The Quit Smoking Report Ezine

The Quit Smoking Report 11/02/99
Published on the first and third Tuesday of each month

Brought to you by QuitSmoking.com - The Quit Smoking Company
http://www.quitsmoking.com

In this issue:

<> Letter from the Editor
<> Top 10 List
<> Featured Product: How to Quit Smoking Without
Willpower or Struggle
<> Guest Article: But I *Like* to Smoke
<> Smokers' Stories

You can read previous issues of The Quit Smoking Report on our
web site. Just visit: http://www.quitsmoking.com/ezine/

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Hello again everyone!

"Quit Smoking Season" is coming soon! Are you ready? What's Quit
Smoking Season? It's what I call this time of year because of
two things:

1. The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout is on
November 18th. The idea is that you quit for a 24 hour period,
then hopefully you commit to quitting for many more 24 hour
periods!

2. New Year's resolutions. One of the top resolutions people
attempt each year is to quit smoking. January 1st will be here
before you know it. Did you resolve to quit last January 1st?
Are you still smoking? Maybe you need to prepare a bit more this
year, so that you keep your resolution.

Make your plans today to quit sometime during this Quit Smoking
Season. Set a specific date upon which you will quit. MARK IT ON
YOUR CALENDAR! Plan on paper and in your mind what that day will
be like. Imagine yourself as a non-smoker. Decide on the methods
you will use to quit, whether it be cold turkey, nicotine
patches or gum or one of the many other products on the
QuitSmoking.com website. Get support from other smokers by
visiting the QuitSmoking.com Bulletin Board System here:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/bbs.htm

Read the articles that interest you here:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/quitinfo.htm

Then when your quit day comes, accept the commitment you've made
to yourself, and quit smoking!

This is your year to quit during Quit Smoking Season!

+++

Speaking of the Bulletin Board System (BBS), have you visited
lately? There's some very exciting things happening. Of course
you can get help when you have cravings or questions. But did
you every try to find love online? Two members of the BBS have
done just that--met, and fallen in love! I hope to tell their
story, or let them tell the story when they are ready. Watch for
more details!

The BBS provides very real help and heart. You owe it to
yourself to read and post messages. Visit:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/bbs.htm

+++

I have officially changed the name of The Quit Smoking Company
to QuitSmoking.com to more accurately reflect the online and
global nature of the website. Nothing has changed but the name.

+++

If this ezine can help a friend or loved-one to quit smoking,
please forward a copy to them and encourage them to subscribe.
Help them get better prepared for Quit Smoking Season too!

+++

Remember, you can read previous issues of The Quit Smoking
Report on our web site. Just visit:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/ezine/

Fred Kelley
fredk@quitsmoking.com
QuitSmoking.com - The Quit Smoking Company

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SMOKING TOP 10 LIST

Top 10 reasons Philip Morris finally admitted that cigarette
smoking is addictive.

10. Philip Morris admitted smoking is addictive to help the
government to persuade addictive personalities to switch from
pot and other illegal substances to a taxed drug that can be
bought anywhere but church and school.

9. So people know there's a cheap alternative to heroin.

8. So smokers will stop trying to quit.

7. He said it when he was delirious from withdrawal. His lawyers
wouldn't give him his cigarettes unless he confessed.

6. Philip Morris admitted that smoking is addictive in hopes of
creating laughter in the administrative offices to prevent
employees from wanting to sue them too.

5. It's all a big government conspiracy. They're trying to
distract people's attention while the government relocates the
martians that crashed at Roswell, New Mexico.

4. They changed their marketing campaign. They're now
implementing the "truth in advertising" approach!

3. Luke Skywalker used a Jedi mind trick to get the executives
to tell the truth.

2. April fools!

and the #1 reasons Philip Morris finally admitted that cigarette
smoking is addictive...

1. Hell just froze over.

The Top 10 Authors:
Brian Jeffers - 1
Kim Lawson - 2
Will Bright - 3
SDK - 4
John Aarons - 5
Terry Helmstetter - 6, 10
Randy Todd II - 7
Mary Arndt - 8, 9

Congratulations to the winners!

Want to participate? Anyone can send in their entry to the next
Top 10 list. You may send as many entries as you want. THEY
SHOULD BE FUNNY! For complete rules and details, visit the web
site at http://www.quitsmoking.com/top10/index.htm

Here's the next Top 10 List topic:
Top 10 reasons I started smoking.

Send your HUMOROUS entries to: [address removed - contest over]
Be sure to send me your name so I can give you credit.

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FEATURED PRODUCT: How To Quit Smoking Without Willpower or
Struggle

Mark Whalen, the author of this book, also writes this issue's
article. His book is the best selling book at QuitSmoking.com
because it cuts to the heart of how to quit without killing
yourself in the process. It takes the struggle out of quitting
and replaces it with a step-by-step examination of the habit and
approach to ending the habit.

Read Mark's article below and read samples from his book on the
website and see for yourself. You won't be disappointed!

[This book no longer available]

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GUEST ARTICLE: But I *Like* To Smoke
by Mark Whalen, Author
"How to Quit Smoking Without Willpower or Struggle"

http://www.quitsmoking.com/books/howtoquit.htm

But I *Like* To Smoke!

I hear that so much when the subject of quitting of smoking
cigarettes comes up. They always say it with such over-
enthusiasm that it's hard to believe them. Harder for me,
because I know that they are lying, and they don't even know it
themselves. They only think they like to smoke. Their bodies, if
they could talk without their brains, may have another take on
smoking completely.

But what the smokers are really saying to me is, "I like
satisfying my urge to smoke, and I've grown accustomed to the
taste and smell." What they like is that cigarettes are
dependable, handy, and contribute to the smoker's self-image.
I've even heard them called, "my best friend", by a man who knew
full well that this "friend" was killing him. Yet he made almost
rational excuses for continuing to smoke.

What originally attracted and ultimately addicted most of us to
smoking was not the physical act itself. Clearly, if that were
the case, we'd have enjoyed the first cigarette we smoked. It
would have given us the "pure pleasure" that the ads claimed it
would. But how many people do you know who truly enjoyed their
first cigarette and went on to become a pack a day smoker
immediately? I've never heard of one.

No, the first time was not pleasant for anyone. It was a
painful, nauseating, ugly experience for most. My throat hurt,
first from the smoke, then from the prolonged coughing that
followed. I became sick to my stomach, and had that green
feeling for hours. Brushing my teeth didn't seem to get that
taste out of my mouth.

But did I see the experience for what it truthfully was, and vow
never to do it again? Heck, no! I went on to overcome the
challenge to my better senses and became that pack a day smoker.
I figured if the rest of my gang could do it, I could too...or
die trying.

Which brings us to why we really began to smoke and why we
continue to smoke. What were we really after with that first
cigarette? Can we all agree it was not for the pleasure of the
"smoking experience"?

It was, I believe, mainly for three reasons. First, to appear
more mature than our looks and age would otherwise have others
estimate us. We thought, if I smoke like an adult, then I'll
look more like an adult. And that was true...but only to the
other children our age and younger. The real adults saw us
smoking and said to themselves, look how young that kid with the
cigarette is.

Second, smokers look sexy. At least that's the way they were
portrayed to me at every turn when I was growing up. All from
John Wayne to Liz Taylor to James Dean have had moments in film
when the cigarette played an important role toward projecting
that sexuality the director was looking for in that shot. Wayne
even did commercials for cigarettes. And if "The Duke" said it
was good, who was a thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old to say
or think differently? Posing with a cigarette...pure sexy...or
at least it used to be.

Third is the one I alluded to above. To be accepted by our
peers. If everyone in your group smoked, you were definitely the
odd man out if you didn't. It was fun to be part of an illicit
group act. To jointly rebel by breathing smoke from fire.

But now, all these years later, how valid are those original
reasons to smoke? How much is the "liking" to smoke still based
in those original reasons? What if none of those reasons are
valid any longer? What does that mean now? Is the smoker saying
they like being addicted to nicotine, and smelling offensively
to those around them who do not smoke?

What I believe is that even though the original reasons for
beginning to smoke have long since expired, they are still the
driving force behind our smoking. They are programs still
running in our subconscious to justify and validate the
ridiculous behavior of breathing toxic smoke from poisonous
weeds wrapped in paper chemically treated to keep the fire
going. Without them, we would really have no reason to smoke, no
motivation.

But do we realize this on a conscious level? No, obviously we do
not. When we even consider why we continue to smoke, we say it
is because we're addicted to the nicotine, and it's too
difficult to break free.

I think that's nonsense. How can we be addicted to nicotine
that's not been in our systems for years, decades? Yet many
smokers relapse into their old habits, and at their old levels
of consumption after any number of years. Recently I heard of a
man abstaining for twenty years, and was back to a pack a day
within three days of his return to cigarettes. Couldn't have
been nicotine addiction, could it?

I've heard that nicotine is more addictive than heroin. In fact,
I recently saw a survey of one thousand long-term heroin addicts
who were also long-term smokers, who were asked that specific
question. I seem to remember that about 40% said that they could
quit heroin easier than cigarettes. Seems like an awfully
powerful drug, doesn't it?

Yet here's a postulation. Take any number of subjects who are
neither addicted to heroin or nicotine, and put two patches on
each. One will be a measured dose of heroin, the other nicotine,
each calculated to addict. After one month, I believe every
single one of the test subjects would rather give up the
nicotine patch before the heroin patch. Why? Because the
nicotine isn't doing anything for them. There is no real "high"
from nicotine.

So what is it that's so addicting? I believe it's the craving to
meet those needs established by those original three reasons,
which are still running inside us. We still want to appear
mature, sexy, and fit in. We were committed to achieve that by
smoking. We are still committed to those reasons. But we never
think about that anymore. We just act it out.

What can be done? Then what's the answer? It's this. Stop those
old programs from running in our subconscious. Rethink the
reasons. And not just once or twice. These programs have been
running a long time, and reinforced by smoking hundreds of
thousands of times. It doesn't take hundreds of thousands of
reprogramming events to change or delete those old programs.
When the body is moving toward relief from pain, it tends to
take greater strides than it will toward it. Smoking is painful,
even if the smoker cannot feel that pain any longer.

Sometimes changing one's mind at its core can be experienced in
a blazing epiphany in a flash of a moment. But not often. The
type of change to lose the urge to smoke generally consists of
acts not monumental, but incremental. Bit by bit, piece by
piece, those reasons can be removed from the subconscious. Once
that's done, there is no reason left to smoke, therefore no
urge.

The difference between just stopping smoking and removing the
reasons for smoking is the difference between being a smoker
living in denial and truly being a non-smoker. The first has
urges that are constantly denied. The second never has an urge
because they never have a reason creating one.

No matter how much a person says they like to smoke, I've never
found one who didn't like NOT smoking even more.

We cannot change the past, but we can change the way we remember
it, and how those memories affect our lives today.

Mark Whalen
November 1, 1999

Read more of Marks writings here:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/books/howtoquit.htm

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never light up again. Not just for my own health, but for my
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Get full details at our web site.
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SMOKERS' STORIES

If you can help these folks with your suggestions please send
them email.

Samantha Wallace <srwallace@hotmail.com> writes:
Subject: My story

I'm an asthmatic who has smoked for nearly 15 years. My parents
were both chain smokers, and yet my one and only sister is anti
it. I've somehow try and convince myself that it doesn't affect
my asthma (saying things like "I had asthma before I smoked"),
but after each puff on my pump, I know I'm only fooling myself.
It is so embarrassing for me when people find out that I have
asthma and yet I smoke, that I hide the fact that I have it -
After a heavy social night of smoking, I sneak off to the toilet
for a quick puff on my pump, just so people won't notice that
I'm wheezing. I often think that I must be subconsciously trying
to commit suicide, because I know that smoking is slowly killing
me. I know what it's like not to be able to breath, and yet I
still cannot find the will power to stop for good. When I am
having chesty days, all I do is smoke a menthol brand instead.
I've tried so often to quit that I'm scared of another failed
attempt. (My longest break was 3 months) My biggest obstacle is
that my husband smokes too, but the good news is that we have
decided to quit together come November. We will be moving to a
new house then and have both agreed that we want it smoke-smell
free, so I'm praying that we will be able to do it and that with
his support, this time I can truly quit for good!!! In the
meantime, I'm preparing myself mentally and reading up on all
the tips and products that work, so that we will be well
equipped and fully prepared for the battle...
Regards,
Samantha

+++

Mary <m.miller@uclan.ac.uk> writes:

Hi there!

Right my story is that for the past three months somebody, in
the shape of my girlfriend me thinks, signed me up to the quit
smoking report and to be truthful I had wondered who these finks
were. However may I say that reading your reports has inspired
me and I am now off the cigs for 7 days today(hard work!). I am
25 and I have smoked for 10 years and I believe it is getting
harder to quit. What's the story anyway? it used to be that
someone like myself who only smoked on average 10cigs a day
could give up with relative ease whereas when I don't smoke for
one day now it sends me into micro convulsions and I become a
raving lunatic who goes in into regular sweats.

You've asked people to give you funny reasons for not giving up
cigs well I have got one, its the hardest thing you'll ever do,
like trying to have a large rhino cybling shoved sideways up
your left nostril until only its little grey tails shows and
when it cries its whole extended family decide to go up there
and try to rescue it, in a jeep!!

cheers for now
marty

+++

Carline McGreger <c.mcgreger@worldnet.att.net> writes:
Subject: Seven Days & Counting

Hi, My name is Carline. I have been smoke free for the past
seven days. I am a smoker of 33 years. I have tried to quit
several times to no avail. It seemed that every time I got to
the last cigarette I would go into a panic. Rush to the store to
get another pack or carton. Then I would be satisfied like a
child with a piece of candy.

But last week I woke up to LIFE. I had a sudden heart attack
after getting to work. I had just smoked a cigarette fifteen
minutes before this happened. I never expected this to happen to
me. I felt fine one minute and the next minute I'm having heart
surgery.

So since then I have felt like I woke up to life. I still want a
cigarette after eating dinner, but I push it out of my mind and
do things to keep me busy. I realize that life can be short and
I'm thankful to God that I'm still here to send this message to
all of you that are trying to quit. I know how hard it is, but
quit before it makes you quit. My prayers are with all of you
and hope that you all will succeed in quitting smoking.

If you would like to e-mail me please feel free to do so. I know
I will still need the encouragement to keep me smoke free and
counting the days.

Good Luck to you all.

Carline c.mcgreger@worldnet.att.net

Want to read more stories from successful quitters? Order a copy
of "The Last Puff - Ex-Smokers Share the Secrets of Their
Success". Read the fascinating success stories and interviews of
30 ex-smokers. For more information and to order visit:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/books/lastpuff/index.htm

====================

Where's your story? I'd sure like to share it with the other
subscribers to this email list. Submit Your Smoker's Story

I hope to hear from you!

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You can find additional helpful quit smoking tips and
information at http://www.quitsmoking.com/quitinfo.htm

While you're there, take a look at our products page at
http://www.quitsmoking.com/products.htm for some helpful
quit smoking tools.

Read and post messages: http://www.quitsmoking.com/bbs.htm
Quit Smoking Cartoons: http://www.quitsmoking.com/cartoons/
Quit Smoking Chat: http://www.QuitSmokingChat.com
i-quit-smoking.com email: http://www.i-quit-smoking.com

The QuitSmoking.com web site is a part of the growing
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your own Internet business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Until next time, SET YOUR QUIT DATE,

Fred Kelley

Next Issue: 11/16/99

QuitSmoking.com - The Quit Smoking Company
Phone: 770-346-9222
Fax: 770-475-5007
Web: http://www.quitsmoking.com
Email: mailto:fredk@quitsmoking.com

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© Copyright 1999 Fred H. Kelley
This email may be freely distributed and forwarded
as long as the entire email remains intact.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor or professional therapist.
The information included in this email is my opinion and the
opinions of the people sending in their comments.
Fred Kelley and QuitSmoking.com make no warranties, either
expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the
contents of The Quit Smoking Report.

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