With the amount of public health information available everybody is well aware that smoking cigarettes is practically suicidal. Smoking is connected to massive medical risks with the scientific community continually uncovering more dangers, and more risks to health. Coupled with the amount of money a smoker spends on his habit any smoker surely needs little more incentive to kick the habit.

The problem is that despite all the knowledge and health education, just knowing how bad it is for you doesn't provide enough incentive or fuel the willpower to take decisive action and quit smoking for once and for all.

A contributing factor is that contrary to the wealth of health information and government advice, thousands of children start smoking daily meaning that month after month tens of thousands of young people set out on the road that their parents are already on, hooked to nicotine and set upon a journey ending in lung diseases, cancer or any of the growing list of smoking related conditions.

It doesn't matter if you consider smoking cigarettes to be a habit or an addiction, it's widely acknowledged that it requires hard work, dedication and a lot of willpower to break the habit and quit. The human brain reacts to nicotine, when levels of nicotine in the bloodstream decrease the brain demands a "Top Up" and instructs the body, and so you then spark up yet another cigarette and inhale a lungful of toxic chemicals, nicotine, tar and smoke which is then transported around the body by the bloodstream with nicotine being absorbed by the brain, temporarily dulling the nicotine cravings.

Ask virtually any smoker and he will tell you that stopping this sequence if events is far from simple, if you want to stop smoking then is vital that you compile for yourself a detailed list of actions you are going to take. If you start off with a course of action in place then you may feel that breaking the habit is more natural, your withdrawal symptoms will be less, stress will be reduced and your change of complete success will be greatly enhanced.

What is a good place to start? Answer the following points honestly :

How badly do you want to quit?

How Strong is your desire to stop smoking?

Do you want to quit simply to save money?

Is peer pressure your main reason for quitting?

Do you REALLY want to quit at all?

Do you want to quite just because of pressure from someone else?

These all appear to be straightforward and open questions however the bottom line is, you have to really want to stop smoking because YOU want to stop, only YOU without any outside influences, any outside pressures will just get your more stressed out and make you even less likely to succeed with your stop smoking campaign.