Vaping without nicotine is better than nicotine but is still bad for your body in the long run. The smoke could still damage the throat and lungs. The chemicals used in vaping are toxic to your lungs, and the flavoring ingredients can cause chronic inflammation and irreversible scarring. Anxiety pens which use CBD are increasingly popular as self-medication for anxiety and work as a quick fix. CBD is also available in oil and edible gummy format. But CBD has few side effects and isn’t regulated by the FDA for treating anxiety. The long-term effects of vaping are still being studied extensively. If you want to help reduce your anxiety naturally, reviewing and changing your lifestyle can work wonders in the long run.
The misconception that vaping or smoking cigarettes can relieve stress, anxiety, and depression is still quite common amongst young people.
People who start vaping to cope with their anxiety are unaware that nicotine is worsening their condition and mental health.
Using nicotine to cope with anxiety can make one stuck in the endless cycle of continuing to do so.
As the withdrawal symptoms make anxiety even worse, coming off nicotine is still the best decision for anyone suffering from anxiety.
While vaping without nicotine isn’t an ideal option to deal with anxiety, let’s look at how it can help and the other alternatives for dealing with it.
Is vaping without nicotine better for anxiety?
Vaping addiction has been a recent fad young people are falling for in the past decade.
While some do it to look cool or fit in with their friends, others might start doing it with a false perception that it would help their anxiety.
While you might think vaping will help with your anxiety and work as a relaxation and stress reliever, it’s an illusion where the nicotine addiction is only keeping you hooked on a never-ending cycle.
The withdrawal symptoms can worsen when you already suffer from anxiety or other mental issues. In such cases, continuing to vape can create a false illusion that it’s helping your anxiety when it’s not.
When you decide to quit nicotine for good, it can cause significant change, resulting in decreased anxiety, depression, and stress levels and improved mood and quality of life.
While there’s no scientific evidence to show how vaping non-nicotine products can help with anxiety, it is better than vaping with nicotine.
With nicotine vaping, people find their heart rate increased.
If you already had anxiety before, it can worsen the symptoms, and if you didn’t have it before, it could result in different mental health conditions.
How does vaping without nicotine feel?
If you’re used to vaping and using it as a stress reliever and to self-medicate your anxiety but now realize how it was only making your anxiety worse, then vaping without nicotine can help with your withdrawal.
Going cold turkey can be difficult for some people, so vaping without nicotine is one way to deal with the symptoms. It creates a false illusion in the person and makes them believe they’re vaping with nicotine.
There’s less of a throat hit compared to nicotine vapes, and there isn’t much of a harsh sensation on your throat. It’s a false sensation that can help with symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
With a vape, you can slowly decrease your nicotine strengths and gradually reach zero nicotine levels.
Vaping without nicotine is still bad for you
While vaping without nicotine is still better than vaping with nicotine, it is best not to vape for your anxiety.
In September 2019, federal and state health authorities began investigating an outbreak of a severe lung disease associated with vaping products and electronic cigarettes.
The smoke could still damage one’s health by irritating the lungs and throat.
- The chemicals used in vaping products to flavor e-liquids are toxic to lung cells.
- Vaping e-liquid can irritate the lungs and throat. It comes with a tingling and burning sensation when inhaling the vapor, which essentially irritates the airways even without nicotine.
- Several common e-liquid flavoring ingredients cause inflammation in the lung cells and lead to chronic inflammation and irreversible lung scarring.
The long-term health effects of using vaping products with or without nicotine are still unknown and are currently being studied.
Are anxiety pens a safer alternative?
Anxiety pens that are popular use Cannabidiol (CBD), a compound derived from cannabis.
It doesn’t produce a high and has a wide variety of ways to act as therapeutic in cases of anxiety, inflammation, seizure and epilepsy treatment, and pain reliever.
Researchers have studies supporting their claim that CBD is effective for various anxiety disorders, including:
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
Although these effects are only visible from acute dosing and the long-term use of CBD is still being studied, researchers must keep studying its full effects.
It also depends on the dosage a person takes to relieve anxiety symptoms, the CBD product, and how they administer it.
Smoking or vaping takes immediate effect but using it as edibles and capsules takes 30 minutes to two hours.
Some side effects of using CBD in vaping pens include drowsiness, decreased appetite, diarrhea, and weight changes. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate CBD for treating anxiety.
When using this method to self-medicate your anxiety, you really need to use your best judgment. Only depend on reputable manufacturers and distributors.
Oral CBD for treating anxiety
CBD for vaping pens is one popular way, but another alternative is taking it orally to help with anxiety. Vaping pens can be expensive, but using CBD oil under the tongue can be more cost-effective.
Dropping this liquid under the tongue is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.
It can taste weird and weed-like, but it’s also sold infused with ingredients like peppermint to make them more bearable.
Edible CBD for anxiety symptoms
There’re edible gummies to consume that can also help treat your anxiety symptoms.
With gummies, you can control your dosing more easily than with oils or vaping. No one will even give you a funny look, even if you eat it in public.
The only drawback is that gummies take some time before helping with anxiety symptoms.
If you’re in a situation where you have a full-blown panic attack, then it isn’t ideal for managing your symptoms.
FAQs
Is vaping bad for your anxiety?
Vaping contains nicotine unless you go the non-nicotine way, which harms your mental health.
While people perceive that vaping or smoking e-cigarettes helps calm them down and is good self-medication for depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, it actually does the opposite.
Nicotine interrupts the cerebral dopamine pathway and leads to an increase in depressive symptoms. It increases sensitivity to stress, alters the brain’s coping mechanism, and worsens the existing symptoms.
The symptoms will only worsen as much nicotine one puts in the body as a coping mechanism.
What are vaping alternatives for anxiety?
If you wish to manage your anxiety symptoms, then there’s no quick fix like nicotine that can help you but is actually bad for your mental health in the longer run.
It will help if you avoid caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and recreational drugs for a more permanent way of managing your symptoms.
Getting regular sleep, food, and exercise can help manage the symptoms. Practicing relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises and yoga can help change the frequency of attacks.
If your symptoms have become worse and you can’t seem to manage them on your own anymore, it’s best to visit a doctor and seek professional help.
Is vaping worse than smoking?
Vaping is a better alternative to smoking. Even though vaping still contains nicotine and is terrible for your physical and mental well-being, it’s better than smoking.
Regular cigarettes contain 7000 chemicals, but vaping exposes a person to fewer toxic chemicals.
To summarise
Anxiety attacks can be challenging to manage, and to get instant relief from these attacks vaping is one of the ways people manage them in an instant.
Nicotine consumption only harms your mental and physical health by creating a false sense of quick-fix treatment.
Vaping without nicotine is still bad as it can cause multiple health issues in the longer run.
People also self-medicate using CBD in oil, gummies, and vape pen format, but it’s not backed by NHS or approved by FDA.
The only way to manage anxiety symptoms is to try dealing with them by adopting a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and learning your triggers.
