I was a very heavy smoker for 20 years. Having discussed the topic with many people, I firmly believe that nicotine addiction varies dramatically from person to person. Some people can smoke a few cigarettes a week for years on end without any major symptoms of addiction. Others, like me, can't even imagine going more than an hour without a cigarette. Sick? Who cares, I'll still smoke a pack and a half a day. So ill that every single drag of a cigarette burns my throat like fire? I'll take pain meds and use chloraseptic spray, but no way I'm going without my cigarettes. It's not even up for debate.
When I finally quit 3 years ago, cold turkey after some failed attempts years prior, it was a living hell. It wasn't until month six in that I finally felt the irritability and constant mental distractions finally fade. It was brutal. Longer and more depressing than even the worst case scenarios I had formulated in my head after heavy research.
These days, you'd have to beat me bloody before I'd concede to consume nicotine. Within inches of my life. I'd rather face a dozen novel hells before facing that well-trod hellscape another time.
Quitting smoking for heavy smokers is a big deal. Not a "14% more likely" to developed generic symptoms big deal, as the article suggest. In fact, I've read before that smokers are less likely to suffer severely from COVID-19, a fact that, true or not, is precisely the kind of fact an addict's brain is wired to cling on to. Even if smokers are "1.8 times more likely to die", do you have any idea how easy it is for an addict's mind to explain that away? Addicts do - it's insanely fucking easy!
Point being, I don't think the threat of COVID-19 can fully explain why so many people quit smoking in the UK. I'm sure it helped push a few people over the edge, and that's great. But my own intimate knowledge with addiction makes me wonder what else might be at play.
Perhaps the lockdowns elicited a powerful and much-needed jolt to the otherwise routine lives most of us live? Perhaps the time all alone, or in constant contact with loved ones, changed perspectives in a way that everyday life could not? Maybe some people who smoked only when away from the home, like many smokers I have known, were forced to more fully confront their addiction?
I can imagine a thousand reasons why our disrupted lives in 2020 might compel addicts to take on and succeed at the terrifying task of quitting. But the old excuse of "it is bad for your health" is very, very low on the list. That's the reason addicts are most skilled at ignoring! I find the other possibilities, specifically the wide-scale and unprecedented disruption of routine, much more plausible.
(NOTE: I wholeheartedly recommend he book 'The Easy Way to Stop Smoking' by the late Allen Carr. It was a very helpful motivator when I quit smoking.)