It’s October and that means that many Dutch people are going to try again to quit smoking during Stoptober. With a website and app, participants try not to smoke for at least 28 days in October.
Quitting smoking can be difficult, admits GP Jantine Knol from Haren. “Stoptober is a great time of the year to be aware that smoking is an addiction and unhealthy, most smokers know that,” she said on Saturday morning. Hair does on EYE Radio. “It is precisely the teamwork of Stoptober that makes it successful for some people, but that is not the case for everyone.”
Smokers have various reasons for quitting, for example health reasons or because smoking is becoming too expensive. The common denominator according to Knol is that you have to be ready to quit. “You should above all be in a stable phase in your life and not have any psychological complaints, because then it is better not to stop.”
In Knol’s practice, it is noticeable that these are mostly older people. “The people who come to us, I just had a look in the system, most of them were older than 50, so they probably smoked for a long time. We don’t see many young people with it, so I have the idea that young people smoke less, which is of course a very nice development.”
Then if you’re ready to quit, Knol is happy to help. She starts by raising the issue with the patient. “We say it often, it helps to hear it again. People know it, but it still gnaws at you a little when you hear it again. If people then want to stop, we plan a stop time together with our practice nurse. Then you can get medication or plasters to make you feel less uncomfortable and the guidance of our practice nurse, that helps enormously, that you don’t have to do it alone,” says Knol.
Listen back to the radio interview with GP Knol here:
If you still want to participate, then according to the doctor it is never too late to start stopping. “October still takes a lot of days, of course people can also join in mid-October. You can stop all of October, it doesn’t have to have started yesterday.”
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