Quit21Day 1 after quitting vapingIt is real withdrawal
By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min readWhat's happening in your body
For years it was an open question whether stopping a vape produces true withdrawal. Two studies published in 2020 answered it. Researchers paid daily vapers to stay off their device for six days, checked with laboratory tests, and tracked symptoms every evening. In 109 former smokers, every recognised nicotine withdrawal symptom went up.
In a smaller pilot of 30 people who had never smoked, the symptoms went up too, though mostly mildly. Within a day of the last puff the nicotine in your blood falls to almost nothing, and receptors that were fed every few minutes go empty.
What to expect
Irritability, restlessness and a thin layer of anxiety, usually starting within the first day. Strong urges that come in waves. Trouble concentrating. It comes from the receptors, not from your character, and it is temporary. In the former smokers the symptoms rose over the first days and had turned down again within the week. If you used to smoke, read day six when it opens. If at any point the choice narrows to a cigarette or the vape, the vape is the lesser harm.
Try this
Collect every device, pod, bottle and charger, including the one in the car and the one in the coat, and get them out of the house.
What else you could do
A vape within reach is a craving that needs no decision. Tell whoever you live with that the next few days are the sharp ones, because people forgive a short fuse they were warned about. Give the irritability to your body. Ten minutes of brisk walking or a few flights of stairs takes the edge off. And keep this week free of hard conversations and deadlines that can be moved.
Sources. Measured in vapers. Hughes JR, Peters EN, Callas PW, et al. Withdrawal symptoms from e-cigarette abstinence among former smokers: a pre-post clinical trial. Nicotine Tob Res, 2020. Hughes JR, et al. Withdrawal symptoms from e-cigarette abstinence among adult never-smokers: a pilot experimental study. Nicotine Tob Res, 2020. NHS Better Health, How to quit vaping.