How to Quit Smoking: Practice

A fundamental step in the process of learning how to quit smoking is plain old practice is a must. Smoking cessation can't be rushed, so try to relax and think of time as your quit buddy. The more of it that you put between you and that last cigarette you smoked, the stronger you'll become. We spent years learning to associate smoking with literally every activity in our lives, good, bad or indifferent. Unlearning those associations takes time and practice.

 So, it’s true that people quit smoking every day without the benefit of this forum. I believe, though, and I can’t imagine who would disagree, that support is vital to smoke-freedom for most. The articles that you can access from the site home and the posts here will reinforce your resolve. Education is key and essential for long-term success.

I’ll say it again…quitting smoking cigarettes is not easy. It’s exhausting at times, and there are mood swings and minds games, and it is all part of the process of becoming someone who is not a slave to cigarettes. Quitting smoking is not easy, but is it easier that living with or dying from a smoking-related illness. It can be tiring, but not as tiring as chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It takes some effort, but not as much effort as it takes some to try to take their next breath. If you are in your 20’s or 30’s and think you have decades to smoke before you do any real damage, please think again. It is about perspective, and as you progress through this process, your perspective will change. Mine has…for the better and forever.

We have become a society who demands instant gratification, and patience has gone by the wayside. I believe some things are still worth waiting for, and I KNOW that smoke-freedom is one of them. The veterans who stick around here do so because we know how great it feels to be smoke-free. It does get better, and it does get easier, and you owe it to yourselves to give yourselves however long it takes to feel good about being smoke-free.

So…rant, whine, scream…whatever it takes to get you from where you are to where you want to be, but PLEASE DON’T SMOKE! I promise that quitting smoking will not kill you, and if you let it, it can even be one of the most amazing experiences of your life.

Common habit as smoking and movies

Since media is one of the major factors that bring up a child’s mind, the authorities are anxious about the information the teens get from TV, radio, Internet. There are several filters that allow caring parents control the videos watched by children or block the websites that would bring wrong message to teens.
All the films have ratings according to which a parent can decide if it is ok to show the movie to children. There are strict rules for language, violence, drugs and sex in films, but what about such common habit as smoking?

The research made by Dartmouth Medical School and Norris Cotton Cancer Center shows that one-third of the American teenagers start smoking because they learn it from movies. “We found that as the amount of exposure to smoking in movies increased, the rate of smoking also increased,” says Dr. James Sargent, one of the leaders of the research.
The other studies show 38% of 6,500 American teens under 14 say they were initiated to smoke by the way it is featured in movies. Another interesting thing is almost all smokers start the habit at their teens, but only 50% of them have enough strength to give it up.
AMAA has been protesting trying to make Hollywood stop advertising the bad habit in so many pictures and making them rate the films with smoking at adult rating: R in the USA. Although Motion Picture Association of America promised in 2007 to do something about exposure of smoking, there has not been much result.
Such popular latest summer movies among the teenagers as The Dark Knight, The Incredible Halk and Iron Man feature actors smoking cigars. Out of top box-office or rental movies there are G-rated ones with smoking like: 102 Dalmations, Muppets from Space, Tarzan; and PG-rated Atlantis: The Lost Empire, George of the Jungle and The Rainmaker.
One of the main fighters for smoke free movies is American Medical Association Alliance (AMAA). According to their studies more than half of the films which are connected to children or teens show the characters smoking. In more than 25% of them the actors feature lighting cigars.
The study shows while in 2002 57% of G, PG and PG-13 have some kind of smoking episodes, in 2007 this number went down only to 49%. It is not that big of a difference and Hollywood has to do better than that.
While a child is growing up it is up to parents to show a good example and talk about the harmful effect smoking does to a person’s body. Just because Mother or Father smoke doesn’t mean they should let the children decide to chose for themselves whether to have this habit or not. The talks about tobacco and smoking influence on person’s everyday life should be done with children while it is possible and they are young enough to accept the right point of view.

Cigarette Sales Decline as TV Features Fewer Smokers

Annenberg Public Policy Center researchers make the case that fewer depictions of smoking on TV hastened the drop in cigarette sales.

In what they are calling the largest-ever study linking tobacco use to television, researchers on Thursday said that a decline in the depiction of characters smoking in TV shows has led to a significant drop in the sales of cigarettes.

Researchers analyzed 1,838 hours of primetime dramas on broadcast TV -- cable was excluded -- that aired from 1955-2010 and determined that, at its peak in 1961, there were 4.96 instances of tobacco use per hour of programming. In 2010, that had dropped to just 0.29 instances per hour.
The researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, after adjusting for the rising cost of cigarettes, concluded that each instance of tobacco use was associated with 38.5 fewer cigarettes sold per person, per year in the U.S.

The study makes that case that TV wasn't merely reflecting a drop in cigarette smoking, but in part causing the drop. The study determined this by attempting to adjust for the impact of TV commercials for cigarettes, which have were banned in 1971, as well as for the rising number of news reports about the harmful effects of smoking.
"We've been telling people for years that smoking is bad for their health, and it hasn't been working because it's so powerful an addiction, and on-screen portrayals of tobacco use is a powerful incentive to smoke," study co-author Dan Romer told The Hollywood Reporter.
"TV characters who smoke are likely to trigger the urge to smoke in cigarette users, making it harder for them to quit," added lead author Patrick Jamieson.
While researchers looked at all tobacco use -- including pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco -- all categories were lumped together and correlated with cigarette sales. Romer said, though, that roughly 90 percent of instances of "tobacco use" in the TV shows watched were, indeed, the smoking of a cigarette.
The study estimated that the decline in tobacco use on TV had almost half as much impact on smoking as did price increases -- as price increases led to a per capita decrease in cigarettes of 18 packs a year, while declining TV depictions can be credited for a per capita decrease of nearly nine packs annually.
For the study, researchers analyzed shows culled from the Top 30 primetime broadcasted dramas each year as measured by Nielsen, including such shows such as Dragnet, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Charlie's Angels, Miami Vice and ER.
"Hollywood can take credit for reducing smoking," Romer said. "On the other hand, it may have contributed to smoking by its portrayal on cable TV ... but we did not include that in our research."