Jacob's Story

Donna, Maryland

My son Jacob started vaping flavored nicotine in October 2019. He was a 17-year-old honor roll student in the 11th grade, taking AP and Honors classes. He was also a dual sport athlete (Varsity Soccer and Lacrosse). Jacob eventually tried vaping THC as well, but ultimately continued with flavored nicotine because of the flavors; cherry was one of his favorites. He said it tasted great and he could easily hide it from me, or any other adult, by simply passing it off as candy should someone ask about the odor.

It was a sign, like so many others; the flash drives that were vape devices, the stripped USB cords that were being used to hot wire his devices to charge them, the empty pods, cartridges and e-juice containers. There were so many signs but I simply did not know. It was not until months later that I understood, at which point my son had now been vaping every day for 3 months, 4 to 5 times a day.

I could not believe my son had gotten caught up in this vaping epidemic. Jacob and I discussed it many times and he reassured me each time that he would never vape because he was an athlete and he didn’t want to mess up his lungs. But here we were dealing with his vaping. How did this happen when he knew the dangers? How did this happen when the age limit was now over 21? But it did happen and now he could not stop. He craved it every day, all day.

His mood swings, his panic attacks, his failing grades, his troubles in school (detention/suspension), his lack of motivation, his depression, his lies, his desperation...it was all there.

Including nights. I won’t soon forget because I watched and listened to my son who one minute would be crying uncontrollably and asking me through gut wrenching sobs, “Mom, why is this happening to me? Why did I ever start vaping?”. And then the next minute he would be screaming with anger as he’d punch his bedroom dresser yelling, “Mom, what is wrong with me? Why can’t I stop?”. This promising, healthy, strong, young high school boy with a 4.13 GPA and athletic abilities beyond the average person, was no longer the boy I knew as my son. Vaping was now ruling his life both mentally and physically. The addiction took over and it had complete control of him.

Once I finally became aware of what was going on, and after many family meetings with his counselor, doctor, school, and church, Jacob started the hard work of taking back his life. We are still praying every day that he stays in control of his addiction because we know it could so easily take him over again at any time. He still struggles, especially when confronted daily just simply trying to go to the bathroom at school. It is truly an epidemic when a child cannot use the bathroom without being asked if he wants to vape, not just once but sometimes five times a day. This epidemic is not going to go away when our kids are able to buy and sell flavored nicotine among each other. The age restriction (21+) has only created an entrepreneurial opportunity. Kids are buying e-juice, filling cartridges and selling them to others not able to obtain product on their own.

Sadly, the physical effects of vaping were just as great as the emotional ones for my son. Jacob, who was a starter player on varsity and who usually played the entire game, with a break only during half time, was now having problems getting through a whole game. He could not breathe as well as he could before he began vaping. As a matter of fact, he has breathing issues with simple things like gym class or even a friendly community basketball game. We are hoping that over time his breathing will rectify itself, and like the addiction, will just be a bad memory.

Jacob is working hard to stay in control, he wants to be stronger than the addiction. He will openly admit he regrets the day he tried vaping and he swears he will never do it again. He knows now how bad the cravings can be. He recognizes his life was spiraling out of control and admits how difficult it was to quit. He feels the physical effects of his breathing every time he steps on the field.

Jacob only had a 3-month vaping period, but he struggled for 2 months getting control of his addiction and still fights the urges every day. Still, he is one of the lucky ones. We hope that the hard part is now behind him and that he will continue to thrive mentally and physically, and his breathing issues ultimately will go away completely.

I will tell Jacob’s story as often as I can. If I can reach even one child to help him/her stop vaping (or better yet not to start), or if I can teach one parent what to look for so he/she can recognize the signs and help his child, this will have been time well spent…whatever it takes.

I do not want any parent to have to see his/her child sobbing uncontrollably like I did because Jacob didn’t understand what was happening to him and how to stop it.

I do not want any parent to have to hear his/her child have a panic attack on the phone like I did as Jacob sat locked in a bathroom stall at school because he couldn’t leave for fear he might vape with the other kids.

I don’t want any parent to have to watch his/her child gasp for breath because he can’t breathe as happened with Jacob on a field where he used to dominate.

But more importantly, I do not want any other child to have to deal with what my son, Jacob dealt with and is still dealing with. His story is an important one because…People need to understand how quickly the addiction can happen. People need to understand how difficult it is to stop. People need to understand how severe the negative effects of vaping are, both mentally and physically.

Vaping needs to STOP!