Inhaling, the flavor of mamba flows smoothly through her lungs, waiting to be let out. Exhaling, the mamba releases traveling upward, dizziness starts to settle in as the flavor slowly starts to drift away from the tip of her tongue.

   Clouds of smoke start forming as the vapor is released from the mouth, day after day, she starts to realize that she is slowly but gradually getting addicted. 

   “I started to realize that I had a problem when I wasn’t able to go a second without it, it was like my body would crave it.” Claudia said. 

    Junior Claudia Smith (name has been changed to protect identity) came in contact with vaping as a freshman, and continued vaping up until her junior year of high school with the addiction still in her soul.

   As the addiction got worse, she saw herself constantly vaping, not being able to take a break from it.

   “I would be at school, work, and at home,” Claudia said. “No matter where I was I felt the urge to use my vape; it felt like my addiction was eating me up.” 

   Continuing vaping, her lungs were slowly being damaged thanks to how much nicotine she had consumed; she started to realize that vaping was no good for her.

   “I started to experience chest pains and difficulty breathing,” Claudia said, “trying to take deep breaths was very hard, as if I had to learn how to breathe again.”

   Claudia came to a realization that it was finally time to stop, when she started noticing she was having a mass increase in difficulty breathing. 

   “There was one day when I was at school I was taking hits from my vape in the bathroom when I suddenly wasn’t able to breathe,” Claudia said, “I started panicking, my heart beating out of my chest, feeling desperate for a gasp of air.”

    Not only did Claudia notice it was affecting her, it was also affecting the people around her.

   “My family and friends would tell me how it was hurting them to see me go down that path,” Claudia said, “they told me it seemed as if I was losing myself.”

   After her soul slowly started to drift away from her body from how much vaping has changed her, not only physically but also mentally.

   “When I started vaping a few years ago it felt like my mental health was getting bad,” Claudia said. “But I had something to distract myself with and when I would feel anxious or feel like breaking down I would use my vape, but it made it worse.” 

    Although vaping was the main form of helping Claudia when she would feel anxious, it wasn’t the only way it helped her get through it.

   “I got into painting and coloring as a way to destress. I colored and painted a few times a week,” Claudia said. “Being able to express myself through drawings really helped me out mentally, and it helped me forget about my vaping addiction.”