The Easiest Way to Stop Smoking: Finding the Way That Works Best for You

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Introduction

Smoking stinks. It’s not the most eloquent way to put it, but it works. If you’re a smoker, you probably know that smoking lowers your life expectancy by approximately fourteen years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking can be blamed for 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent in women. In 2008 it was estimated that over 161,000 lung cancer deaths occurred that year. This means that nearly 91,000 men and 72,000 women died from lung cancer that year alone. To put it in perspective, imagine if some major league and college football stadiums were filled with people and then everyone in them was killed. That’s a lot of people.

The CDC says that smoking also causes the following types of cancer: stomach, pancreatic, kidney, bladder, esophageal, larynx, cervical, uterine, oral, and acute myeloid leukemia. Now, I could go on and on about all of the health effects associated with smoking, but I’m sure you get the picture. Smoking does a lot of damage to your body. Not to mention what exposure to secondhand smoke does to the people around you. And it can be prevented.

Maybe that’s why you decided to look at this book. You’re contemplating quitting. Good for you! Or you’re looking to get this for someone who wants to quit. That’s great too! Hopefully that person will be appreciative of your concern and desire to help.

This book is a resource. My goal is to share various smoking cessation strategies that have been shown to work. Although I put more faith in certain approaches than others, I recognize that quitting is a very personal experience. What works for you will not work for plenty of other people, and vice versa. That is why so many different strategies are listed. You can read about each one and go with those that make the most sense for you.

Unlike some books or programs designed to sell you on a certain approach, this book simply provides you with information. I don’t know about you, but I’ve read books on different topics in which the author tried to advocate his own strategies. Although they may be valid strategies, it makes you wonder what you’re not being told. In this book, I’ve included information that I agree and disagree with. My goal is to offer you knowledge, not attempt to manipulate you into trying one treatment over another. Whenever possible, I’ve pointed out why I believe certain strategies are better or worse, giving you my research-based opinions as food for thought.

Most of the chapters include presentations of research findings. These aren’t meant to bore you. Instead, they are to help you understand the effectiveness of each approach. One thing you’ll notice is that the success rate for any given strategy isn’t high. Quitting the habit, and staying smoke-free for a long time, is a complex task. And many strategies are not designed with long-term success in mind. Medications and nicotine replacement therapies do a good job helping people quit, but they don’t address the psychological component of nicotine addiction. Smoking becomes second nature, and undoing the habit is a psychological task. Identifying the reasons you smoke requires self-reflection. Finding alternatives to smoking and making them habit takes time.

Going back to the research for a moment, I rarely discuss studies that found an approach to be ineffective. There are many reasons a study may fail to find support for a cessation approach, but that does not mean the strategy truly doesn’t work. Other factors involved in the research, such as the people studied, the setting, how success was measured, and so on, can play a huge role. The fact that some studies found positive results is evidence that each approach works to some degree. As I said before, what works for you will not work for plenty of other people.

Most chapters also contain a list of resources to provide you with more information on the material covered. Usually Web sites are listed because they are the quickest way to gather more material. Some chapters don’t have this list because there wasn’t more information that needed to be added.

In this handy book, you’ll find information on nicotine replacement therapies, including nicotine gum, the patch, lozenges, nasal spray, and inhalers. Although nicotine is very addictive, these nicotine replacement therapies work by providing nicotine to your body in a healthier way than smoking. The nicotine patch is the only therapy that provides a steady stream of nicotine to the body. Other therapies deliver the nicotine only when you use them. With the exceptions of the nasal spray and inhaler, you can find these products at most stores and don’t need a prescription.

You’ll also read about several medications you can try to help you quit. The most effective medication, according to the research, is Chantix. This new medication has been on the market for approximately four years and is the first medication specifically designed for smoking cessation. The most well-known medication for cessation is Zyban, which has been available for more than a decade, although reliable, head-to-head studies with Chantix show that Chantix works for more people. Several other medications have been shown to be effective as well but have not received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for smoking cessation. However, research has shown they can help, and you’ll find plenty of doctors who are willing to prescribe them if other options don’t work.

Two chapters are devoted to discussions on treatment centers, support groups, and quitlines. You will find that there are outpatient and inpatient treatment centers around the country. Similar to alcohol and drug rehabilitation facilities, these centers provide structured support for those wishing to stop smoking. You’ll learn that support can also be found in every state through a quitline—a telephone, and sometimes Internet, support service.

One section deals with cognitive behavioral therapy, a psychological approach to smoking cessation. Think of cognitive behavioral therapy as a problem-oriented approach: in order to develop healthier coping strategies, you focus on identifying triggers that lead you to smoke. It’s not one of those in-depth, talk-about-your-childhood approaches to treatment.

The chapter on psychological therapy also describes aversion therapy, a more controversial approach to smoking cessation because it involves punishment. The idea behind this is to equate smoking with a punishment (or negative consequences), which reduces or eliminates the rewards of smoking. Aversion therapy has fallen out of favor with most professionals, but it does work for some smokers.

You’ll also find a discussion on quitting cold turkey. This is also a controversial approach because overcoming a nicotine addiction is so difficult. However, there is research that shows quitting cold turkey does work. This approach involves using willpower, a key component to quitting regardless of the method used. Smokers will face obstacles when quitting and trying to remain smoke-free. It takes willpower to overcome obstacles and fight cravings and urges when they return.

Another option discussed in this book is enrolling in clinical trials for smoking cessation. There are hundreds of clinical trials around the country that are studying the effectiveness of medications, replacement therapies, and other strategies for smoking cessation. Some trials are designed to test new medications, while others conduct further studies on existing ones. Other trials evaluate alternative treatments