Ex-smokers, never-smokers, partners, teenagers, pregnancy and when to get help

The rule is the same for everyone, but the situations differ, and a few deserve their own paragraph.

Ex-smokers. Chapters 11 and 12 are yours. The short version is that the first stage is safe, the vape stays as insurance for as long as you want it, and a gap that wants a cigarette is a reason to ring a stop smoking service and not a reason to buy cigarettes. Don't set a date for zero until the falls in the first week have shown you their size. If you want the patch alongside the vape while you bring the line down, the NHS says that's fine and an adviser can help with strengths.

Never-smokers. You've no insurance question and no switch to protect, which makes the whole thing simpler. It also means the NHS position applies to you directly, which is that non-smokers shouldn't vape at all. You can go straight through the three stages, and the day route in chapter 18 is open to you without the caution. The one thing to watch is that never-smokers often started young and often started on strong liquid, so the line may be higher than you'd guess. Count first.

People who smoke and vape. If you do both, the vape isn't the problem yet. The cigarettes are, and the NHS advice is to use the vape as much as you need to get the cigarettes to zero, and to worry about the vape later. This book is for later. Come back to it when you've been smoke-free for a couple of months.

Partners and housemates. If you're reading this because someone you live with vapes all day and you'd like them to stop, the honest advice is that the drawer works for the person who chose it and not for the person it was chosen for. What you can do is not mind less. Ask that it doesn't happen in the car or the bedroom, which are two of the three places in chapter 16, and say why. Beyond that, leave the book where they'll find it.

Teenagers. If the vaper is your child, the NHS has a page for parents on young people and vaping, and their GP or school nurse can help. This book's argument, that the vape calms a state it causes, is one a teenager can follow, and the forty-minute test in chapter 5 is something they can try. But the plan in chapters 16 to 19 assumes an adult with a drawer of their own, and a teenager needs someone alongside them.

Pregnancy. Talk to your midwife. The NHS says vaping is likely to be less harmful than smoking in pregnancy, that licensed nicotine replacement products like patches and gum are the recommended option, and that if vaping is what keeps you off cigarettes, it's safer for you and the baby than smoking. It also says to avoid liquorice-flavoured nicotine products in pregnancy. None of the steps in this book should be taken without that conversation.

Nicotine pouches. Some readers will have moved from a vape to pouches, or use both. That's a book of its own. I'd say only that a pouch has an ending, which a vape doesn't, and that the same loop runs through it.

Side effects. If the reason you want to stop is a cough, a dry throat or headaches, the NHS says to get advice from an adviser or a specialist retailer before you stop using the vape as your way of staying off cigarettes, because small changes to the product usually fix them. Stopping over a side effect and ending up on cigarettes is the wrong trade.

Low mood. Hughes's list includes low mood among the withdrawal symptoms, and it should lift within two to four weeks. If it doesn't, or if it was there before you changed anything, or if nothing has felt good for a fortnight, that's health and not nicotine. The NHS two-week guide applies. See a GP.

Fear. If the falls frighten you, in the sense that a gap brings panic rather than restlessness, don't push through on your own. An adviser or a pharmacist can put a steady product alongside, and a GP should know if panic is new.