**E-cigarettes, or vapes, are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid and
produce an aerosol.** They come in many shapes and sizes and **typically
contain nicotine**.
**No tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, is safe — especially for young
people**, whose brains are still developing until about age 25. Nicotine
during those years **can harm the parts of the brain that control attention,
learning, mood and impulse control.**
Two different questions
The reasons students give for starting and for continuing are not the same,
and that distinction is the useful part of this page:
| Commonest reason given | |
|---|---|
| For trying an e-cigarette | A friend used them |
| For currently using | Feeling anxious, stressed or depressed |
Starting is social. Continuing is self-medication.
Alongside those: **marketing and advertising, appealing flavours, social
influences, and the effects of nicotine itself.**
The loop
**Nicotine addiction can harm mental health and be a source of stress.
Nicotine addiction or withdrawal can contribute to feelings of stress,
anxiety and depression, or make these feelings worse. Youth might use
tobacco products to relieve their symptoms, which can lead to a cycle of
nicotine addiction.**
A teenager who vapes because they feel anxious is using something that makes
anxiety worse, and then relieves the worsened anxiety — briefly — with the next
one. The relief is real, which is why the explanation "it helps me cope" is
not a mistake on their part.
That is also why "vaping is bad for you" is such a weak argument against it.
It is addressing the wrong problem.
What adults can do
**Parents, educators and health care providers are trusted sources of
information for young people.** The recommendation is not only to talk about
the risks but to help them learn healthy coping skills instead of vaping —
which follows directly from what students say they are using it for.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
许可协议： CC0 1.0（公有领域） · 改编自 www.cdc.gov
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