GREEN BAY -- With students in northeast Wisconsin back to school, local health officials are once again advising teens and parents about the dangers of vaping. Recently dozens of people across the U.S. have been hospitalized due to vaping.
Cindy Czarnik-Neimeyer, a mental health specialist with Catalpa Health, says vaping either THC or nicotine products could affect a teenager’s mental health. She says the frontal cortex of the brain is not fully developed until around age 25 and that part of the brain involves critical thinking and coping.
She says vaping products limit the development of coping skills, which she says can potentially lead to mental health diseases like clinical depression and anxiety.
"When they end up relying on the chemical, they are not learning those coping skills,” says Czarnik-Neimeyer. “And so, we are finding correlations between nicotine use, early marijuana use and mental issues like depression anxiety bi-polar.
She says those chemicals numb the feelings of fear anxiety and depression. With nicotine being known as addictive, she says that only makes it easier to develop mental issues.
