- The other thing is is never give up on them.
The average tobacco user has nine serious quit attempts
before they are successful.
And for the average to be nine,
that means that there are a whole lot of people,
50% of the people who have quit,
who had a lot more quit attempts than nine
before they were successful.
So we need to always be patient with them...
and never give up on them.
Of course the other thing is never offer them cigarettes.
How many of you been around a smoker who is trying to quit
who turned into Attila the Hun?
Okay, I mean let's face it, what addiction is,
they get a little cranky on the inside of that
and I can't tell you how many well-meaning family members
have offered cigarettes to help them through the moment.
Let me tell you something about addiction.
Nicotine receptor sites are in every one of your brains.
Nicotine is in tomatoes, it's in potatoes,
it's in eggplants, all of you are exposed to nicotine
even if you never got around tobacco smoke
or tobacco itself.
But what has happened
with your family members who are users,
their brains have been altered over the years
by the production of billions and billions
of more nicotine receptor sites,
and those never go away.
If a person stops smoking today
and lives another 50 years,
and they do a brain-slicing on that person post-mortem,
they would not be able to tell that brain
from someone who had smoked a cigarette
one hour before they died.
That is why a user can never have one cigarette.
The moment they have the one cigarette,
all those billions of receptor sites wake up and say,
"Where are the other 19,
or the other 29 I used to smoke?"
So we always have to remember that
while it's very tempting to say,
gosh you were so good for two months,
you can have one to celebrate (laughs),
what you will be celebrating is a return to the behavior.
The other thing is,
whether you're the person trying to quit
or you're helping someone to quit,
is ask them what it is you need to do for them.
Now, I'm gonna give you an example.
I have some people who get very sad and very angry
at their families because their families
won't say anything to them about quitting.
And I try to explain to them that over time,
if you try to quit 100 times,
they're probably scared to say anything,
that it might jinx the quit.
But I really encourage our clients to always make sure
and say what it is you want.
If you want to have someone ask you every hour,
then tell them that.
If you want someone who's gonna go for a walk with you,
you need to tell them that.
Now, I was just the opposite when I was quitting.
I didn't want anyone to ask me how I was,
because every time they asked me,
it made me realize I was uncomfortable, you know?
I wanted my friends, and what I told them was,
if I wanna talk about it, talk with me,
but if I don't bring it up, let's not talk about it,
let's just do business as usual.
But sometimes people don't know to say that to you,
so you can be real helpful by asking them
what it is that you can do for support.
So in quitting tobacco, here are the best components
that are really important.
You have to have a quit date.
A nebulous, "I'm going to quit in the next two weeks"...
Have you ever noticed that when it comes to like dusting
you'll do it tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
and the next thing you know,
you have a half an inch of dust?
We are the masters of procrastination
and especially when it comes up to giving something
that you may not want to give up,
if you don't set a date for it,
it's just going to keep going into the future.