Twenty one MILLION people have successfully quit smoking.
SO CAN YOU, if you really want to! But HOW?
Where can you get the necessary strength fortitude, and willpower?
Here is the way that really works!
LET'S ADMIT the truth. All kinds of gadgets, gimmicks, potions and medicines have come on the market purporting to help the smoker quit smoking. None of them has proved 100% effective!
Gimmickry and gadgetry are not the answer. Pills, drugs, candy, chewing gum are not the answer. All these remedies miss the heart and core of the problem — the smoker himself, and his attitude!
Worse Than War
Smoking cigarettes has killed about three million Americans in the past ten years. In shocking contrast, only about 565,000 were killed in battle in all America's wars, including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam!
Smoking brings sickness, disease and disability to TWELVE MILLION Americans every year. In sobering contrast is the total number of wounded in ALL America's wars from 1776 to 1969 — a total of 1,500,000 wounded, or less than ONE EIGHTH the "casualties" due to smoking in JUST ONE YEAR!
Truthfully, it could be said that today war slays its thousands, but smoking slays its MILLIONS!
In Vietnam, it is considered a bad week of fighting if two hundred die. Smoking, however, strikes down over 800 Americans every single day!
The chances of dying in war are limited to those who are fighting on the battlefield. But smoking stealthily slays people in all walks of life, in the relative "safety" of their own homes!
How to ENJOY Life
Do you really want to enjoy life, its riches, thrills, and delights? Do you want to appreciate tantalizing aromas, the biting, crisp smell of fresh air, and the spicy scents of nature? Then stop smoking! Give your lungs a chance to repair themselves.
An astonishing thing happens when people stop smoking. Lung damage is reversed! Body defenses come into play and destroy pre-cancerous cells! The lungs gradually turn pink again. But just one or two cigarettes a day prevents the healing process — and so does switching to pipes or cigars.
In 1604 James I, King of England, published his famous Counterblast to Tobacco. He concluded the treatise by calling smoking "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."
A colorful description, no doubt. But today smoking has been PROVED beyond the shadow of a doubt to be loathsome, harmful, dangerous to the lungs — a serious public health MENACE!
Lame-Duck Excuses
A recent publication of the Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health estimated that 51 percent of men 17 years old or older are cigarette smokers and 34 percent of women. The most common consumption rate is between 11 and 20 cigarettes a day.
A pamphlet put out by the Public Health Service indicates that about 1.5 million Americans give up the smoking habit every year. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are now 21 million ex-cigarette smokers in the United States, including 100,000 physicians!
These figures ought to be very encouraging, if you are a smoker who wants to quit. It obviously can be done! But HOW?
Cigarette slaves come up with many foolish excuses why they continue to smoke.
One says, "I'll smoke until I get into trouble and then I'll quit and be okay." The trouble is, by the time the smoker knows he's "in trouble," he has waited too long to do anything about it — it's too late!
Another says, "No, I'm not going to give up smoking. I may die young, but I'll die happy." What confidence — but in what? Will he really "die happy"? He may think he's happy now, but he's ruining his life, missing out on the REAL PLEASURES of living and experiencing life minus the cigarette cough, the chronic illnesses from smoking, and the final agony of lung cancer or bronchitis!
But the usual excuse is similar to what one housewife said: "I'd like to give up cigarettes, but I can't. The habit is too strong." Or as another put it, "I'm concerned about the reports, but I've tried to stop and I couldn't."
A Kansas City switchboard operator declared, "I've known for a long time, smoking is terrible for your health, but I've never been able to quit. I don't suppose this will make any difference."
Another woman said, "I really think I shouldn't smoke, but it's kind of hard to quit. I'm going to think about it." And another who admitted she smoked three packs a day confessed, "I'm scared. I don't know if I can stop, but I will try — for the nth time."
Take a good look at these excuses for continuing to smoke — especially the last five who admitted they wanted to quit but felt they couldn't. WHY couldn't they? WHY were they virtually helpless slaves of the nicotine habit? WHY were they so pessimistic about quitting?
Perhaps YOU feel basically the same way. How, then, can YOU quit the tobacco habit?
Let's understand!
WHY Do You Smoke?
In order to conquer the smoking habit, you must be willing to face up to the REAL REASONS WHY you smoke.
Dr. Daniel Horn, director of the National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health, took a survey of some 5,000 smokers to uncover the reasons they smoked. He found that 10 percent used cigarettes as a stimulant, while 8 percent simply enjoyed lighting and handling a cigarette. From 30-40 percent used smoking to achieve a pleasant form of relaxation (there are MANY BETTER WAYS to relax!). Another 40-50 percent smoked to relieve anxiety and tension. Many of these, he found, go on to become addicted chain smokers!
The last category of smoker is the one finding smoking the most difficult to give up!
Forty percent of smokers are "heavy smokers" — they are compulsive smokers!
For them quitting is not so easy!
The Cigarette ADDICT
Smokers are addicts. So reports a study of brain waves of heavy smokers. Tobacco deprivation caused a drop in frequency of slow brain waves. Abstinence leads to an increase in fast waves of electrical activity in the brain, which explains why smokers who forego tobacco feel restless and unable to concentrate.
During the period of abstinence, the pulse slows and the blood pressure rises. These findings were confirmed independently by Dr. Henry B. Murphee, associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers. The conclusion: Heavy use of tobacco causes a TRUE ADDICTION, and is not merely a hard-to-break habit! (San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, May 11, 1969).
All regular smokers tend to develop some degree of dependence on tobacco, some to the point where significant emotional disturbances occur if they are deprived of its use (Smoking and Health, p. 350).
Why is this?
Says Dr. C. W. Lieb, "Botanically speaking, tobacco is a drug, a narcotic. And unlike alcohol or opium, its 'soothing' qualities do not take effect until the smoker has become addicted to it. The 'soothing quality' is in large measure a relief from the irritation caused by drug craving.
"Those who smoke, however, do not usually face up to realities so honestly" (Don't Let Smoking Kill You, p. 11).
Dr. Lieb asserted, "But nicotine is a drug, and as one continues to smoke, one gets used to it. One becomes, in a word, an addict who develops higher and higher thresholds of tolerance. The confirmed heavy smoker can handle amounts of nicotine that would poison a non-smoker" (p. 19).
Tobacco is not physically addicting, in the same way as heroin or cocaine or the barbiturates. Nevertheless, it is addicting in the sense of the user becoming DEPENDENT On it, craving its effect, becoming habituated to its use. The smoking habit becomes COMPULSIVE in some heavy smokers because of psychological dependence on it!
The cigarette addict, therefore, although not addicted in the same way as a heroin addict, does rely heavily on tobacco and thinks he cannot do without it. His mind is addicted to it.
The addict sometimes calls his cigarettes "coffin nails," or "gaspers." He might admit he smokes "like a furnace." He almost invariably begins his daily routine with a cigarette. His day begins with a cough, a gasp, and a lit cigarette between his teeth!
Such smokers may become addicted to smoking in the same way alcoholics become addicted to alcohol. To them, cigarettes seem to satisfy an urgent psychological need. The cigarette addict believes that smoking helps him keep calm under tension or in a stress-filled job. Because of this, it is very difficult for him to abandon the cigarette habit.
But even the "addicted" smoker can overcome and quit the habit. There is hope for all smokers!
The first thing to do is realize why you smoke. Then, you must think of all the reasons why you should NOT smoke. If you really try, and perhaps write them out on paper, you could think of dozens of good reasons why you should not smoke!
What are some of the reasons? First, of course, there is the threat of lung cancer or other fatal diseases; also, the nonsmoker has more energy and vitality to enjoy life; his mind can function better; he saves money. Other reasons to quit are to prove you have willpower; to set the right example for your children. When you stop smoking, your food will taste better. Your throat won't be continually clogged with phlegm. You will get rid of the hacking cigarette cough. Actually, you will gradually begin to feel MUCH LESS NERVOUS, even though that may seem hard to believe. The first few days after you quit, you might feel more nervous, but gradually the nervousness will diminish and you will be calmer and more poised.
Remember, smoking is actually a "crutch" to many people. It helps them "escape" stress and strain and tension. Smoking is one of the channels of ESCAPISM available to people, today, but which has a fatal KICK-BACK — a deadly BOOMERANG effect on the smoker!
When you quit smoking, you will begin to ENJOY life much more. Breathing fresh air will be a pleasure; smelling the wonderful odors of nature will tantalize your olfactory nerves. You will sleep better. No more danger of accidents, or fires in bed. No more ugly, smelly cigarette butts lying around the house.
ALL THESE THINGS will become yours, after you conquer and kick the cigarette habit — COMPLETELY!
Some of these blessings will come gradually. Some will become apparent very soon.
Think of these benefits from not smoking. Think of the gruesome COST of smoking. Form in your mind the strong desire, motivation, and RESOLVE to quit smoking!
Do these things, and you will have made a good beginning in stopping smoking. But there is more that you must do, if you want to make SURE that you completely overcome the vile, noxious habit.