Teen who took '1,200 puffs a day' recalls the moment that helped him beat six-year vaping habit
A teenager who started vaping at 12 years old has revealed the turning point that changed his life, after taking around '1,200 vape puffs a day' at the peak of his addiction.
Freddie Janman, 18, was hospitalized earlier this year after being introduced to vaping in his early teen years by friends, noting that it's something he thought 'just looked really innocent'.
"It tasted nice and I got a bit of a buzz from it," the musician from Surrey, UK, admitted.
But the teen said that the habit grew into a full-blown addiction 'very quickly'.
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"You’d be vaping at school in the toilets," Freddie recalled.
"Everyone would sneak off and get inside the cubicles together and be vaping."
He managed to keep his addiction a secret from his parents, despite admitting to getting a new 2,400 puff refillable for his vape every other day.
But Freddie had been diagnosed with severe asthma at just three years old, making his newfound vaping addiction even more concerning.
When he was just 16, after having been to the doctors numerous times with chest infections, he finally opened up about the extent of his vaping.
He unsuccessfully tried to quit three times, until he woke up on March 30, 2026.
"My chest was really tight and my heart… I can only describe it as it felt like it was squeezed," he said.
After realizing it had felt like he was 'breathing out of a straw' all day, his girlfriend, Zoe, drove him to hospital.
Doctors grew 'very concerned' about his condition, and he was admitted for four nights.
Despite 'sneakily' vaping from his hospital bed, Freddie has since opened up about the moment that changed everything for him.
At the beginning of April, the hospital put him in contact with a Stop Smoking nurse, who convinced him to turn his life around.
"It’s such a serious epidemic that people are aware of, but I don’t think they really understand the scale of it," he said.
"At that moment, I threw my vape in the bin… and I had some clarity.
"I needed to just hit this on the head, so I did."
To help him kick the habit, Freddie was given nicotine gum and patches by the nurse, while his doctor also prescribed a beclometasone inhaler to help reduce inflammation in his airways and make it easier for him to breathe.
Since then, Freddie says he has not 'touched' a vape, describing the difference in his health as 'night and day'.
Mia Williams