Motivation to Quit

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By Sam Ibraham

You already know what I am going to say. Likely the same thing your wife, husband, daughter, son, brother, uncle, friend, your healthcare provider, and spot the dog have told you for years….. “You Need to Quit Smoking!”

The central idea idea has not been your own and this is part of the root cause. So lets looks at both sides in an objective fashion. For those who do not smoke it is more important for them to understand that smoking is an addiction and has a legitimate physiological and psychological impact that cannot be denied. For those that do no smoke we ask your patience and understanding that quitting requires motivation and some serious professional and personal support.  Also remember it is not that smokers will not quit, many times it is that they cannot quit!

Jane Doe*, 86 years old, a mother of 5, and grandmother of 11 comes to see me after over 60 years of being a 1.5 pack per day smoker and today has decided to quit. You may have a visual image of this woman now and our human nature tends to stereotype this scene. As you may have visualized a woman beyond her stated age, years of muscle wasting, stained finger nails and tissues, hoarse voice, and notably wheezy. Now comes the big question weighing on your mind “why now?”.

Smoking cessation as we term it in the the healthcare business is a complex interplay of psychological and physiological mechanisms that must be understood to help the people that matter most (you) to quit.  The following are stages that I and your doctors/healthcare providers have recognized that you proceed through and advise you accordingly:

  1. pre-contemplation: your not thinking about quitting, but you weigh the risks and benefits of it. If the risks outweigh the benefits you progress to the next stage.
  2. contemplation:  part of your wants to quit, but your not quite ready to give up the pleasure of cigarettes. When the negative risks outweigh everything you proceed to the next stage.
  3. preparation: an important step where you identify the triggers to smoking, plan ways to avoid the triggers, coping mechanisms, and staring to get together support mechanism to give you a psychological advantage.
  4. action: here is where you walk the talk and put into place your intentions with all the motivation and effort you have summoned from within. I have furnished my patients with stop smoking medications and other effective treatment in addition to the rehearsed plan. This phase is difficult due to cravings, irritation, and withdrawal from the physical and psychological aspects of smoking.
  5. maintenance and relapse: your at the checkered flag and the race is over!  Not quite. Unfortunately maintenance is just as important as the process itself. The longer you are smoke free the more confident you will become in maintaining it. You will continue to need to watch over yourself and gain support until you are self-sufficient. An occasional check-in to your support mechanism and healthcare provider is a good idea.

So Jane Doe, has for years contemplated smoking cessation and her reasons to quit even after 60 years are primarily for herself, as they should be for you. She never cited that she was doing it for her children or grandchildren, but herself!  This was the indicator of true readiness.  Realize that on average you may fail at smoking cessation 5-7 times before you quit for good, this should not be a discouraging factor but rather realistic expectations on your way to success, so failure is part of the process.

So the story ends, or is it now beginning for you or someone you know?  The choice and motivation to stop smoking needs to come from within to be a lasting change.

Here’s to your health and wellness.  Until next time.

*Names used in this blog are for illustrative purposes and do not reflect real names of people.