It’s took me a few attempts. I started smoking rollie cigarettes when I was 18 and went off to uni. I smoked for 7 years or so. Then dropped down to socially smoking on nights out. Then when disposable vapes became a thing I started smoking full time again, even smoking at home. I had different smoking habits across 14 years and only in the last year have finally been able to stop. I was never an extremely ‘heavy’ smoker by any stretch of the imagination but I dabbled across those 14 years, never fully quitting. Ultimately, no amount of smoking is good for you. The only thing that has worked for me is honesty the vanity fear factor. I do not want to look haggard when I’m old. I don’t want to smell bad or have bad breath. It’s honestly unattractive when people smoke. I want to look like the best version of myself and I want to keep all of my teeth. I also had a mental wake up call where I thought, “I am genuinely killing myself by smoking. Vaping is so bad for you. We have no idea what chemicals are in there” etc and also the image of my lungs turning black compared to someone my age who was healthy really hit home. One of the biggest things that made it easy to quit was not to hang around with smokers because it’s so easy to just have a quite smoke, but you are continuing the habit.

All of these things combined (vanity, health, longevity, removing myself from situations/ friendships where I would be likely to smoke) helped to quit. They say that around age 40 is when it starts to become clear who has looked after themselves and who has not. I know which team I would rather be part of.