Let me add to your knowledge as I see you have some experience in this area.

I suffered a traumatic brain injury to the point of having absolutely no memory of the people who were my immediate family. I couldn't understand why they were making claims on me. A very long and not surprisingly boring story, because I don't remember. That is the thing with amnesia. So to answer the question at hand, I continued to smoke, I cannot tell you why.

Later on I tried many times, for many different reasons, but the truth was I really didn't want to give it up.

However one day, many years later I decided I did not want to smoke anymore and quit on the spot. Whatever withdrawals I had, I associated with the idea that I had chose to quit, period. Have never had the first 'craving'. So the key to quitting is to really want to quit.

Now I will address opiates medicine. I need it but cannot get it because of the war on drugs. I was on codine for many years before the war. Many times due to life, prescriptions were not filled on schedule. I would suffer 'withdrawals' if you want to call them that, but really was just like the beginnings of the flu, three days max, usually two. I got really tired of the lack of professional care and decided to learn to live with the pain. It was not that the withdrawal was unpleasant, it was the lack of humanity in the medical community that motivated my decision (one of my daughters is a pharmacist and is also a victim of the culture to blame the patient). I just didn't want that ugly business in my life anymore and chose to not pursue the help anymore. Again I really wanted to.

In conclusion, quitting anything, drugs, people, habits is a personal choice. It reminds me of the saying 'you can lead a horse to water---'

Human beings lie to themselves. That is what looks like an effort to quit. You can walk away from a person that is 'trying' to quit, and you will both be happy.