- So setting a quit date is very important.
And why do you think, not only just because it acts,
but what else does setting a quit date do?
What happens in your head when you know
something's set for a particular date?
What?
- [Woman] You want to do it more.
- Yeah.
Okay, well, that is true.
Right before quit date, people may smoke a little bit more.
But what does it do for you when you know on a specific date
something's gonna happen?
It gives you time to prepare!
One minute you're gung ho and happy as all things,
and the next minute it's like oh my gosh,
I don't want to do this.
How can I get out of it?
That's called ambivalence.
And ambivalence is healthy.
We need that.
If I've got someone who comes up to me
and tells me they're perfectly okay
and they're ready to quit right this minute
and they have absolutely no qualms
that they're gonna be able to quit,
I can almost guarantee that that person
will be back to smoking in 48 hours.
Because why?
They haven't done any of the feelings, and the angst,
and the giving up, and resolving
and refining their motivation.
And so that's really important with the quit date.
It gives them time to go through that process
that we go through with other things.
Get a support system in place.
A support system is you.
Letting them know that you love them
and that you're there to do whatever you can do.
Or if it's you who needs the support system, you know,
knowing that there's someone you can call up
who's going to say, by the way,
when you call up and say, I really, really want a cigarette,
who's not going to say no, you really don't.
Have you ever had someone tell, you know what,
you're on a diet, I really want ice cream.
No you don't.
Well, you wouldn't have said it
if you didn't want it, right?
So we don't want to say no you don't.
What you want to say is, gee, sounds like you're having
a tough time.
And you know what, most of the time,
that will take care of that urge right there.
Yeah, I am, you know?
A car cut in front of me on the highway
and it scared me and all I could think
of is I wanted to have a cigarette.
And just being able to have that conversation,
by the way, doesn't just apply to cigarettes
but almost everything, right?
We don't wanna argue with peoples' feelings.
Throw away tobacco products.
I have to tell you a little story
about one of my most favorite
older adult clients I ever had.
She had to quit.
You know, and actually, no one ever has to quit,
you just have to be willing to accept consequences
if you don't quit.
But she decided she had to quit.
But she was absolutely terrified to lose her cigarettes,
to throw 'em away.
So she told me she was going to put 'em away
and she wouldn't smoke 'em, but she was quitting,
but they would be there, and that would be
kind of like her safety security thing, right?
Well, of course, what happened after 24 hours?
Went right through that whole pack.
So we set another quit date and I tried to get her
to give me her cigarettes, and she said,
"No, I have to have them."
So this time, Linda was smart.
I came with a roll of duct tape.
And I duct tape that pack of cigarettes
into a ball about this big.
I thought, that way, it's safe.
She still has it, but that's gonna be a lot of work
for her to get through that duct tape.
Quit date came.
She lasted 48 hours and then, instead of going to the store
and buy another pack of cigarettes,
she took a knife and cut that duct tape
off that pack of cigarettes and smoked the whole thing.
So she came back and said, "Let's try again."
I said, are you gonna put the cigarettes away?
"Nope, I have to have 'em."
This time I had the whole roll of duct tape.
And I made, it was a pack of cigarettes
in a ball about like this, and I asked her to put it
in the freezer because I thought maybe it'd make it
harder to cut through.
When it thawed out, it would be gooey and stuff, but.
Bottom line is, if you have cigarettes,
you will smoke them, you know?
She did cut through 'em and smoked the whole thing.
Now, the good story is she did eventually quit smoking.
But it wasn't until she finally resolved
that she couldn't have cigarettes in the house.
Know triggers.
Triggers are those things like talking on the phone.
If they're trying to quit smoking
and they're a big phone talker,
what might be a solution for that?
Stay off the phone for a while.
Call up all your friends and say, you know what,
I'm trying to quit smoking, I'm not gonna be callin' ya
and talking for half an hour every night.
Because that's just gonna be a trigger
until they're getting used to learning new behavior.
Drink lots of water and juice.
Why would that one be a big one for quitting tobacco?
Cleaning out the body, absolutely.
If a person smokes 20 years, pack a day,
they got a quart of tar in their lungs.
It's gonna take a while for that to be cleared out.
There's another reason, though.
Huh?
- [Woman] Keep your hand and mouth busy.
Keep your hand and mouth busy, exactly.
They're used to doing this 200 times a day.
If you take the cigarettes away,
they still want to do this.
What do you think they're gonna do with it instead?
And usually it's gonna be sugars
because remember nicotine's a suppressant
for simple carbohydrates.
So all of a sudden, tobacco users who never liked chocolate
turn into chocolate fiends.
And that's two reasons.
It's sugar, and the other thing is cocoa
has the same effect on the brain
as nicotine, it's just at a smaller level.
And so somehow they know that if they have cocoa,
they'll have a similar effect.
The other thing is, is when we look at successful people,
people who are successful at quitting,
most of them implement an exercise program
as part of the quitting process.
So they're getting out, moving.
So if you have a loved one that you're trying to get
quit smoking, go for a walk in the blizzard.
I mean, today, you don't even have to move from the spot.
You just face the wind and it will just blow you
and you can walk in place, you know?
So, but start an exercise program.
And rewards.
We are big in rewards.
We actually set a reward schedule.
At 48 hours, they get a reward.
At 1 week they get a reward.
Two weeks, one month, you know, three months,
whatever is important to the person.
And by the way, rewards do not have to be food.
They don't have to be big monetary things.
Quite often, a reward, especially for the women
at the first week is a hot bath with quiet music
and reading a book.
Some of them will have a glass of wine.
But you know, whatever, we often don't encourage
people to have alcohol within three weeks of having quit.
We are here to help you at the Tobacco Consultation Service.
If you are someone who needs to quit,
or you have a loved ones who needs to quit,
I really encourage you to give us a call.
We actually do pretty well.
And if people don't quit with us,
they do feel comfortable to come back when they are ready.