Do you remember the story of 2-year-old Ardi Rizal that went viral in 2010?
He was a toddler from Sumatra, Indonesia who was known far and wide for smoking packs and packs of cigarettes at his early age. His parents revealed that Ardi used to smoke 40 cigarettes per day.
Then, his story generated so many wraths, that the Indonesian government was prompted to take a stand against childhood smoking. Later, he was given treatment for his smoking addiction.
Ardi was only 2 years old when he became addicted. He learned to say ‘no’ because of rehab. And Ardi is now 8 years old and he finally beat his addiction to smoking. However, addictions like that which begin early in childhood are not that easy to overcome.
Usually, whenever we think that we’ve to overcome an addiction, the addiction simply transforms into something else. The young man developed a dependency on food to replace his cravings for cigarettes.
Ardi’s Change Over:
According to his mother, Diane, he was soon telling the people offering him smokes, “I love Kak Seto [one his psychiatrists]. He would be sad if I started smoking again and made myself ill.” Finally, Ardi had to undergo treatment to overcome his addiction to food, and he is now on the path to a healthy lifestyle.
And this is how he looks now.