I quit smoking six years ago. I was in Lima airport in Peru, about to light up before boarding my flight back to the UK. I looked at the cigarette I was about to smoke, and after eight years of the addiction, just decided it was over. I put it down without smoking it, and since that moment have never lit up again

The next three months were hellish, but then I escaped the perimeter fence of the addiction. Once you’re out, you have a lot more clarity. The world feels a lot more open and free again

I often think about this with our social media and phone addiction. Many of us would like to escape, and yet - unlike nicotine - the digital world is a social addiction. It’s not only foisted at us by all the dealers - the Big Tech companies that benefit from it - but also by all the other addicts. You can try to put it down, and not light up, but everyone around you will pick it back up and hold out their lighters for you