Don’t plan to quit smoking, do it spontaneously

Brigid Chemweno

‘Boit’ (not his real name) a 39-year-old man and a freelance photographer is a cigarette addict. He says smoking is a habit which he begun in 2006 after completing his studies in college.

Though he hails from a Christian family, his friends who are also smokers influenced him to the habit.

It is now nine years down the line and he says he cannot quit any time soon.

“I used to see my friends smoke in social joints. They would give me a piece of cigarrete to smoke and out of my curiosity, I was eager to know how it felt when someone smoked cigarrete. I tried and up to date I am an addict,” he says.

Every moment the craving crosses his mind; he stops what he is doing to quench his thirst.

Although the habit drains his resources, he says that he can’t do without it.

“I am willing to leave it if I get the best way possible,” he asserts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that by the year 2020, tobacco will kill more people than any single disease in the world.

For some reason, educating people about effects of smoking cigarettes doesn’t seem to strike any sense into smokers. For some smokers, thinking that smoking is directly related to cancer and eventually death is a myth yet to be proven.

UK researchers from London University College say planning to quit smoking is not the best way to do it.

According to ABC News, the researchers interviewed 918 smokers from households across the UK who'd tried at least once in the past to quit and 996 who had successfully managed to quit.

They asked people how much they'd smoked, whether and when they'd quit, how long they'd planned in advanced before trying to quit or whether they quit on impulse, and how long they quit for. Slightly under half - 48.6 per cent - said they had quit immediately after deciding to quit - they didn't plan ahead.

And those who did it this way got better results. The odds of successfully quitting were 2.6 times higher in unplanned than in planned attempts, they calculated. And unplanned quitters were likely to stay off cigarettes for longer than planned quitters. This was true regardless of the age, sex, and socioeconomic grouping of the subjects.

Why were the unplanned attempts more successful? It was all a matter of motivation, say the researchers. Those who stopped suddenly had reached the end of their tether and were more highly motivated to quit.

What happens is that there's a slow build-up of motivation to quit - the expense, the poor health, the bad breath and so on - each of which isn't reason enough in itself to quit, until finally there's a trigger factor in the environment - a 'catastrophe' element, the researchers call it - something that tips a person over the edge and makes them ready to stop abruptly.