35: Vaping teens: How to educate and discourage your teenagers

Rachel Richards: 0:02

Hello, I'm Rachel Richards and welcome to Teenagers Untangled where we use research by experts and our own expertise to discuss everything and anything to do with parenting teenagers.

Susie Asli: 0:13

Hi there, I'm Susie Asli, mindfulness coach, mindful therapist, musician and mother of three teenagers, two of them twins.

Rachel Richards: 0:21

As a parenting coach and former BBC correspondent and Mother of teens I've seen the transformative power of getting people together to share ideas and support each other. So here we are. Welcome to our club. Now this time, we're going to talk about vaping. An anonymous parent said, I've just found out my 14 year old has been vaping nicotine and marijuana. I'm beyond horrified and I'm so pissed I'm shaking, I don't even know where to start with punishment. I'm so heartbroken. To make matters worse, I only found out because he got sick. I can see she's really traumatized by this. We have discussed vaping before in episode eight. So it's worth listening to that one too. But things move on. And there are so many more parents worried about this now. So before we go on to that, should we just have a quick stop to talk about our nuggets? Susie

Susie Asli: 1:13

Mine is a bit more of a general, how can we be? So I had an episode in my house last weekend, where it was a bit tricky. And the realization to me that well, parenting and probably most other things is really all about being able to regulate and all about but there's a such a big part. And the more I practice mindfulness, and the more I practice regulation, the more I think it is about that.

Rachel Richards: 1:42

So when you're talking about regulation, what

Susie Asli: 1:44

Good question. Regulation means that we have do you mean? our nervous system. And to be honest, most adults are spent a lot of their lives in dysregulation which means when we're in fight flight freeze, or other dysregulated states where our nervous system is out of whack. We're not at peace, we're not present. And when we don't realize that we just spend our lives pinging around in reactive mode. So we need to learn to be able to step out of that and to regulate and we there are loads of ways you can regulate breathing. Breathing is a huge one because we regulate our system. We want to stimulate our vagus nerve. And why would we stimulate our vagus because it's, it's a direct connection to our self soothing system, which is our parasympathetic nervous system. And when we can get in touch with our parasympathetic nervous system, that is what regulates us what self soothe systems. And so we can sort of make a shortcut by singing or exercising or breathing is huge. You know, all the breathing tools; Long exhales there's loads and loads of tools you can do. So but we have to practice it. And have a basic awareness of what does it feel like to be regulated? And then how can I get back to that when I feel dysregulated because this regulation is also normal. And learning how to do that, I think is absolutely fundamental to being a human being, but also massively to parenting teenagers so that we can be a space that is regulated, because that ripples out to them. And then they can lean in on that and lean up against it. And we don't react with them escalate with them. We don't crumble either. Yeah. But we can give some sort of healthy feedback and create this this space for them. That's not the same that we have to be calm all the time. But we are we regulated?

Rachel Richards: 3:40

Yeah. And that's absolutely vital. And I think a lot of parents who have listened to our podcasts have said, particularly when they listened to the one about communicating with your teenager, that one thing they'd notice was that they tend to overreact. As soon as that child came to them with something that was a problem. They would feel this emotional response. And that would make them want to do something. Yes. And it's about being able to know that you're now dysregulated and come back to just being I'm going to be calm. Yeah, I'm going to be calm. There's another word for that. I'm just going to be calm, and I'm going to be able to help them through this rather than me being part of it.

Susie Asli: 4:14

Yeah, absolutely. Because parenting teenagers is massively triggering, we get triggered all the time. So we need to learn how do we how do we get back to a state where we

Rachel Richards: 4:25

Yeah, love that. So um, for me, I was regulate? eating my supper the other day, I leant back and I said, I'm too full, I've been way too many calories this week. My daughter said, Mom, you know that calories are proven to be bullshit measure. Stop putting that nonsense on us. Oh, I went, I went. Now the truth is I come from a family that has always struggled with weight, and I had a really unhealthy attitude to eating as a result and had to teach myself how to eat mindfully and healthily. And I went through the path of calories to get out the other end now I really went myself and I focus on nutritious delicious food. And I stop eating when I'm for all those things, this sort of slow eating. And I've encouraged my daughters to listen to Tim Spector who's at the forefront of the science of nutrition and body differences. And here's the thing, the reason I'm mentioning this is I have my old programming still in me, you know, these words still come out of me every now and then I don't think about, I'll say this stuff, and it's not healthy. And what really delighted me, even though it was a bit uncomfortable, was that my daughter heard it knew that it was wrong, and also flagged it up. And I just thought, gosh, that's really, I'm so happy that we have that relationship where she feels safe enough to be able to say, tha's not helping us. Yeah. And I think we as parents need to even if it makes us wince a bit when our kids say stuff, give us feedback. That's a really healthy thing. So it's all even a good thing. You could text them and say, you know, what can I do to be a better parent to you? That's amazing. And they might give you a little bit of feedback that you may not want. But yeah, that's healthy. I think that's brilliant. Yeah. So that was a big learning point. Yeah, that's really good. I put it all behind me. But anyway, yeah. Now, back to vaping. And this poor woman who was deeply upset by finding out that her son was doing it. I mean, my first response when I read that having done the research I've done in the past was that that sickness that he was experiencing was classic nicotine withdrawal symptoms. And she verified that she said he, he admitted he'd run out of vapes. And that was why he'd started vomiting, And that's how she discovered about it. And in terms of punishment, I said, I really don't think he needs punishment. He's been sick, which is punishment enough. And the thing to do now is to try and support him in fixing the situation he's got himself into and keep them going. He's gone cold turkey. Try and keep him going. But it's not easy.

Susie Asli: 6:57

No, no, gosh, that sounds really hard and probably really shocking for him.

Rachel Richards: 7:01

So my first top tip before we launch into all the details about vaping is to watch Big vape and watch it with your teens. Susie. You've just watched it.

Susie Asli: 7:09

I've just watched it and maybe utterly furious. I think it's a really good program. But it's it's really

Rachel Richards: 7:15

Yes. So it's called Big vape. It's on the annoying. Netflix series B roken. And it's absolutely brilliant because it's a complete eye opener and it contextualize is vaping so that teens can see how they can get sucked into it, how it's something that happens within a school environment. And then they don't really notice until it's too late that they're addicted.

Susie Asli: 7:36

Yeah. And the conflict between that, you know, that we hear that always is not so bad as cigarettes, and it's a good thing. And it that it's gets explained really well, I think.

Rachel Richards: 7:44

Yeah, absolutely. So how bad of a problem is it? Now it's interesting, because I did lots of research to try and to get some stats and e cigarette use among youths remains a top concern for the FDA in America. They say that 14% of high school students and just over 3% of middle school students reported current e cigarette use. The shocking thing I found was that unlike in Europe, where e cigarette nicotine concentrations can't legally exceed 2%, there's no nicotine concentration restriction in the US, which is just mind blowing. And in Australia, they have a different approach again, which is that it's illegal to sell, supply or possess an e cigarette, or any liquid that contains nicotine without a doctor's prescription. But supplies have been getting around it by removing nicotine from the ingredients list. Brilliant as you do so. And there. There's an estimated 11% of 16 to 24 year olds who are regularly vaping. In the UK, it's about the 11 to 17 year olds, it's gone up from 4% to 7% in 2022. And the proportion of children who admit having tried it is 14%. Sorry, it was 14% and 20. And a 16% or 22. Interesting. So you're seeing a rise. Well, that's that way. Those stats and I thought really because my kids say they knew so many.

Susie Asli: 9:12

Yeah, I dropped my my iPhone, my eldest is in Sixth Form College, which is like a normal Sixth Form College. It's a big one. And I dropped him to sixth form is about sort of 16,17,18. Yeah, finally, he's in his final year. And they're all walking around in a cloud of vape. All of them. I mean, they're probably not all but it looks like that. And I asked him, I said, What do you think like statistically? Totally, honestly, how many do you think of vaping in your college? And he was like, yeah, probably two thirds. Just off the top of his head. Like he doesn't have any figures. But that's his impression.

Rachel Richards: 9:44

Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, that scene back then that's, that's one example. My kids say they know huge amounts of kids who are vaping I don't know what the percentage is. One of my daughters said that there was a huge growth of vaping when she first got into Senior School so 13 And then a lot of that dropped off. Because they started saying it wasn't cool. So I think it just varies from school to school. I've seen what from big vape. And I've seen anecdotal reports that one of the problems is that teens will leave the classroom to go and vape in the bathrooms. Yes,

Susie Asli: 10:18

he said he'd he'd never experienced that. And I think that possibly, I think in big vape it's It's America, isn't it? So it's the levels of nicotine are higher. That's not to say it's not happening here. But yes, he hadn't experienced that.

Rachel Richards: 10:28

Interesting. That's a really good point. Because if you're, the nicotine levels of nicotine are higher, it has an impact, because the the withdrawal will be much bigger, and so they will be needing to get a top up much more quickly. Yeah. Disposable e cigarettes are now the most used product in almost all these surveys that we've seen. So the specific product varies from country to country. So for example, in the UK, it's an Elf bar that has been the most popular, but we'll get onto that in a minute, because that's a problem in itself. The FDA has announced its cracking down on the illegal sales of cigarettes, because they've acknowledged that there's an epidemic proportion of, of youth use electronic cigarettes. So finally, acknowledging there's a real problem here.

Susie Asli: 11:15

And the kids still didn't understand. I mean, it's the same lack of information in something massively people don't understand that it was hard for them.

Rachel Richards: 11:23

And because if I go into a supermarket, any of the supermarkets here, but particularly the budget or the big supermarkets. There are massive displays of vapes. They're very colorful, they're there near the tills they're, as you walk in. And all the cigarettes are behind roller shutters that are locked, you've got a complete difference between the way that these are being sold. And what that's going to say to a teenager is those are fine. Yeah, cigarettes, not so much. Yeah, because

Susie Asli: 11:53

they have an understanding. I think most teenagers like ooh, cigarettes. Why would you do that? You can die from that. That's stupid. I mean, I know some teens do still smoke, but the proportion is tiny compared to what it was completely. But vaping is still understood as Oh, it's not so bad and watching the big vape. But you kind of understand well, that's because compared to smoking, it's the kind of the transition isn't it is yeah, if you want to wean off the fags, then you go on to the vape. But that's not the same as giving vape to people who've never smoked, and you don't want to start it. No, and then not because you're not creating a clear distinction. Oh, and the understanding is always not so bad. It's okay. And I know you've told my teens vaping is bad for you. Oh, well, yeah. Okay. But that's not out there.

Rachel Richards: 12:38

So, as a parent, what are we thinking? So first of all, how can I tell my kid is vaping the JAMA, a pediatrics patient page said that you'll look out for fruit or candy like smells, trouble breathing, unexplained cough, mouth sores, increased thirst, nosebleeds, throat clearing, increased irritability, mood swings,

Susie Asli: 12:58

teenager! How do you tell?

Rachel Richards: 13:01

That's a teenager? Isn't it? The mood swings?

Susie Asli: 13:04

I mean, the fruity smell?

Rachel Richards: 13:07

Yes. So it's tricky. But those are little telltale signs, look out for those things. What you need to do is you need to start early tweens. Younger than that, even before they go up to senior schools, you need to be having conversations with them about what is an e cigarette? What are cigarette, you know, the same way that you would you would walk you would warn them about cigarettes, you say do you know what an e cigarette is? Do you know why it might be a problem? Do you know anyone who's using them? Be very gentle about it. You don't need to be giving them a hard line about it. But you do need to be clear about your fears.

Susie Asli: 13:43

Yeah. And if you can approach it in a sort of curious way, you know this, there's no consequences here. I'm curious, are you What do you think about it? But

Rachel Richards: 13:50

Be clear, like with all these other subjects that we've talked about? Being very clear about what you think of it? Yes. is an important step to keeping them away from trying these things,

Susie Asli: 14:00

because they are listening. And they are when they're faced someone saying Do you want to try it? They might say yes, but they will have it in the back of their head or mom doesn't like this or this?

Rachel Richards: 14:10

Yes. And why? Yes. So if you need some information about nicotine, because I didn't know really how nicotine works. I looked at the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the way they explained it was, well nicotine was originally isolated from tobacco leaves in 1828. And scientists found the main ingredient that causes addiction is the nicotine because there are lots of different substances in tobacco. What does nicotine do? It's absorbed into the blood and immediately stimulates the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. This stimulates the nervous system central nervous system and increases your blood pressure breathing and heart rates. It gives you a kick. Yeah. The nicotine activates the brain's reward circuits and increases levels of the chemical messenger dopamine, which then reinforces rewarding behavior. And it's that that's at the core of why it's so addictive. So more recent research has shown that the addiction produced by nicotine is extremely powerful, and can be as strong as addiction to other drugs like heroin. And cocaine

Susie Asli: 15:14

yeah, it's really strong. In Scandinavian countries, I've just learned about this, this. You can get nicotine patches, but it's not the same as like a giving up smoking patch, but it's like a little white powder. So sweet Swedish people they used to get the glute snoos, and that's tobacco leaves. And they'd they'd shove it up their lip. And you know, you'd be talking and I'd be playing in an orchestra, some of them and then they'd laugh and you go, what's that? Like, it's funny, green brown thing. But now they've refined it. I think you can still get that in Sweden, but I don't live there anymore for dinner. And Denmark, you can get these little packets of white powder, which is nicotine. And they put it on their gums. my son says you can get it here because he's regular and regularly in Denmark, you can buy it everywhere. Cheap, and they shove it on their gums. They put it other places too, which is more severe.

Rachel Richards: 16:16

I'm not sure we can put it on this podcast. It's not recommended.

Susie Asli: 16:20

We had quite good fun googling it. I

Rachel Richards: 16:23

think genito-urinary tract infections.

Susie Asli: 16:27

Yeah, don't do it. But the point is, it goes onto your skin and it's the nicotine of is absorbed immediately by your skin. It's the nicotine fix that they're looking for. Right. It's an immediate hit is

Rachel Richards: 16:40

that I had no idea how that would affect any rates of other problems. But presumably, what you're missing is the lungs.

Susie Asli: 16:51

Yeah. So I think their attitude is well, I'm not going to get lung cancer, because it's not going through my airway passages. I'm sure there are other I mean, it's chemical. It's a white chemical. It's not going to be good for you.

Rachel Richards: 17:02

Sounds like something else that yeah, it shouldn't be.

Susie Asli: 17:06

Yeah, it is nicotine, but Right. Yeah.

Rachel Richards: 17:08

So okay, well, there's that method of transport. When it comes to a vape. You're probably wondering what's, you know, how much nicotine are we talking about? And this is where it gets really difficult because the e juice comes in different nicotine strength levels. So I started trying to research this and it depends, and it depends on which brand you're buying. It depends on which of the nicotine juices you choose, or the nicotine salts. So for example, I'll take one Elf Bar, I think it was 600 contains two mil of e liquid. That's a 20 milligram or 2%. nicotine strength. So the 2% nicotine strength is the maximum you're allowed in a vape in the UK. Okay, that 2% nicotine level device is equivalent to 45 to 48 cigarettes. Wow, you can actually choose different levels of nicotine. Yeah, it depends on how many puffs you're taking as well. Yeah. So if you found them with a vape, you wouldn't know how much nicotine they're using unless you actually sit down and discuss it with them, which is why it's important to have those conversations. So, you know, if you're going to talk about it, you just say so do you know what the strength of that is? And how many cigarettes that's the equivalent of and, you know,

Susie Asli: 18:27

they probably just bought it because of the flavor. Because vital information,

Rachel Richards: 18:31

I was fine. I spent a while sort of looking through all the different sites and, it's all out there. But you actually have to do quite a lot of sifting to find, okay, is equivalent to that. And this means this and there's no I would just go all have one.

Susie Asli: 18:44

And then what I also think is difficult, and maybe you've got some information on that is, you know, what are the health consequences of it? Because we know what smoking does? Or, you know, the awful consequences of that. What because this is a myth, isn't it? Oh, it's not as bad as smoking. But what are the health consequences?

Rachel Richards: 19:01

Well, apart from addiction, and addiction is a very real problem. Let's not forget, because what's happening is these companies are taking our kids for mugs. What they're doing is get them getting them addicted at an age where they're not really aware of what's happening so that they have a lifelong revenue stream. Yes, that made me livid. Yes. That's a really powerful message to get to your through to your kids. You'll be spending money for the rest of your life. Yeah. lining the pockets of these companies.

Susie Asli: 19:27

Yeah, it's like history repeating itself and made the big day for him and make him livid because these guys are they know that they're damaging teenagers and they do not care. They've only stopped some of their advertising because they've been found out they do not care. It's just horrific.

Rachel Richards: 19:43

Coming back quickly to the addictive nature of it. The reason it's so bad for teenagers is because the brains hyperplastic when you're it's the most plastic time of a brain in an entire lifetime. And so those rewiring things are going on very quickly. Yeah, so If you start a reward cycle going on, that's much more likely to result in an addiction than it would be in an older person. For example, e cigarettes also contain compounds that either haven't been studied clearly enough, or are clearly a problem. So to heat the vapor, you need a battery. And so there have been reports of metal traces of tin, nickel, chromium, manganese, arsenic in people's systems, hospitals have seen an increase in an acute lung injury, which is called EVALI. And that's an acronym. And the symptoms are very close to pneumonia. So those symptoms are things like coughs, chills, coughing up blood, up to 80% of people with it had GI symptoms to like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, general abdominal pain, so this is actually a real problem that happens. Yes. And they've been trying to work out what causes it, because they're seeing this an increase in this, but they don't. They, when they try and look at vapes, the big problem they've got is they're not highly regulated. And the flavors there are about 7000 different flavors. And the chemicals that have been used will vary. Yeah. So what they're having to do is try and look across it to find out what's causing what they're finding in all these people, all the EVALI people, the things that they have definitely found is that vitamin E. acetate is found in all these people, and THC. So you those two things you need to avoid. Yeah. And the problem is, I know that there are teens using THC, and they get it, they don't know where they're getting the stuff from either. Because that brings us on to the other thing, it's that if you've got a highly regulated industry, the great thing about it is that when you buy something, you've got an idea of what it is that you're consuming. So with alcohol coming back to that as another drug and another stimulant. That's something where at least we have enough data on it to say, well, it's likely to do this. Yeah. And it will vary, but it's likely to do this. When it comes to something like vaping, we just have so little information.

Susie Asli: 22:05

I mean, the idea of inhaling loads of chemicals, it's probably not going to be great for us

Rachel Richards: 22:09

no. And vaping products that contain the flavoring chemical cinnamaldehyde are a cause of concern and regulatory bodies are saying that they shouldn't be using those new liquids either. But as I said, it's all it's literally constant process of well, what do we know?

Susie Asli: 22:26

Wouldn't it be lovely if those companies went hang on a minute? W e're just going to check these as safe before we get them to our teenagers because we're not sure yet.

Rachel Richards: 22:38

The truth is, it is better or less harmful than cigarettes. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. So so we know that. So if you are smoking cigarettes, moving on to a vape is yes, absolutely. However, starting a vape never know. So. And it's interesting because I looked into something, an online vape superstore. And they were talking about what they've learned in terms of regulation. And they said that you know, what, we do actually know that there are certain things that are effective to stop teenagers from accessing these products, and one of them, and when I say accessing them, yes, of course, they can get around everything. But the point is, they're in plain view. And then the subliminal message to all teenagers. Is that absolutely fine? Yes, absolutely. Because there along with all the sweeteners, and everything else. So one thing they definitely found with the cigarette industry was as soon as they removed the branded packaging, and made sure it was really bland and then put it behind shutters. Did the amount of teenagers who were trying to smoke drop dramatically? Yeah. So we know that this is attractive. And what's shocking is that they're not doing that in these various countries. In the UK, just in the past month or so. It was discovered through a newspaper report that the the greatest sold brand in the UK, the Elf Bar which is a disposable was being sold in all these national supermarkets, the big chains, with nicotine levels 50% higher than what is actually allowed in the UK.

Susie Asli: 24:18

Wow, nobody was checking. Nobody checks it. And so when they discovered that they had to remove them from well, they did it. They didn't order it immediately, but they were removed from the shelves. And the manufacturer said oh, sorry, those were going to a different jurisdiction, but they were mixed. But also, you know, we've had raids on Oxford Street, which is the main shopping street in London that lots of tourists go to and lots of teenagers go to because it's a big stretch over lots and lots of shops, and they have big candy stores on that street. You know the American stars, candy stores, which are a magnet for teenagers. And police do raids on those every now and then. If I 1000s of vapes that don't comply to UK standards. So the big problem is if we're educating our teens, it's not just look, it's not good for you. It's also once again, when it comes to drugs, or any of these things we didn't really you don't know what you're putting in your mouth, you don't really have enough information and nobodyis brave enough to not do it yet, like to the companies, they will do it anyway. So the teenagers do have to be on it. Well, Jewel

Rachel Richards: 25:25

Juul have had to withdraw from you know, they're very aggressive marketing, you know, because America, they started cracking down on it.

Susie Asli: 25:32

But again, that's the kind of like, they're, they're now not doing it because they've been found out. Because they know it's wrong.

Rachel Richards: 25:40

They claimed that their marketing was not directed at teenagers. Oh, so we use a tiny USB drive that a teenager can put up their sleeve. That's not

Susie Asli: 25:47

that's like a really teenager person, young person doing it.

Rachel Richards: 25:51

So that's one of the big problems with with vapes, they're very hard to find, you know, teachers, find it hard to get on top of them, because, they can put them in their pencil case, or hide them up their sleeve, they're really easy, the cigarette crumbles, and then they have to smoke, whereas you need you need something to combustible and whatever. So platform coming into the advertising platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. There have been controls put in place. So it's supposed to be over 18, you know, sites where it's over 18, you're allowed to talk about this stuff. Tick tock we know as a 12 rated app is incredibly, incredibly popular. And the video hosting platform has a growing trend, particularly in US accounts of promoting the sale of devices in a package that is discreet. So they're saying we can send this to you, you don't have won't have vape superstore on it or whatever. You know what, they don't even need that because I know another parent I just spoke to this morning who said, Yeah, my daughter's doing it. We have other battles we're having to fight. Yeah. So you know, I can't really be hardline about this. She bought them off Amazon.

Susie Asli: 27:00

Yeah. I mean, and that is a real issue, isn't it? Because there are battles we're fighting? And maybe we go up? Do you know what? That's not the worst one? And you know, if your kids going to just do it socially, as a party, like really occasionally, then, okay, well, let's just see how that is rather than you know, going hardline on it it is we have to pick our battles is a tricky one. But it can lead to other things, and we don't know the consequences.

Rachel Richards: 27:26

And once again, you don't know whether that particular bait, you need to know that that vape is not going to cause these lung injuries or things. And yeah,

Susie Asli: 27:33

and once they get to a certain age as well, I mean, I think the young teenagers, we you know, we have much more input, don't we, but once they get to a certain age, and they're off doing their own thing, we don't know what they're doing. And they're also making their own choices. So we are literally sowing seeds are giving them information, and then they are having to make their own choices. We can't quite make them do or not do anything,

Rachel Richards: 27:51

though. So tackling it is it's a tricky one. Once again, gentle conversations, find out as much as you can, and you need to sit on their side of the fence and look at look out, you can't get someone to stop vaping if they don't want to we know that you can't get someone to stop smoking if they don't want to you can't get someone to stop drinking if they don't want to. So you actually have to get them to the point where they say, I don't want to do it.

Susie Asli: 28:13

And in fact, you can push them to doing it more if you're silly about it. Yes. So you need

Rachel Richards: 28:17

to find what's in your armory. So I mean, you could use consequences if you have them available. It's a tough one. But actually, the problem once they've started vaping is again that addiction cycle. So there's a influencer called Mirabella. McCall, who I'll put in the website is really good to look at because she was a freshman in high school so young when she first started vaping by the time she was 19. She said it scared her how much of her time was dedicated to serving her nicotine addiction instead of benefiting her future self. She decided to quit. She thought it was going to be easy, and she documented her journey on Tik Tok on YouTube. She was hit with severe withdrawal symptoms which resulted in her becoming violently ill vomiting breaking down in tears battling urges to vape one of the the videos that she uploaded onto her YouTube. It just showed up 10 hours after she had taken her last hit. She was bawling and trembling, and really struggling to fight intense cravings.

Susie Asli: 29:20

Wow, that's amazing information out there. That's really brave. So

Rachel Richards: 29:23

she's Yes, it's very brave of her and it's a very she's actually a big advocate now for giving up vaping getting into it.

Susie Asli: 29:33

Teens, isn't it because that's really relatable and sounds. It sounds really real.

Rachel Richards: 29:37

I haven't seen it but I'm gonna look that up and it doesn't sound like a parent telling you

Susie Asli: 29:41

know, somebody being sick because they've had too much vape that's much more effective than parents telling

Rachel Richards: 29:44

And they were her top tips are give your vape you. to someone else. So you can't use this in a moment of weakness. Find your why you need to know why you're giving this up and why you shouldn't be doing so just having your parent holding a stick over you is not going to work well. There needs to be something better than that. Quitting nicotine is a choice you have to make every single day because there's the strong needs to go back to it. So you want strong coping mechanisms like chewing gum time with your loved ones watching new TV show, reading, working out anything replacing is a yes that you can replace it with giving yourself rewards and tracking your progress. There are apps that can be downloaded now, scheduling those rewards so that they have something to look forward to, to you can be part of this process. And as a parent, yes, you can say I'm going to support you, you know, and you can also listen to our episode talking about making changes and new year's resolutions and the micro resolutions that you can make that just get you from, you just need to get to the next hurdle. Just keep going. Find a community of people who believe in you so that you can be the community for your teenager, your teenager can find other people who will support them and give yourself a break. Yeah, if they find it that they'd struggle one day. Don't go what there's no point anymore. Is there?

Susie Asli: 31:01

That's very good advice for any addiction. She's just given

Rachel Richards: 31:05

all of it. So there's a there's a website called teen.smokefree.gov. Again, I'll put that link on the podcast notes that you can go to for advice and support. There are lots of things out there. But please, sit and talk to your teen and be on their side of the fence

Susie Asli: 31:21

and the edge. It's really easy to get really panicky and worried isn't it?

Rachel Richards: 31:26

Yes, yeah,

Susie Asli: 31:27

have a conversation.

Rachel Richards: 31:29

Get it Get back into your zone regulate. So what do you think have you had to deal with vaping? Are you regularly talking about it with your teens? Is there anything that you think we might have missed on this podcast have you had any great tips that you could share with us because you know, we'll learn as we go along too. If you enjoyed this, then do tell your friends tell the schools set up a support group for other parents of teenagers where you can listen to and discuss our episodes or share books you read. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast because that helps people to find it. And it would be a massive bonus if you left a review. Yes, yeah, we've seen some fantastic monitoring, it just makes our day so thank you. You can also sign up to review all the latest on our website, which is www dot teenager's untangled.com Where there's a blog reviews links to every episode and easy ways to contact us both. Suzy has her own website,

Susie Asli: 32:22

which is www.amindful-life.co.uk

Rachel Richards: 32:28

and all those tips and tips she was giving in the at the start. This is a really important one to get your head around. So if you want some coaching on that she's a perfect person to talk to about it. And that's it for now.

Susie Asli: 32:40

Yeah, good bye for now.