I feel more anxiety due to the withdrawals. While all this does suck, I'm grateful that the dizziness is mostly gone since it was a very scary and debilitating experience. I should also take the time to say that I'm not a Doctor or scientist so I can't confirm 100% that PG is the cause of the medical issues I experienced. For those that are wondering why I didn't switch to just vaping 100% VG, I sometimes wonder the same thing. But truth-be-told, right now I'm feeling the best I've felt in months and I don't want to risk the issues coming back even to a small degree. Now, if I was someone who was transitioning off cigarettes I would definitely try 100% VG since cigarette smoking is a lot more lethal than nail biting!
Anyway, I wanted to share my experience to you all not to warn or dissuade anyone from vaping. Heck, I WISH I didn't experience the things I did because I really enjoyed vaping. I share this story mainly as a way for me to gain some closure on this whole experience and wave goodbye to a hobby that I hardly knew. Goodbye VU and thank you for the great resources while I was here!
I had a very short but intense stint with vaping and it came to a premature end just a few days ago. Let me start by saying that I was not a tobacco user when I started vaping so my experience was a little different. Most vapers that i've spoken to used vaping as a means to transition off analogs which seems to be a logical strategy. So why in the world would someone who was not addicted to cigarettes (or any other tobacco product) get involved with vaping?
The reason for me was, as unusual as this sounds, nail biting. For most of my adult life I have suffered from the addiction of biting my nails which may seem harmless, but is in fact a classified obsessive compulsive disorder. My profession is in the medical sales industry and I can't count how many times physicians, nurses, and even sick patients have commented on the conditions of my nails! As a creative effort, I tried vaping due to the fact that it addresses both the oral fixation while the nicotine assists in calming some anxiety which usually triggers the nail biting impulse for me. Surprisingly it worked to a degree.
So in the 3 months I vaped, at the very peak I was vaping 1.5 mg nicotine about 5-6 ml/day. It became a real crutch for me and I found myself constantly vaping, especially during times I would normally bite my nails. The vaping seemed to help curb my desire to bite my nails and I was pretty satisfied with that trade-off. In the beginning I started off pretty advanced with a SMPL mod and a RDA and then transitioned to a subtank mini with a Vaporshark DNA40. I also purchased a bunch of tanks, RDA's, box mods, tube mods, coils, and everything in between. All was going well and I got really into the "hobby" when something strange started happening. I woke up one morning with an intense ringing in my ear accompanied by severe dizziness and vertigo. I waited a few days, saw a Doctor, and he mentioned it was some sort of middle ear infection or inflammation and prescribed prednisone. I've never in 35 years had an ear infection or experienced any type of dizziness or tinnitus so this was completely new. Aside from the nail biting I consider myself a pretty healthy individual. So I did some research and found multiple threads/articles from individuals who experienced the exact same issues, as well as a medical journal publication on the "ototoxicty" of propylene glycol. The juice that I exclusively vape is 70 VG and 40 PG so there is obviously that probable correlation. But as with all illnesses I knew it would pass with time so I continued to go about the same daily routine (still vaping) while being more conscious of the symptoms I was experiencing. After about 3 weeks the symptoms not only persisted but they intensified. It got to a point where I was waking up in the middle of the night due to dizziness! If you've ever experienced a migraine so bad that it wakes you in the middle of the night you know how serious of a condition that is. That really caught my attention so about a week ago I decided to stop vaping cold turkey to see if that would help and that was the beginning of the end so-to-speak.
It's been about 7 days now and the tinnitus and dizziness are nearly 100% gone. At this point the only real negative symptoms I am experiencing is nicotine withdrawals. I can also admit that my nail biting has come back in full force now that I feel more anxiety due to the withdrawals. While all this does suck, I'm grateful that the dizziness is mostly gone since it was a very scary and debilitating experience. I should also take the time to say that I'm not a Doctor or scientist so I can't confirm 100% that PG is the cause of the medical issues I experienced. For those that are wondering why I didn't switch to just vaping 100% VG, I sometimes wonder the same thing. But truth-be-told, right now I'm feeling the best I've felt in months and I don't want to risk the issues coming back even to a small degree. Now, if I was someone who was transitioning off cigarettes I would definitely try 100% VG since cigarette smoking is a lot more lethal than nail biting!
Anyway, I wanted to share my experience to you all not to warn or dissuade anyone from vaping. Heck, I WISH I didn't experience the things I did because I really enjoyed vaping. I share this story mainly as a way for me to gain some closure on this whole experience and wave goodbye to a hobby that I hardly knew. Goodbye VU and thank you for the great resources while I was here!