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“I could quit smoking easily if I wanted to, but I don’t want to”

“Quitting smoking is easy – I’ve done it loads of times”

“I smoke because I enjoy smoking, not because I’m addicted to it”

Heard it all before? Me too – so the question remains

Why Is It So Hard to Quit Smoking?

We all know that smoking is bad for both your health and your wealth, but still millions of people continue to puff away day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out  – why? – Because once you’re addicted to the stuff it’s very difficult to stop, make no mistake about that. Anybody who successfully tackles the issue and meets it head on until they’ve “cracked it” can quite rightly feel extremely proud of themselves, it ain’t easy but it can be done. So what exactly makes quitting smoking so difficult?  Is it the nicotine or is it just the habit of lighting up at certain times of the day and in certain places?

Years ago before I’d seen the light and conquered the smoking bug I had to spend a few days in hospital, there was a smoking room available (that’s how long ago it was) but the thought of sitting in the fog and lighting up with all of the other addicts was very unappealing to me. Anyway, I managed a few smoke free days without really thinking about it at all, but guess what happened the minute I jumped into the car for the drive home . . . yup, old habits die hard. I did manage to beat the sucker a few months later, but why oh why didn’t I just go with it then? No, I dunno’ either, but that’s smokers for you.

The Problems With Quitting Smoking

Nicotine addiction is definitely a major problem when it comes to quitting smoking. The physical addiction to nicotine is a tough nut to crack. Nicotine is extremely addictive and occurs naturally within tobacco. When you inhale it quickly travels to your brain and can leave you feeling relaxed or offer a little stress relief – temporarily. Temporarily is the big word here (I know, it’s only 11 letters and there are bigger words like abbreviations which has 13 letters but means to shorten something – weird), anyway, the nicotine might make you feel good temporarily, but that’s where the problems start, because you soon crave that feeling again, and again, and again and your body tells you to light up another. You’re hooked before you know it.

You may think that smoking helps you to deal with stress more easily, but have you seen how stressful it is for a smoker to quit? Or, worse, how stressful it is when a smoker realizes that they don’t have any cigarettes left and can’t buy more for a few hours? Now that’s what you call stress . . . in the long term smoking causes tons more stress than it actually helps.

I know it’s hard but go on, quit smoking now, you know it makes sense.

Not pretty is it?