Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult addictions to kick
Anyone who had tried will tell you, quitting smoking is one of the most difficult addictions to kick. Now there is research that shows it gets more difficult if we’re under financial stress.
This was a very large study on the affects of financial stress on giving up cigarettes. Doctors have studied 8,000 people in four different countries since 2002.
The results may seem obvious to some, financial stress makes it more difficult to stop smoking.
But what might surprise people is how deep people will dig into their pockets, and what they’ll give up to keep smoking.
Kevin Williams is like a lot of smokers, he wants to quit, but he’s been smoking for 30 years and he is having a difficult time kicking the habit, but he has tried, repeatedly.
Kevin Williams says, “I don’t think I’d gone for any longer than six to eight months.”
Now with the help of U.N.M.C., Kevin feels he may be on the right track.
Williams hasn’t quit smoking, but he has cut his daily number of cigarettes in half, but because he sees smoking all the time he knows any success will be difficult.
Kevin Williams says, “It’s always right there and it’s available and fairly inexpensive in regard to other drugs you know of choice it’s a fairly inexpensive habit.”
New research gathered since 2002 suggests the more financially stressed a smoker is, the less likely they will be able to quit smoking.
Dr. Mohammad Siahpush is contributing some of the data for that study.
Dr. Mohammad Siahpush says, “People who are financially stressed spend more on smoking but less on anything else including alcohol, gambling, and so forth.”
It is a study that may not apply directly to Kevin Williams, but he says, he does understand stress adding to his need for a cigarette.
It happened after he and his wife lost a child.
Kevin Williams says, “All of the things that were going into it at that point financially as well were reasons for me not to put it down.”
Williams hopes with a better understand of what pushes him to smoke, he can finally kick the habit once and for all.
Williams also says the restaurants and bars going smoke-free has helped keep the number of cigarettes down.
Before it was almost an unconscious decision to smoke, go out with friends, have a beer or meal and light up, so the smoking ban has helped him.
By Gary Smollen
