Thanks for weighing in on this one Joe. I am going to reiterate a comment I made above, and add a little to it here:

I really do encourage all people to take this survey, talking to long-term ex-smokers in their real world. People who you knew when they were smokers, who you knew when they were quitting and who you still know as being successful long-term ex-smokers. The more people you talk to the more obvious it will become how people quit smoking and how people stay off of smoking. Again, people quit smoking by simply quitting smoking and people stay off of smoking by simply knowing that to stay smoke free that they must never take another puff!

Again, go talk to as many long-term successful ex-smokers (people off all forms of nicotine for at least a year or longer) in your real world that you can find and find out how they quit. I don't believe that there is a single professional smoking cessation NRT advocate who will suggest to their patients that they take a similar survey. For if they did their credibility would be called into question almost immediately when the patient starting seeing the results of their real life survey. They will end up having to spend quite a bit of time trying to explain away the discrepancy, using excuses like the people who used NRT didn't use it right or didn't use it long enough or were more addicted smokers.

We don't need to spend time trying to explain away the results of the surveys that people will do in there real world settings. All we have to say is the results make it more and more obvious that the way to quit smoking and to stay successfully free is no more complicated than just making and sticking to a personal commitment to never take another puff.

Joel