Quit Smoking for Yourself or For Another Person

Jessica finally decided to quit smoking because her son and daughter in law were going to have their first child and told Jessica that she couldn't be around the child and smoke, which meant she didn't get to babysit her first grandchild.
It's important to quit for yourself rather than for someone else and Jessica is at high risk of relapse if her reason for quitting disappears. What if her son and daughter in law decide to move across the country and Jessica isn't able to visit and babysit like she would like to?
When Kathy became engaged, she promised her fiancée she would quit and she did through my Stop Smoking, Stay Quit workshop. I ran into her at the store about five months later and she cried,
“Every day I wake up and say-I miss my cigarettes!” I made a few suggestions but found out later that she started smoking again when her engagement was broken off. She didn’t really want to quit and when her reason (fiancé) disappeared, so did her desire.
Bertha quit smoking because her husband suffered a heart attack and his doctor told her about the harmful effects of second hand smoke for heart patients. After two years, her husband passed away and she started smoking again. She told me that she felt resentment towards her husband the entire time that she was quit and blamed him for taking away her cigarettes.
Being told that you have to quit or quitting for someone else is not the same as wanting to quit. It is important for the smoker to find reasons to quit for themselves instead of feeling forced to do something against their will. Even if the smoker does quit, they could be setting themselves up to relapse down the road.