Kick the butt

This post is meant for admin of this blog....quit it Avinash

Indian smokers are in a fix. Many want to quit, some have even stopped lighting up with sheer willpower. But evidence available with Indian scientists, who have been working with chronic smokers, pose a grim reality. Data suggests that just 1% of quit attempts, made by smokers on their own, succeed using willpower alone. And it only works for smokers with a short duration of smoking history — 6 months-one year with good family support and those who do not consume more than 1-2 cigarettes a day. What’s worse, in reality, 80% of smokers who try to quit on their own actually end up becoming chronic smokers. Confirming this trend, Dr Ramakant, chief of WHO’s Tobacco Cessation Centre (TCC) at Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University in Lucknow, told Times of India: ‘‘In India, just 1% of smokers who try to quit on their own successfully do so. If given expert counselling, the quit rate improves to 11%. When smokers attend TCCs and undergo severity of addiction assessments and psychological counselling, quit rates improve to almost 30%.’’ He added: ‘‘It’s true that the majority of those who try to quit on their own actually end up becoming chronic smokers. That’s because the relapse rate among them is very high. After trying to quit two to three times, they become frustrated and start smoking even more.’’