Free will as you describe it is indeed a precious gift. Our ability as human beings to remain steadfast even in the most extreme situations illustrates the strength of our will.

There are many different ways we can define free will. Your example might be defined as “to choose to engage in behaviors despite strong external pressure to behave otherwise”.

Another common definition might be “awareness of congruency between desire for action and action itself”. When we define free will in these and other ways, then – by definition – human beings are capable of or have free will.

But there is a more fundamental way of looking at the physical world.  Existence is defined by it’s “rules” or “laws”. And all things in existence are constrained by the rules or laws of existence. If “freedom” means to be free of all constraints, then it isn’t possible for anything to be free. To exist is to be constrained. In this sense, freedom is an illusion. Free will, defined this way, is an illusion.