smokerZchoice

...and the government and big Pharma took it away!

Several years ago, I developed a smoking cessation program and offered it for FREE to the American Lung Association because I felt that we are all in smoking cessation for the same reasons. My incorporated these same goals as American Lung Association’s. It was based on the idea that smokers trying to quit smoking were informed and prepared for the challenge and had a concrete plan of action were successful.

Was I ever wrong? The American Lung Association was in bed with and getting big donations from Big Pharmaceutical who basically wanted NO OTHER COMPANIES competing with them regardless of the public health mandate. It didn’t matter that they owned 90% market share for smoking cessation/stop smoking products. If you owned 1% and were helping people to quit smoking they wanted that 1% to buy their products,

Let’s face it smoking and quitting smoking is deeply ingrained in people’s daily activities. It’s hard for people to stop smoking. The physical withdrawal of the nicotine is hard for the smokers to deal with once nicotine withdrawal accompanies the urge to smoke. A smoker has to deal with the multitude of behaviors they associated with the smoking habit and nicotine addiction.

Smokers trying to quit smoking have to learn what to do with their hands, what to do during breaks at work, how to fill the time at home when they usually smoked and how to handle social situations with friends.

The quitting process is difficult and that’s why the statistics show that it takes most smokers several tries before they are able to quit for good.

However the successful participants seemed to share several key factors:

They were in the class for themselves vs. being there at the request of a family member.
They could envision themselves as non-smokers.
They stuck to the plan.
They had the support of others to quit.

My advice …

… Take your time and make sure your ready to quit smoking. Evaluate all products when deciding what might work for you. Don’t just pick the one advertised on TV. There are plenty of natural products available that work just as well as those Rx and OTC brands.

Quitting is a process just stick with it.