Vaping All Day: Why Your Vape Habit May Be Stronger Than You Realise
Vaping All Day: Why Your Vape Habit May Be Stronger Than You Realise
Vaping has helped many people move away from cigarettes.
And that matters.
Current evidence suggests that vaping is considerably less harmful than smoking, and for somebody who smokes cigarettes, switching completely to vaping can significantly reduce their exposure to many of the harmful substances produced by burning tobacco.
But there is another side to vaping that I am seeing increasingly often in my hypnotherapy practice.
People who successfully stopped smoking, sometimes years ago but now feel completely tied to their vape.
For some, vaping hasn't simply replaced smoking.
It has become something they do far more frequently than they ever smoked.
The vape is there while they're driving. It's on the desk while they're working. It's in their hand while they're watching television. They reach for it while scrolling through their phone, after eating, when they're bored, when they're stressed and sometimes seemingly for no reason at all.
And unlike a cigarette, there isn't necessarily a point where you've finished.
You can simply keep picking it up.
So while vaping and smoking shouldn't be treated as though they're the same thing, there is an interesting question worth asking:
Has the convenience of vaping made your nicotine habit more constant than your smoking ever was?
Vaping Is Less Harmful Than Smoking But That Doesn't Mean Harmless
It's important to be clear about this from the beginning.
If somebody currently smokes cigarettes and completely switches to vaping, the evidence indicates that they substantially reduce their exposure to many of the toxic substances associated with smoking.
Smoking involves combustion, literally burning tobacco and this produces thousands of chemicals. Many of the most serious health risks associated with cigarettes come from those products of combustion rather than nicotine itself.
Vaping doesn't burn tobacco, which is one of the reasons it is considered considerably less harmful than smoking.
It can also be a useful smoking-cessation tool.
However, less harmful isn't the same as harmless.
Vapes can still expose users to potentially harmful substances, and researchers are continuing to investigate the longer-term effects of the different components found in vape devices and e-liquids.
Nicotine also remains highly addictive.
For someone who used vaping as a temporary stepping stone away from cigarettes, there can therefore come a point where they ask:
“Do I actually want to keep doing this?”
More People Are Now Vaping Every Day
Vaping isn't a niche behaviour anymore.
Recent figures from Action on Smoking and Health estimate that around 5.5 million adults in Great Britain currently vape.
Daily vaping has also increased substantially.
In 2020, around 4.5% of adults were vaping every day. By 2026, that figure had increased to approximately 7.8%.
There is some very positive news within those numbers.
A large proportion of people who vape are former smokers. For many of them, vaping has played a part in moving away from cigarettes.
But there is also an interesting longer-term pattern.
Among former smokers who currently vape, the majority vape daily, and many have continued vaping for several years.
So for some people the journey has effectively become:
Smoking → Vaping → ?
And it's that final question mark that interests me.
If vaping helped you stop smoking, brilliant.
But does vaping have to be where the journey ends?
Why You Might Vape Much More Often Than You Ever Smoked
One of the most interesting differences between smoking and vaping isn't necessarily the nicotine.
It's the behaviour.
Think about smoking a cigarette.
You take one from the packet.
You light it.
You smoke it.
You put it out.
There's a definite beginning and a definite end.
You might smoke another one 30 minutes later or an hour later, but between cigarettes there is normally a period where you aren't smoking.
Vaping completely changes that structure.
There doesn't have to be a beginning and end.
You can take two puffs.
Put it down.
Pick it up three minutes later.
Take another puff.
Answer an email.
Take two more.
Make a coffee.
Vape again.
Get into the car.
Vape again.
You may barely register that you're doing it.
In fact, the NHS specifically acknowledges that it is normal for people to vape more frequently than they previously smoked.
Part of the reason is that vaping delivers nicotine differently. Instead of the rapid nicotine delivery associated with smoking a cigarette, vaping can involve taking smaller, more frequent puffs.
And behaviourally, that creates something very interesting.
What If You're Repeating the Habit Hundreds of Times Every Day?
I recently spoke to someone about stopping vaping who was taking an extraordinary number of puffs every day.
When we looked at the number of inhalations involved, the repeated hand-to-mouth behaviour was roughly comparable to the number of puffs someone might take if they smoked around 80 cigarettes a day.
Now, that needs an important qualification.
I am not saying their vaping was medically equivalent to smoking 80 cigarettes.
It wasn't.
Nor am I saying that their nicotine intake or health risk was equivalent to somebody smoking 80 cigarettes.
There isn't a simple conversion between vape puffs and cigarettes because devices, nicotine concentrations, puff length, inhalation volume and individual behaviour vary enormously.
What interested me was the sheer number of times the behaviour itself was being repeated.
Pick up.
Bring to mouth.
Inhale.
Experience the sensation.
Put down.
Repeat.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Potentially hundreds of times throughout the day.
From a behavioural perspective, that's fascinating.
Because every repetition is another opportunity for the brain to practise and reinforce the pattern.
Your Vape Can Become Connected to Almost Everything
When I work with somebody who wants to stop smoking or vaping, I'm interested in much more than simply how much nicotine they're consuming.
I want to know when they use it.
Because habits don't exist in isolation.
They become associated with other things.
Perhaps you vape when you:
Drive
Drink coffee
Have alcohol
Finish eating
Feel stressed
Feel bored
Work at your computer
Watch television
Scroll through your phone
Socialise
Finish a task
Take a break
Eventually, some of those situations can become triggers in their own right.
You don't necessarily consciously think:
"I've decided I'd like some nicotine now."
Your hand can simply reach for the vape.
That's the part people often find surprising when they decide to stop.
They suddenly notice just how many parts of their day have become associated with vaping.
“I Don't Even Realise I'm Doing It”
I hear variations of this regularly.
Someone will tell me:
“Half the time I don't even realise I'm vaping.”
That's a very different experience from making a conscious decision every single time.
Imagine somebody who has vaped during their commute every morning for several years.
Driving and vaping have repeatedly happened together.
Or somebody who sits down after dinner every evening and automatically reaches for their vape.
Or somebody whose vape sits beside their keyboard throughout the working day.
After enough repetition, the behaviour can start to feel automatic.
And this is where people can become frustrated.
Because consciously they might be absolutely certain that they want to stop.
Yet another part of them seems to keep reaching for it.
Why “I'll Just Vape Less” Can Be Surprisingly Difficult
Cutting down sounds straightforward.
If you're taking 500 puffs a day, perhaps tomorrow you'll only take 300.
But how are you going to count them?
That's another fundamental difference between smoking and vaping.
Cigarettes are conveniently measurable.
If someone tells me they smoke 20 cigarettes per day, they normally know that because they buy packets of 20.
They can see the cigarettes disappearing.
Vaping can be much less obvious.
Unless you're monitoring your device or liquid consumption carefully, you might have very little idea how many times you've inhaled from it during the day.
And there is another complication.
Research reviewed by the UK government found evidence that people can alter the way they vape depending on nicotine concentration — for example, by taking more frequent, longer or larger puffs.
In other words, changing the nicotine strength doesn't necessarily produce a simple, proportional change in behaviour.
That's one reason why somebody can genuinely intend to gradually reduce their vaping but find themselves repeatedly drifting back into their established pattern.
What About Nicotine?
Nicotine is obviously an important part of the picture.
Different vape products can deliver very different amounts of nicotine.
The device, liquid concentration and the way somebody uses it all matter.
UK evidence reviews have found that experienced vapers can adjust their vaping behaviour and, when allowed to vape freely over longer periods, can reach nicotine levels comparable with those seen in smokers.
That doesn't make vaping as harmful as smoking.
Nicotine exposure and smoking-related harm are not the same thing.
But it does demonstrate why somebody shouldn't assume that vaping automatically means they have only a very minor nicotine habit.
Modern vaping can sustain significant nicotine dependence.
And when nicotine dependence is combined with hundreds of repetitions of the physical behaviour, you potentially have two things to address:
The chemical dependence and the learned habit surrounding it.
Is Vaping Actually Bad for You?
This is where online discussions often become unnecessarily polarised.
You'll see one side suggesting vaping is virtually harmless.
Then you'll see the other side talking about vaping as though it's every bit as dangerous as smoking.
Neither is a particularly useful way of looking at the evidence.
Current UK evidence indicates that vaping exposes people to substantially fewer harmful substances than smoking.
At the same time, vaping isn't risk-free.
A 2026 briefing from the UK Parliament's research service notes that vape aerosols can contain substances including carbonyl compounds, volatile organic compounds and metals. The extent to which individual components and long-term exposure affect health is still being investigated.
That last point is important.
Cigarettes have been studied for generations.
Modern vaping hasn't.
We therefore know considerably more about the consequences of decades of cigarette smoking than we do about decades of vaping.
That doesn't mean we should assume unknown risks are enormous.
It simply means we don't yet know everything.
So if you currently smoke and vaping is helping you stay away from cigarettes, going back to smoking because you're worried about vaping would make very little sense.
But if you no longer smoke and you're now wondering why you're still vaping several years later, that's a completely different question.
Vaping Can Be a Brilliant Bridge, Without Becoming the Destination
This is probably the distinction I think matters most.
For somebody smoking 20 cigarettes every day, switching completely to vaping can represent a significant reduction in harm.
That's a good thing.
But perhaps your original intention was:
“I'll vape so I can stop smoking.”
And somehow that gradually became:
“I don't smoke anymore, but now I can't stop vaping.”
If that's where you are, it doesn't mean vaping failed.
It may have done exactly what you needed it to do at the time.
It helped you move away from cigarettes.
The next stage can simply be deciding that you no longer need the vape either.
Smoking → vaping → freedom from both.
Why Stopping Vaping Isn't Just About Willpower
People often assume that stopping nicotine is purely a test of willpower.
I don't think that's a particularly helpful way to view habitual behaviour.
If you've repeated something thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of times, it isn't surprising that certain responses have become automatic.
You've practised them.
Coffee = vape.
Driving = vape.
Stress = vape.
Alcohol = vape.
Break from work = vape.
Phone = vape.
After dinner = vape.
The conscious part of you might decide:
“That's it. I'm stopping.”
But many of those old associations can still be sitting there waiting for the situation that normally activates them.
This is where my approach with hypnotherapy becomes particularly relevant.
Can Hypnotherapy Help You Stop Vaping?
When I work with somebody who wants to stop vaping, we're not simply spending the session repeatedly telling them:
“Don't vape.”
I'm interested in what has kept their particular habit going.
When do you vape?
What situations trigger it?
What does vaping seem to do for you?
When is the urge strongest?
Are there situations where you don't even notice you're doing it?
Did you previously smoke?
What happened when you stopped smoking?
Have you tried stopping vaping before?
What pulled you back?
Two people can use exactly the same vape and have completely different relationships with it.
That's why I work with people individually.
Hypnotherapy gives us an opportunity to work with the unconscious associations and automatic responses surrounding the behaviour rather than relying solely on consciously fighting every urge as it appears.
The aim is not to spend the rest of your life resisting vaping.
The aim is to reach the point where vaping is something you simply don't need to do anymore.
What Would Being Vape-Free Actually Give You?
This is something else worth thinking about.
People understandably focus on what they're giving up.
But what would you actually gain?
No more checking whether you've got your vape before leaving home.
No more worrying about the battery.
No more buying liquid or pods.
No more reaching for it throughout the working day.
No more wondering whether you've got enough left.
No more automatically taking it with you everywhere.
No more telling yourself you'll cut down next week.
And perhaps most importantly:
No longer feeling controlled by something you originally thought you controlled.
For some people, that's the biggest motivation of all.
Ready to Find Out What It Feels Like to Be Free From Vaping?
If you've read this article and recognised yourself in it, you probably already know whether vaping has become more important in your life than you'd like it to be.
Maybe your vape is constantly in your hand.
Maybe it's always beside you.
Perhaps you've already tried reducing the nicotine strength.
Maybe you've promised yourself countless times that this one will be the last vape you buy.
Or perhaps you stopped smoking successfully and you're simply ready to take the final step and become completely nicotine-free.
At Hypnotherapy Berkshire in Newbury, Stop Smoking & Vaping is one of my main specialist areas.
I work one-to-one with people who are genuinely ready to stop completely, looking not only at the nicotine habit but also the triggers, routines and unconscious associations that have built up around smoking or vaping.
Sessions are available face-to-face in Newbury or online.
Not Sure Whether Hypnotherapy Is For You? Try It First For Free
You don't need to commit to a Stop Smoking & Vaping programme just to find out what hypnosis is actually like.
You can book a Free Hypnotherapy Taster Session.
It's relaxed and there's no pressure to book anything afterwards.
We'll talk about how hypnosis works, you can ask any questions you have, and I'll guide you through a relaxing hypnotic experience so you can experience hypnosis for yourself rather than trying to imagine what it might be like.
Or Talk to Me About Your Vaping First
If you'd prefer to discuss your vaping before trying hypnosis, you can book a free 15-minute Stop Smoking & Vaping consultation call.
We can talk about how much you're vaping, how long you've been doing it, what you've already tried and whether my Stop Smoking & Vaping programme could be suitable for you.
If vaping helped you get away from cigarettes, it may already have served an important purpose.
That doesn't mean you have to vape forever.
If you're ready to find out what life could be like without constantly reaching for it, your next step doesn't have to be a huge commitment.
Come and experience the hypnotherapy first.
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