So why are people like Gracey, who have never smoked a cigarette, taking it up?
The Londoner believes vaping helps when she’s feeling socially anxious.
“It’s the hand action,” she says, “just having something in your hand, just having something in your mouth.”
Like cigarettes Gracey’s vape contains nicotine, a highly addictive substance that triggers withdrawal symptoms like irritability and anxiety when it leaves your system.
Vaping has become a “mindless action,” she says. When she answers the call to talk to BBC News for this article, Gracey says that without thinking about it, she had been lying in bed, with her vape in one hand, and her other hand scrolling Instagram.
The habitual aspect of regular vaping is something GP Dr Helen Wall hears a lot from her patients.
“It’s that kind of psychological dependence on something else to almost regulate their emotions,” she says.
Like Gracey, Malin Andersson, who vaped until recently, says her habit went hand in hand with doomscrolling.
She had also tried cigarettes but never considered herself a smoker.
At 33, she falls in the age range most likely to vape. The ONS report suggests nearly one in six people aged 25-34 in the UK may use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally.
The domestic abuse campaigner and former Love Island contestant started vaping when she was going through a stressful break-up and looking for comfort. She believes it was the physical action that got her hooked.
“It’s a dopamine hit,” Malin says. “It’s literally an adult’s version of a dummy.”
She says it was dulling her senses and leaving her demotivated.
Malin became so frustrated with how reliant she had become on her banana ice-flavoured vape that she quit in May this year.
“It was annoying me so much that it was always in my hand that I’d end up throwing it across the room,” she says.
