Many smokers want to quit but cannot. Quitting to smoke is a personal battle that is severely fought but hardly won.

Quitting to smoke is like going to war. If you go unarmed, you set yourself for defeat. You need to have a weapon with you – like a gum, a pill, or a patch. You also need a lot of psychological conditioning. You must be high in defenses and brave enough to look at the enemy straight to the face. It’s a war that is larger than life and it is solely up to you to win it or lose it.

Smokers are aware of the dangers of smoking, not only to themselves but to their loved ones but they still do it, anyway. Most of the time, it takes a life-changing event to quit.  Like a tragic news of terminal illness. Somehow, the shock of it all can cause the brain to block the urge to ever want to smoke again. Once one gets the lung cancer, which is the final destiny of smokers, quitting is not an issue at all.

Can’t smokers just stop at will while they are still healthy? The answer is expectedly no. Smoking is borderline drug addiction and if you want to quit, “rehabilitation” should be in place.

Smokers who want to quit can get as many help as they can for as long as they need it. The society is supportive of smokers who want to quit. Even tobacco companies set up websites and hotlines to help smokers overcome nicotine addiction. This is a paradox. The very same people who make a fortune out of making and selling the source of addiction are the very same people who advocate the cure.

For young people, they are at a crossroad whether to follow the path of smoking or not. Understandably, the peer pressure to smoke is enormous but they have to think of a lifetime of wellbeing. People grow up but they don’t outgrow smoking.

I tried smoking when I was a teenager. The in crowd was doing it and I wanted to be relevant so I tried it. Whenever I did, my head would spin and stomach would churn. My hands would also get sweaty. I felt the discomfort was greater than the social need to smoke. I decided not to fight my body defenses and resolved that smoking was not for me.

This is a choice I made as a teenager and I’m thankful I did as I see people in my age group today risk the outcome of smoking or undergo the rigors of quitting.

Religion aside, we humans are born with the natural capacity to protect our bodies from impairment. They are, after all, the containers of our mind and soul. Intuitively, if something is harmful and destructive, the body repulses it. That’s how the law of self-preservation works.

For those who have ultimately decided to quit, the road ahead is long and unbearably painful. Expecting the insurmountable is your best route. Yes, it will be a heck of a marathon but the prize waiting for you is your own life.