Stop Smoking: Secrets of Successful Quitters
Trying to quit smoking with willpower alone almost never works
Even a faceless online peer network can be effective. Logging onto the American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking message board is what finally worked for Heidi Norie, a 46-year-old mother of three from Vista, Calif. Having smoked for 30 years—at times more than two packs a day—she has been an ex-smoker since March of 2008. "When you're jonesing like crazy, there's almost always somebody there," she says. She recalls once typing "I don't think I can do this" with tears streaming down her face. The 15 posts she received in response got her through the moment. Norie also used Chantix for six weeks to help her quit, but she says, "I attribute my success more to the program than the medicine."
Now, Norie fights complacency, aware that smoking alters the brain—by developing more nicotine receptor sites, for example—which makes relapse a lifelong possibility. Recently, she says, two longtime ex-smokers returned to the message board because they had started up again. "They had moved on and stepped away from the board," Norie says. "It's scary." So, she visits her peers daily—often late at night if she can't sleep—to encourage newbies who are struggling. And to remind herself how far she's come.
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