Slipped after quitting vaping? How to stop a slip becoming a relapse

A slip is not a relapse

A slip, or lapse, is a single episode: a few puffs from a friend’s vape, or one evening with a device you swore you had thrown away. A relapse is a return to regular use. Researchers treat them as two different events, and study what makes one lead to the other. Smokefree.gov, the US National Cancer Institute’s quit site, puts it plainly: a slip is a temporary setback, you have not failed and you are not back to square one. What you do next matters more than the slip itself.

Why the first weeks carry the most risk

Most of the research comes from smoking rather than vaping, but the pattern is consistent. A 2004 review by Hughes and colleagues found that among smokers quitting without treatment, most relapse occurs in the first eight days, and concluded that support should focus on the first week. In two nicotine patch trials analysed by Kenford and colleagues in 1994, any smoking in the second week after quitting strongly predicted still smoking six months later, while complete abstinence in that week predicted success.

What those figures mean for you

In Kenford’s trials, 83% and 97% of the patch users who smoked at all in week two were smoking at six months. That sounds bleak, but it is an argument for acting quickly, not for giving up. An early slip is a signal that your plan has a gap, and the gap is usually specific: a place, a person, a feeling or a device within reach. Those studies were about cigarettes, and nobody can predict your own outcome from them. They simply show why the days right after a slip deserve extra care.

The “I have blown it” moment

The most dangerous part of a slip is often the thought that follows it: I have ruined everything, so I might as well carry on. In a 1996 study, Shiffman and colleagues had 133 people record their first lapse, and their reaction to it, within minutes on a handheld computer, then followed them for three months. Participants who felt like giving up after the first lapse moved more quickly to a second lapse. Noticing that thought, and naming it, is the first step to not obeying it.

Getting back on track straight away helps

The same study found that people who attempted what the researchers call restorative coping, active efforts to get back on track after the lapse, were less likely to lapse again the same day. Neither the amount smoked in the first lapse nor how enjoyable it felt predicted how fast people moved towards relapse. The response is what you control, and the study points to starting it the same day.

The first hour after a slip

Stop at the puffs you have had, rather than finishing the device. If you bought or borrowed one, get it out of reach: give it back, throw it away safely or leave it behind. Leave the situation if you can, even for ten minutes. Drink some water, take a few slow breaths, and remind yourself why you are quitting, in your own words. Then tell one person what happened.

Work out what set it off

Smokefree.gov suggests using a slip to learn: think about why it happened and what you will do next time. Research on first lapses gives clues. In another 1996 study, Shiffman and colleagues found that people attributed their lapses to negative mood and smoking cues. Lapses were also more likely when smoking was allowed, when cigarettes were easy to get and when other smokers were present. For vaping, the equivalents are easy to spot: stress, a device within reach, and friends vaping around you.

Stress, drinks and other people

Not all slips unfold the same way. In Shiffman’s study of lapse to relapse, people whose lapses were triggered by stress progressed more quickly, whereas those whose lapses were triggered by eating and drinking, or accompanied by alcohol, progressed more slowly. More nicotine-dependent participants also progressed faster. If your slip came from a hard day, plan for the next hard day first. If it came on a night out, plan the night: who will be vaping, what you will hold instead, and when you will leave.

Thinking strategies worked best in the moment

In the study of first lapses, people were twelve times more likely to report coping during temptations that they got through than during lapses, but only cognitive coping strategies, as opposed to behavioural ones, were effective. Cognitive strategies are things you tell yourself: reminding yourself of your reasons, thinking through the next morning, or telling yourself the urge will pass. Prepare two or three of these sentences in advance, in your own words, so they are ready when an urge arrives.

If the slip became several days

Sometimes a slip turns into a few days of vaping before you notice. Smokefree.gov’s advice for this case is to restart right away, today or tomorrow at the latest, and to think about what helped you stay off and what caused the return. It also notes that most people need several tries before they quit for good. Set a new quit day within the next day or two, rather than waiting for a symbolic date, and carry over everything that worked the first time.

Support that has been tested for vaping

Evidence specific to vaping is growing. In a 2021 randomised trial by Graham and colleagues among 2,588 US vapers aged 18 to 24, a fully automated text-message programme called This Is Quitting was compared with assessment only. At seven months, 24.1% of the programme group reported not having vaped in the past 30 days, compared with 18.6% of the control group. A local stop smoking service or a pharmacist can also help you choose support after a slip.

What relapse-prevention research found

A 2019 Cochrane review by Livingstone-Banks and colleagues pooled trials designed to prevent relapse in people who had already quit smoking. Behavioural programmes that teach people to recognise high-risk situations and cope with them provided no worthwhile benefit for people who had quit with help. Extended treatment with varenicline helped prevent relapse, and the evidence on longer nicotine replacement was mixed. These trials were about cigarettes; ask a pharmacist or doctor before changing any medicine or nicotine product.

Keep the days you have already built

Smokefree.gov encourages people who slip to be proud of all the times they did not use, and to remember that they are not back to square one. It helps to keep two numbers: your current run since the slip, and your total vape-free time across the whole attempt. The first may restart; the second keeps growing. The total shows the effort that is still there.

Where PuffOff fits

PuffOff has a dedicated path for this moment. In its SOS screen, “I had a slip-up…” opens a page that starts with “No judgment here”, shows the total vape-free time you have kept and your slip count, and restarts your current timer only when you confirm, while your total is preserved. A short article in the app covers what to do after a slip. The SOS tools also offer guided breathing and a reminder of the reason you wrote yourself, and daily check-ins record mood and cravings so you can see what came before a slip. PuffOff does not provide medication and does not replace a stop smoking service, a pharmacist or a doctor.

Further reading

• Smokefree.gov (US National Cancer Institute) · Get Back on Track After a Setback
• Hughes, Keely & Naud (2004), Shape of the relapse curve and long-term abstinence among untreated smokers, Addiction
• Kenford et al. (1994), Predicting smoking cessation: who will quit with and without the nicotine patch, JAMA
• Shiffman, Hickcox, Paty, Gnys, Kassel & Richards (1996), Progression from a smoking lapse to relapse: prediction from abstinence violation effects, nicotine dependence, and lapse characteristics, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• Shiffman, Paty, Gnys, Kassel & Hickcox (1996), First lapses to smoking: within-subjects analysis of real-time reports, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• Graham et al. (2021), Effectiveness of a vaping cessation text message program among young adult e-cigarette users: a randomized clinical trial, JAMA Internal Medicine
• Livingstone-Banks et al. (2019), Relapse prevention interventions for smoking cessation, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews