THURSDAY, March 7, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Smokers huff with regret about taking up their deadly habit, and have puffed-up ideas about how easy it is to quit.
That's the conclusion of a just-released British survey of 893 smokers commissioned by the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) office in London. The results appear in a letter in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.
More than 80 percent of the people surveyed said they'd never start smoking if they had the chance to do it over again. Smokers aged 45 to 64 were the most regretful, with 90 percent saying they wished they'd never lit that first cigarette.
Smokers also overestimate the likelihood they'll be able to quit and underestimate how long it will take. More than half of those surveyed said they expected to quit within two years. However, statistics show that only about 6 percent of them will likely manage that, the letter says.
Interestingly, many young people were also disenchanted with smoking. The survey found that 78 percent of smokers aged 16 to 24 said they wouldn't start smoking if given the second chance.
Young people were also overly optimistic about their chances of kicking the habit. Eighty percent of the smokers aged 16 to 29 said they'll quit within 10 years.
However, the ASH letter says the odds are against them. It notes that statistics show 65 percent of people who ever smoked were still smoking at age 40, and 46 percent of them were still smoking at age 60.
The survey's findings are no surprise to John Banzhaf, executive director of the American office of ASH in Washington, D.C.
"There have been quite a number of surveys of smokers, and they usually show that anywhere from 80 to 95 percent of them do want to quit," Banzhaf says.
Unfortunately, an overwhelming number of smokers fail when they try to quit.
"We know that in many cases it takes six or more serious attempts before people are able to quit," Banzhaf says.
About 47 million U.S. adults smoke, and about 430,000 Americans die each year from smoking, the American Cancer Society says. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, murder and illegal drugs combined.
Wrenching yourself from the clutches of cigarettes is a difficult and complicated challenge that involves two separate forces, experts say. The first, and most obvious, is nicotine addiction.
The other is what Banzhaf refers to as the "psychological habituation" to smoking. For many smokers, cigarettes become an integral part of their daily routine. For example, they use smoking as a form of stress relief, as a way of being social, or just as something to do with their mouth and hands.
"So, even if somebody could wave a magic wand and totally eliminate the addictive element, it's awfully difficult for somebody who smoked two packs a day for 20 years to suddenly put it down and give up all that ritual," Banzhaf says.
That's why doctors need to take a multi-pronged approach to help their smoking patients quit. It isn't enough to tell smokers to use nicotine patches or gum and send them on their way, Banzhaf says.
"If you just treat the addictive aspect, you're almost certainly doomed to failure," he says.
Nicotine-replacement therapy, antidepressants, and counseling need to be used in combination to help smokers who want to quit.
What To Do: For more information about the dangers of smoking, go to Action on Smoking and Health, the American Lung Association or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here's information on federal and state programs to help smokers quit.
