Recently, young adult Claire Chung, was hospitalized because of her 104 degree fever that lasted for three weeks. Many people, including students, have been sharing her message to broadcast the dangers of vaping. She wanted people to know how debilitated she became because of vaping. I was appalled by the severity of her condition: inflamed bronchial tubes and damaged lung tissue that shouldn’t have belonged to someone her age. Chung stated the scariest part was that, “Even with the extent of the damage, I never once felt any of it.”
It wasn’t her hospitalization that shocked me most, but the realization that many people couldn’t believe that something like this could happen (thus Chung’s post being shared thousands of times on Instagram). I’m not shaming her; I do believe her message should be something people know about. But, why do we need to wait for someone’s life to be endangered to start caring? Even with the lack of research, shouldn’t we be able to discern inhaling anything other than normal air contents isn’t good? A problem with our generation that has been addressed many times before, is increased social anxiety and the excessive overthinking that comes along with it. To avoid this, many turn to acting on impulse, following what others do, feeling peer pressured, and etc. This is where the vaping epidemic begins, drawing on the vulnerability of these feelings. Many people blame the vaping epidemic on the flavors provided that draw many people, especially underaged teenagers, to vape. I don’t think that’s enough to waive the risks of not knowing the consequences to using nicotine. These past few days, I’ve been asking why personal friends and friends of their friends turned to e-cigarettes. Most of them said they were going or have been through a tough time where nothing else would help, including visiting a therapist and/or a psychiatrist. The accessibility of vaping has caused many to turn to it as a solution. Teenagers have become so desperate for a sense of relief, that health issues aren’t a problem to us. Many said, “I just didn’t think that would happen,” in response to Chung’s hospitalization. Unlike meth and heroin, everyone vaping lessens the stigma against it. Our impulse has caused vaping to be normalized in our culture. |