Smoking and Health

Despite the Surgeon General's warning, about 42 million Americans smoke cigarettes.
The smoking habit costs a pack-a-day (or so) smoker over $1000 a year just for cigarettes. If that thousand dollars were invested each year at an 4 percent annual return, before taxes it would total...
- After 1 year...$1040
- After 5 years...$1221
- After 10 years...$1490
- After 30 years...$3313
Cigarette smoking is the worst thing one can do to one's health...worse than all other unhealthy behviors (non exrecising, eatingtoo much fat etc) combined
Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, about 40 of which cause cancer
Cigarette smoking increase the risk of heart disease, emphysema (a fatal lung disease), and all types of cancer
About 1000 people die each day as a long-term consequence of their smoking habit.
Environmental ("second-hand") tobacco smoke is harmful to non-smokers
40 million Americans have quit smoking, and most of them are glad of it, so you know it can be done.
Quitting can be difficult, so the Quitters motto should be "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Smoking almost always begins in late childhood or adolescence because of peer pressure, modeling after family members and media personalities, and the influence of advertising.
Cigarettes are the most heavily advertised products in the U.S.

Nicotine is highly addicting
Cigarettes are easy to get
Smoking becomes linked to a wide variety of emotional states, social situations, and activities
Nicotine is used to change one's mental state
- to arouse ("a wake me up")
- to sedate ("a calm me down")
- to change a mood (dampen unpleasant emotions)
smokers often deny that their health is at risk

Sources for help with quitting:

California's Quit-Smoking Helpline
QuitNet
SmokeFree.gov...Quitting info from the U.S. National Cancer Institute
You Can Quit Smoking Now...a guide from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Quit Smoking Program...from the Canadian Lung Association
The Quit Smoking Company... information and products to help smokers quit including learning how to set a quit date, quit and avoid weight gain, and making quitting easier...lots of resources.

Step 1: Understand the Process

The smoker must be ready to stop. When the mind is ready to stop smoking, steps can be taken to bring the body along.
There is no single method of success.
Many people try several times before being permanently successful. Relapse can be seen as a step to a final goal rather than a defeat.

Step 2: Precontemplation

Step 3: Understanding Withdrawal and Urges

The first few days are the toughest; symptoms peak in 2-4 days
After withdrawal, ex-smokers may continue to experience the urge to smoke in the situations in which they smoked in the past (eg: after a meal, talking on the phone etc.)
an urge to smoke rarely lasts for more than a few seconds...so have a way to chill while it passes.
periodic urges may occur over many months after stopping

Step 4: Preparing for Relapse

Nearly all ex-smokers have "relapse crises" during the first few months after quitting.
Relapse tends to occur during negative emotional states, so quitters should develop alternatives to smoking for the times of difficult emotions, such as meditating, walking, journal-writing, etc.
Relapse should be seen as a normal step in the quitting process and not a sign of failure (which can trigger negative, punishing inner self-talk, the soothing of which can be to smoke)
Some quitters are helped through this stage by using nicotine-containing gum, a nicotine patch, and a drug called "Zyban,", all of which lessen the urge for nicotine

Step 5: Set a Quit Date

Step 6: Prepare for the Quit Date

Step 7: On the Quit Date...and for the next 14 days