Smoking Cessation

Thinking about quitting smoking? Feeling like you must be a failure because you’ve tried to quit a number of times but eventually started smoking again? If so, then you are not alone. A report from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that among current U.S. smokers, 70% say the want to quit completely. And Surgeon Generals’ reports have found that quitting tobacco is difficult and may require multiple attempts.

The Surgeon General’s report, Reducing Tobacco Use  indicated 4 key components to increase the chance of long-term tobacco cessation:

1. Readiness to quit: A conscious decision that you are ready to do the work required to quit and having strong, internal, personal motivators that you can easily verbalize, and write down to keep you motivated, e.g. ”I want to quit because I want to be less short of breath… I want to see my grandchildren graduate from college…hate smelling like smoke… I don’t want to have a heart attack.” 

2. Use of a smoking cessation aid, as appropriate with advice from your health care provider, to control and manage nicotine withdrawal.

3. A specific plan of behavioral strategies to replace the smoking behavior when the urge to smoke is triggered.

4. Support and counseling: You don’t have to, nor should you, go it alone. Support can come from family members, friends, trusted colleagues, and other social contacts that you know will be there for you during this difficult process. Support can also come in the form of more formal counseling, from your physician or other healthcare providers and from tobacco cessation counselors and programs: online programs, telephone quit lines, individual- and group-based community programs. Research indicates that the more frequent and intense the support/counseling is, the greater the success with long-term cessation.