Vape Addiction: The THC Use You May Not Even Notice, with Dr. Deepa Camenga

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Maybe you found it in the laundry, or at the bottom of a backpack. It looked like a highlighter, or a USB stick, or a cute little accessory that matched their phone case. And now you’re standing there holding it, wondering how worried you should actually be.

Vaping comes up in our community constantly, so I tracked down the most qualified physician I could find to help us sort through it. Dr. Deepa Camenga is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Yale, board certified in pediatrics and addiction medicine, and the associate director for pediatric programs at the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine. She’s also parenting teenagers of her own, so she gets this from both sides of the kitchen table.

Dr. Camenga explains why vapes are a completely different animal from the cigarettes many of us grew up around. They’re tiny, odorless, loaded with far more than nicotine, and the ones our kids are buying aren’t regulated, which means nobody can tell you for sure what’s inside any single device. She’s seeing kids as young as eleven and twelve in her practice, and many of them will look her in the eye and say, “Yeah, I’m definitely addicted.”

We also dig into the situation so many of you have written to me about. Your child comes home from treatment, stays away from the pills and the alcohol, and then starts vaping, along with a very convincing speech about why you can’t take that away from them. Dr. Camenga’s answer is compassionate and honest, and it will help you hold your ground with love.

And I love what she said about quitting. When a young person stops vaping, the anxiety or depression underneath can get louder before it gets better, and that doesn’t mean something is going wrong. It means the thing that was masking those feelings is finally gone. If you’ve been expecting everything to get better the moment they stop, this reframe could save you a lot of heartache.

If you’ve found a vape, suspect there’s one, or you’re trying to get ahead of this before middle school, this one is for you. And grab the download in the show notes with photos of what these devices actually look like, because some of them are very good at hiding in plain sight.

YOU’LL LEARN

• Why so many kids openly say they’re addicted to vaping, and why that isn’t the same as wanting to stop
• What’s actually inside the vapes kids are buying, and why no one can tell you for certain
• How to respond when your child says vaping is the only thing keeping them from harder drugs
• Why mental health symptoms can flare when a young person quits, and why that isn’t a sign of failure
• The talking points that actually make teens pause (hint: it isn’t lung cancer at seventy)
• The first thing Dr. Camenga wants you to do if you find a vape in your child’s backpack today

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Dr. Deepa Camenga profile
• Book an appt. (for CT residents) 203-777-7411 - in person or telehealth
• Click to download our vape detection guide

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