An asthma attack.
You know, the whole sucking and wheezing and only getting about 50% of the oxygen out of each breath and into my blood stream that I normally do.
That about sums it up.
Nicotine isn’t known to be harmful, and in fact (as Rachelellogram points out) has some beneficial effects. It’s the other substances in tobacco, and the delivery methods, that are harmful.
It would be reasonable to require e-cigs to be licensed and only available from pharmacies so we do know what’s in them, but not to prevent their use any more than nicotine patches or gum.
The extraordinary claim is that vaping nicotine is harmful, but patches or gum aren’t, and needs to be proved.
Wow. That sucks. I’m sorry you have to experience that.
So…that’s from smelling someone’s exhaled vapor? How do you function in a world of internal combustion engines and humidity?
I think I get you…but nicotine is most certainly harmful. There’s a reason it’s an effective insecticide, after all. it’s a poison. But then, so are caffeine and ethanol; dosage is key.
I missed that claim. Who’s suggesting that patches and gum are not harmful?
If anyone one ever says to me is no slippery slope regarding the nanny state, I’m referring them to this thread. We’ve went from banning public cigarette use because of slightly harmful second hand smoke to banning e-cigs because of potentially harmful second hand vapor. Now I’m seeing discussion here of banning public use of offensive smells. I eagerly await the next stupid idea.
I don’t think she’s talking about withdrawal, she’s talking about the loss of the effect of the drug itself. That makes sense to me: I always joke that the only anti-depressant I am on is caffeine, but I kinda mean it.
There are tons of psychoactive substances that make people more functional.
So the same thing that’s used in your inhaler is the same thing that triggers your asthma attacks? :dubious:
When did I say I was in physical nicotine withdrawal for 6 months, fool? I plead guilty to self-medicating for undiagnosed ADHD instead of getting onto a legitimate stimulant like Adderall, though. Of course, I shouldn’t have started smoking in the first place. But I did. And, without nicotine, I am a barely functional shell of a human being.
So why not dose yourself with patches?
According to my OB/gyn, caffeine is a mild antidepressant. When I was pregnant, and quit caffeine entirely, and was an emotional mess, she (the doctor) told me one cup of tea or coffee (which is to say, about six ounces), or 8-12 ounces of cola a day were not going to hurt the fetus, and maternal stress was pretty bad for a fetus all by itself. After I opened my mouth to argue, she said a lot more was known about caffeine in pregnancy than Zoloft, the next safest antidepressant.
Regarding nicotine: am I going to be breathing in nicotine from other people vaping around me? what if it isn’t just one person, but several? I really, really don’t want any nicotine in my system. I have enough trouble with insomnia as it is.
If it’s really the nicotine people want, and not the delivery system, then there’s gum, and patches, and probably a pill if there were a market. People want to smoke, or some approximation of it. It’s about the delivery system, not the drug.
False dichotomy. It can be about both.
As someone who quit cold turkey 20 years ago, I can tell you it’s more than a matter of days.
I have no particular stake in this debate either way, but you’ll forgive me if i don’t find this a very compelling argument one way or the other.
“Insurance company finds excuse to keep premiums high” is not exactly an earth-shattering revelation.
It’s not my dichotomy. I hear from smokers all the time that they need to smoke because they are addicted to nicotine, as though those are magic words. If addiction by itself justified smoking, then that would need to be the only delivery system available.
Maybe it’s a homeopathic inhaler!
That’s overly diluted!
Then yes, they’re being silly and self-deceptive.
I am addicted to nicotine. My physical withdrawal symptoms–headache, lethargy, etc.–are relatively mild and peak within 72 hours and subside entirely about another 72 after that.
I am, however, a smoker, and always will be. I am addicted to smoking. Nicotine plays an important part in that, but not the sole part.
Patches take hours to work, and then they can be giving you too little or too much nicotine. Ditto for the gum, it takes a long time to absorb and then can be too much or too little.
With a vape the nicotine hits you instantly just as fast as a cig, and you can easily adjust how much nicotine you’re getting instantly. Hits fast to satisfy a craving and you can easily and instantly get to the dose you desire.
I don’t care about the fake smoke vapor at all, I’d happily a vaporizer with none. But some people do enjoy it and it is part of their ritual I’d guess, so it does help them transition off cigs.
I tend to agree. This one is fueled by the righteous “you will not inflict your foul cigarette smoke on me” sense of entitlement, a firmly cemented and extremely popular sensibility. I even agree with it up to a point (I would permit, for example, bar owners to decide if they’ll permit smoking, but smoking prohibitions in all public spaces, yep).
Vaping looks so much like smoking, the reaction is Pavlovian, ISTM. It looks like cigarettes, so the reaction is viscerally intense, and any analogous aspect is immediately detected and overblown (e.g., “you’re exhaling something I can smell!”). People simply cannot turn off the “you’re smoking in front of me” switch in their brain because of how similar it looks and how deeply justified they feel in reacting strongly to “real” smokers. It’s a cognitive dissonance they feel no need to resolve. Just stop vaping, you!
I’ll believe all this concern when I see people getting in a lather because they found out someone is using a new deodorant. “Whoa, whoa! What the hell do you think you’re doing? I can smell that. Has that been tested? Where are the studies? Why should I trust this product? It’s a cosmetic, and FDA regulations do NOT require specific tests to demonstrate the safety of individual products or ingredients. Hell, they don’t even require cosmetic companies to share their safety information. This is anarchy! I am being subjected to horrible danger! Why should my health be jeopardized on account of your inability to keep from stinking without some cosmetic crutch? I will write my congressman immediately in support of a ban of all deodorant use in public places. Keep your lavender-fresh aroma to yourself!” 
So you have asthma attacks when you breathe second hand e-cig vapour? Is that correct?
If so, you are a fragile snowflake. To help you stay alive longer against all odds, please stay away from, well, basically everyone.