Every 31st May, the world marks World No Tobacco Day.

The campaigns roll out. The statistics land in your feed. The before-and-after lungs. The reminders that tobacco kills more than eight million people a year, that every cigarette is doing damage you can’t see or feel yet.

All of that is true ✅

And most smokers and vapers reading those messages will feel one of two things: guilt, or nothing at all. Because they’ve heard it before. So many times that it’s become background noise. The warning on the packet. The ad before the video. The well-meaning comment from someone who’s never smoked a day in their life.

Here’s what I find interesting about days like these 🤔

The research shows that World No Tobacco Day does create a genuine spike in people searching for ways to quit. Interest rises on 31 May. People sit with the question a little longer than usual. Any moment that prompts someone to pause and reconsider is worth something.

But the same research also shows that fear-based messaging, the “you’re killing yourself” approach, can actually make it harder for some people to quit. When smoking or vaping feels like a core part of who you are, being told it’s shameful or deadly can trigger defensiveness rather than change. The message lands, but it lands wrong. People grip tighter, not let go 😔

When World No Tobacco Day was established in 1987, vaping didn’t exist. The nicotine landscape was simpler. Now, millions of people who never smoked have become dependent on nicotine through a device that looked, at first, like a solution. Young people who never touched a cigarette are carrying a dependency they didn’t anticipate and aren’t sure how to put down 💨

So when we talk about World No Tobacco Day in 2026, we’re really talking about something broader. Nicotine dependency. The exhausting loop of wanting to quit and not being able to. People who’ve tried patches, apps, willpower, cold turkey, cutting down, switching products, and found themselves back at square one, wondering what’s wrong with them.

Nothing is wrong with them ❤️

The reason quitting can be hard has nothing to do with weakness or lack of commitment. It has everything to do with the way we’ve been taught to think about what nicotine does for us. We believe, on some level, that it helps us relax, concentrate, manage stress, and feel like ourselves. We believe, even when we know intellectually it isn’t true, that we’re getting something from it. Or that we can’t cope or function without it.

That belief is the trap. Not the nicotine itself. 🪤

I know this because I lived it. I smoked for more than twenty years, up to two packs a day, and I tried to quit more times than I can count. Each attempt felt like deprivation. Like white-knuckling my way through life with something missing. It wasn’t until I understood what I was actually holding onto, and realised it was something of a scam, that I was able to walk away without a feeling of loss. That was in 2003, and I haven’t looked back 🌟

Over the next few days, you’re going to be bombarded with messages designed to make you feel bad about where you are as a smoker or vaper.

I think you deserve at least one that says: where you are makes complete sense, the trap is cleverly designed, and there is a way out that doesn’t feel like punishment 🗝️

That’s worth knowing, whether you’re ready to act on it or not. (But when you are, we’re ready for you!!)