In the winter of 2021, I was 32, unemployed, and living with my parents in Las Vegas, where I knew no one. And as this unfortunate COVID-era situation dragged on, my mood grew darker. As a treat, I bought a vape at a local shop. I'd only occasionally smoked before, but now I desperately needed an escape.
I'd close my eyes and inhale, getting a rush of pleasure and a fleeting reprieve from my grim reality. Vaping became my way of holding off an emotional tsunami with a boogie board. So I kept buying $12 electronic tubes of watermelon-mint-flavored nicotine to suck down in my bedroom, away from my parents' prying eyes and aging lungs. Sometimes they'd knock on my door and I'd yell "One second!" while flapping my hands in the air. I was a millennial who'd developed a habit that felt markedly teenaged. And it had me in a choke hold.
For the uninitiated, vapes, or e-cigarettes, work by electronically heating a liquid solution, usually containing nicotine, into vapor. That makes its way through your lungs and into your bloodstream, prompting your body to release adrenaline. And because vapes can have higher nicotine concentrations than cigarettes do-one Juul pod, which seasoned vapers can puff through in a day, contains roughly the same amount as 20 cigs that's a lot of adrenaline. It's also worth noting that some brands sell even stronger pods.
This story is from the Issue 02, 2023 / April 2023 edition of Cosmopolitan US.
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This story is from the Issue 02, 2023 / April 2023 edition of Cosmopolitan US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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