GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT: Every year on the third Thursday of November Smokers are encouraged to take part in the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smoke-Out". It's an effort to encourage smokers to try and stop smoking for one day and hopefully kickstarts the desire to stop smoking altogether. Red River Radio News visited a smoking cessation group counsel session held at WKHS in Shreveport recently to ask smokers to tell their story in trying to kick the smoking habit. "George" has several health issues that prompted him to quit smoking. "I did at least a pack of cigarettes a day and then got
down to about half." George recently had dental surgery and reduced his smoking even more to just three cigarettes a day, and added" and I want to make it because I'm hoping my grand-daughter will eventually give me great-grandchildren." George added that he feels better and has less "guilt factor too!" And guild is an important component to understand as there's that type of guilt that smokers feel because they feel they may not overcome the process. There's also the guilt that's sometimes forced on smokers by non-smokers who simply can't understand what they're going through. We spoke to another smoker who didn't want to use her name and she explained "Non-smokers, they just don't get it. They feel you should just put those (cigarettes) down, no, no you can't! You can't put it down, it's mentally habit-forming, it's addicting, and you just can't put it down." She explains that people react a certain way about her smoking habit. "They're real judgemental sometimes, I shrug it off but it's sometimes hurtful." As with any addiction, part of the treatment program
is finding support from family, friends, co-workers and even strangers. Smoking cessation programs work because if for nothing else, they provide support. Jarrod Mitchell, Tobacco Treatment Clinic Coordinator for Willis-Knighton Health System explains. "Whether it's an initiative like this or anything else, anytime we have someone walking beside us doing things, it helps out so much, giving us someone to lean on and gives us support to help us get over that final hump." There's all sorts of programs that can help you quit smoking but the important thing is to get started somewhere. A good place to start is the American Cancer Society's website: http://cancer.org and search for the Great American Smoke-Out to learn of resources and tools to help quit smoking.
