Encouraging people to be quitters

I volunteered last week at the Great American Smokeout at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We had great turnout, actually -- I say "actually" because when I smoked, I sure as heck steered clear of booths like that! They just made me feel guilty. I often felt guilty as a smoker, like I was a big fat loser.

I eventually learned to think of myself a big fat loser with an addiction -- OK, not really, but I did learn to think of myself as an addict -- through Northwestern's fantastic smoking cessation program. No, I don't work for Northwestern! I am just a huge fan of Carol Southard, who runs the program, and of course the 8-week program itself. It was Carol who, more than three years ago, told me during our first conversation to stop feeling guilty and beating myself up, that I had an addiction and it was time to treat smoking as an addiction. That conversation changed my life!

A lot of folks who stopped by are trying to get co-workers or their teen-aged (or grown) kids to kick the habit. We had some smokers stop by, too, fresh off a smoke break, God love 'em. Most of us volunteers had quit and we shared our quit stories with each other and with folks who stopped by.

There was one woman who stopped by who gave us pause. She was so unpleasant -- OMG, if she had been my friend back in my smoking days I swear I would have smoked even more. As she walked up to the table she began railing on how much she couldn't stand smoking or smokers. (I agree with her now about smoking, I hate-hate-hate the smell of it now, but I don't hate the people who do it). Anyway, she was going on and on about how dumb it was for people to continue to smoke when it was "easier" than ever to quit, which is bullshit. I learned in the smoking cessation program that cigarettes have a lot more nicotine in them now than 20 years ago -- so before the days of Chantix, nicotine patches, etc., it was actually easier to quit then. Crazy!

(P.S., I've run two marathons and eight half marathons since quitting. Let me tell you,  quitting is harder than doing a marathon!!)

The experience reminded me of how I grew away from a judgmental friend who was constantly on my butt about smoking, even though I seldom ever did it around her. It's like, I know, I was doing something awful here, but it's an addiction that I needed help with, not lectures from friends, you know? Ugh. I hated the judging.

The woman last week said she did have a friend who smokes and picked up a bunch of anti-smoking literature to give to her. I gotta admit, I shudder for that poor friend. I hope she can find people who will really help her quit and not let that "friend" make her feel worse than she probably does/