More resources to quit smoking
You can do it, even if you have to do it a dozen times or more to make it stick. Half of all adults who ever smoked have quit for good.
That includes me. I've been smoke-free almost two years, but I used to fish my broken cigs out of the trash and tape them back together after failing time after time to quit for even 24 hours. I smoked a pack a day, at least, for 26 years.
Support, pills, nicotine replacement are the secret weapons
Nicotine replacement or prescription pills double your chances of quitting successfully, according to the non-profit health-information provider Healthwise.
Most experts also believe you need support as you say goodbye to your best friends, your cigarettes. For me, hypnosis did the trick, but to each his own.
You should join a support group if you want to toss the tar forever, said Joanne Graff, health educator for the Central District Health Department in Boise.
The Valley needs more to meet a growing demand, according to Kera Goold, lung-health program coordinator for the American Lung Association of Idaho.
Tom Foster, a respiratory therapist at West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, says he has helped 200 to 300 people quit smoking in free classes he teaches through Southwest District Health.
The most popular way to quit is cold turkey, but many smokers find adding a relatively new prescription medication called Chantix makes the turkey a little less cold.
Who still smokes?
Statistics show the percentage of Idaho smokers declining, but the state's statistics probably are a bit low, because they rely on the kind of reports that require people to tell the truth about their own bad habits.
"It's human nature not to want to admit to these faults we have, not to admit there are thousands and thousands of closet smokers just in this Valley alone" who smoke three or four cigarettes a day and can't bring themselves to totally stop, Foster said.
The percentage of Idahoans who admit to smoking dropped to 17.9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Rates haven't fallen much since last year, but have dropped substantially since 2000, when 22.3 percent of adults smoked, according to an Idaho report on choices people make that can harm their health.
Public-health officials in every state call those choices, to smoke or to avoid exercise, doctors and vegetables, "behavioral risk factors." They hire people to interview Idahoans about those factors, compile the data, create reports and hand the reports along to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create still more data.
The Idaho figures show smoking rates for men and women in Idaho vary little, and there is little difference among age groups, except that the oldest Idahoans are the least likely to smoke. In general, one of the biggest differences between smokers and nonsmokers is education. People with less education are more likely to smoke.
Some face-to-face support groups for you and fellow addicts.
All classes are free. Times and dates are missing, mainly because classes are offered when enough people sign up. Use the classes to rm yourself for the battle against the stigma, stench and sickness of cigarettes, because addictions are hard to beat.
Boise
- Central District Health Department tobacco cessation classes. Call the department at (208) 375-5211.
- Quit and Live Inc., run by nurse Nancy Caspersen. Call: (208) 342-0308. On the Net.
- Classes for youths: Call Michelle Wright at (208) 938-9380.
Mountain Home
- Mountain Home: Classes for youths. Call: (208) 587-4634.
Nampa, Caldwell, other West Treasure Valley areas
Tobacco Cessation: Provides free classes to help individuals stop smoking or chewing tobacco. Call: 455-5321.
Phone-based counseling
Idaho Quitline: Toll free, 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, a leading hospital for lung disease, contracts with Idaho to run the program. Find out more online. Under the contract, the hospital is supposed to take every smoker's initial call, run a referral system with health-care providers, call you five times for counseling within six weeks of your initial call, and develop customized educational materials for you if you are pregnant, a teen-ager or meet other special criteria.
Lung HelpLine: The Idaho Lung Association. 1-800-LUNGUSA. Ask questions directly or submit questions online. Registered nurses and registered respiratory therapists staff the line.
Information, please
Chew Free. Oregon Research Center, National Cancer Institute. This site is part of a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health to help people quit chewing tobacco or snuff.
Tobacco Cessation Guidelines, Office of the Surgeon General This Web site has guidelines and many materials for smokers who want to be ex-smokers.
Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention This Web site will help you get to many government resources for quitting smoking without having to look too hard.
Organizations
American Cancer Society Call: 1-800-ACS-2345 (1-800-227-2345). The American Cancer Society conducts educational programs and offers many services to people with cancer and their families. Staff at the toll-free number have information about services and activities in local areas.
American Lung Association of Idaho The association provides programs of education, community service, and advocacy. Some of the topics available include asthma, tobacco control, emphysema, asbestos, carbon monoxide, radon, and ozone.
National Cancer Institute, NCI Publications Office, 6116 Executive Blvd., Suite 3036A, Bethesda, MD 20892-8322. Call: 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) E-mail. The National Cancer Institute is a federal agency that provides up-to-date information about preventing, detecting and treating cancer. NCI also helps people with cancer and their families. It has information about clinical trials. The Cancer Information Service, a service of NCI, has trained staff members to answer questions and send free publications. Spanish-speaking staff members are available.