The most disturbing symptom of vape addiction, according to a psychologist

There are some serious risks connected with vaping

Vaping has exploded in popularity in recent years as people look for alternatives to smoking, and in particular disposable vapes have become hugely popular amongst young people thanks to bright packaging and sweet flavours.

The NHS does suggest e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarette smoking and a good way to give up cigarettes, but there are still risk factors associated with it.

In particular, there are concerns over the health impacts vaping could have on people who never smoked in the first place.

Last year, the UK government launched a consultation on vapes amid worries that young people and children are becoming addicted to them.

Now, psychologist and researcher Claire Wakefield, from the Minderoo Foundation, has spoken about some of the concerning psychological signs of vape addiction.

Speaking on the It's A Lot podcast, the Australian said: “The clues for me that I reckon are worrying, is when you start thinking about it when you don't want to think about it.

“You wake up in the morning and the first thing you think is, ‘Where's my vape?’ Or if you get, like, anxiety about wondering where I'm going to get my next one.”

But the most disturbing symptom of vape addiction for Wakefield is nicotine poisoning, also known as 'nic sick.'

She explained: “The ones that hit home for me - where there's tons of evidence - is acute nicotine toxicity, which they call ‘nic-sick’. That's essentially when you have too much nicotine at once.”

This a real risk with vaping because they contain pure liquid nicotine. In liquid products, the concentration of nicotine is higher than in most other tobacco products, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Symptoms of nicotine poisoning include nausea and vomiting, dizziness, headaches, confusion, diarrhoea, shallow breathing and extreme fatigue. In its most extreme cases, it can even be fatal.

Wakefield recalled one case in which a woman started throwing up strawberry-flavoured vomit because of her vaping addiction.

She said: “She says she knew she had a problem when her vomit started tasting like vape.

“Strawberry-flavoured vomit, because she'd had so much vape. If you Google ‘Vape burns’, it's not pretty.”

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