Majority of Smokers Want to Quit, Few Succeed
“More than two-thirds of smokers say they’d like to quit, but only a small percentage actually do so, survey data showed.
The CDC is reporting that more than half of adult smokers have made at least one attempt in the previous year, but the majority of the would-be quitters didn’t use medication or counseling to help them.
And the overall prevalence of recent quitting was just 6.2%, with marked differences by both education and race/ethnicity, the agency reported in the Nov. 11 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Overall, the report showed that 68.8% of smokers want to kick the habit, 52.4% reported making an attempt to stop in the year before they were questioned, and only 31.7% reported using counseling and/or medication to help them butt out.
The findings come from analysis of the National Health Interview Surveys from 2001 through 2010, and are being released a week ahead of the annual Great American Smokeout on Nov. 17, according to Tim McAfee, MD, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.
In a teleconference, McAfee told reporters the “most exciting” finding is that – regardless of subgroup – more than half of adult smokers said they wanted to quit.
But he added that there are sharp differences among subgroups in how successful smokers are at quitting.
For instance, the agency found, among smokers with less than a high school diploma, the success rate was just 3.2%, although 69.3% of those respondents said they wanted to quit and 46.2% said they had tried to stop in the previous year.
In contrast, among those with a university degree, 11.4% had recently quit when they were questioned, but rates of wanting and trying to quit did not differ much from those with less education – 68.4% and 56%, respectively.
Similarly, the success rate among blacks was just 3.3%, compared with 6.0% for Caucasians, 9.5% for Hispanics, and 10.2% for other racial and ethnic groups combined.
But blacks had the highest rates of wanting to quit and making the attempt – 75.6% and 59.1%, respectively.
McAfee noted that a doctor’s counseling is known to help people quit smoking, but among those who had seen a doctor recently, less than half — 48.3% — said they were advised to quit by their healthcare provider.”
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/29592?pfc=40&spc=238
For more information about quitting smoking and options available, go to:
30 Days To Create A Habit: Quitting Smoking Affirmations
~ The energy of health flows freely through my body.
~ I choose to put only healthy things in my body.
~ I am healing.
~ I have clean, clear, and healthy lungs.
~ I am now and forever a non-smoker.
~ My body is my temple.
~ My body is cleansed and purified and free of toxins.
~ I choose good health.
~ I am in control of myself and my life.
~ I am living a long and healthy life free of vices and addictiton.
~ I respect my body and I take good care of myself.
~ I honor my life and I respect my recovery process.
~ I FOLLOW THROUGH.
~ I use anxiety to create.
back and forth
I’m in a weird spot right now. Last night I had plans to see a hypnotherapist and get help quitting smoking. So far it’s working. I’m about 24 hours without a cigarette and I’m pretty happy about it. Here’s where the problems start:
-I asked her grandfather to pick up the kid from daycare. He agreed.
-I told her and she freaked out and yelled at me. She wanted to know why I didn’t ask her first (because she doesn’t answer my phone calls and isn’t available to often; also it was just easier to as grandpa (I knew he would say yes)).
-She tells (read screams at me) me she’ll pick up the kid and I should tell grandpa not to. I say “Ok”/
-I call grandpa. I do not tell her that grandpa has been taken off the mission (I thought that was implied).
-At 6:30pm I get a call of her cussing me out because no one picked up the kid from daycare. I turned off my phone so no one would call (I really wanted to concentrate on the quitting smoking thing I was paying a hundred bucks for).
Anyway, when I get home, she’s not real pissed; I mean I can tell she’s upset. She heads out for class but before she does she tries to kiss me and tells me she loves me.
I’m lost here; she’s been screaming at me; telling me she’s leaving; she doesn’t even stay at the house 6 nights a week. If she does come home she’s taking naps and certainly NOT hanging out with me (unless we were smoking cigarettes in the garage). We haven’t had sex in a month. Which might be because of the liposuction (which I, like a dumbass, paid for in December).
I would say it could be worse; you zombies and all. I really it could be. But as soon as I start getting used to one idea (Ok, I’m going to be single, time to start thinking about what I want for myself in the future) she switches it on me (Oh, now we’re going to work it out and spend some time apart and see if we can work it out). Honestly I would kind of rather deal with the zombies. I mean at least I know what their intentions are; they want to eat me. And everyone else. That’s pretty simple. You know where you’re at with zombies. They don’t try to eat your brains and then ask for a hug later before they leave for “work” and you don’t see them for three days.
How Meditation Could Help You Give Up Smoking
If you want to give up smoking, you will have to use each weapon in the armoury, but above all you should choose a main technique that you have faith will help you.
This might be cold turkey, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, gradual reduction or meditation. It is rather senseless to attempt acupuncture if you do not believe in it.
There are two reasons why it is hard to give up smoking: psychological addiction and physical addiction and you have to tackle both of these fronts at the same time if you are to become successful.
The psychological dependence is often related to stress or so many smokers claim while the physical dependence may be as trivial as not knowing what to do with your hands.
One of the most natural ways to deal with stress is meditation. It requires no tablets, no oils, nothing; merely a blanket. Meditation may be carried out either in conjunction with exercise like Yoga or on its own. Meditation is one of the best stress-busters and may actually cure some diseases through willpower alone according to ancient Indian scripts.
No doctors have ever ridiculed Yoga or meditation like they have acupuncture, aromatherapy and some of the other ‘alternative therapies’. It stands to reason that if meditation can relieve stress and stress is a reason for smoking, that meditation can help you stop smoking as well.
In the West, we tend to think of gurus meditating in some contorted posture in the middle of a field, on a beach or on the top of a mountain. Although some people do meditate like this, it is a bit daft of to think that you have to. Most individuals in the Developed World and in the East meditate quietly seated on a mat in the house or in the garden.
You will have to buy a book or training video on yoga, meditation techniques and breathing exercises. Maybe you ought to do some research on Google first to find out whether you are interested in yoga, but you should learn some breathing exercises because they can unwind you in seconds.
Before meditating it is customary to have a shower and brush your teeth et cetera. Then sit on a blanket in an airy space where you are not likely to be disturbed. Your book will almost certainly tell you to carry out some breathing exercises first.
The effects of this meditation session ought to last nearly all day, so it is a good thing to do one in the morning and one in the evening. Thirty minutes a session ought to be enough, but you will almost certainly want to go on for longer. Whilst you are in work, you will be able to ‘top up’ your calmness with a minute of breathing exercises as needed.
Meditation is the cheapest and most healthy method of quitting smoking and you will learn techniques that will help you for the rest of your life. If you have to use nicotine patches and gum, there is no reason why you ought not to.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous subjects, but is at present involved with quitting smoking statistics. If you have an interest in stopping smoking, please go over to our web site now at Health Risks To Smoking
Am I an ex-smoker yet?
I miss smoking sometimes. I know it was a really bad habit, but it was my little vice. I miss the ritual and the distance it allowed me to take from situations to go outside and just air out my head. The one I miss most is the post-breakfast coffee and cigarette. It was my little meditative moment. Speaking of which, I miss coffee oh so very much! I try to not drink any because it causes automatic cravings and while I am strong, I’d rather not tempt myself too much.
Being smoke free has been the coolest thing though and while I sometimes miss smoking, I don’t miss the smell! I went to a party recently where everyone was smoking indoors and needless to say, I didn’t walk out of there with the loveliest smell clinging to my clothes.
I just needed to get all of this out of my system. It’s not socially acceptable to talk about quitting smoking the same way it isn’t cool to talk about weight loss publicly. It’s a constant struggle and thank goodness for Tumblr.
