Quitting The Habit

"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it a hundred times."
So said humorist Mark Twain when he tried to kick his huge cigar habit back in the late 1800s.
And that phrase has resonated with smokers who have tried to do the same thing ever since.
Just ask Rebecca Weathers and Joel Kelly.
Both successfully stopped smoking after attending the county's Freedom from Smoking Course. Both "fell off the wagon" and started up again recently.
But they are determined to quit again. Both say they want to regain control of their lives once more and stop letting nicotine run their lives.
Weathers and Kelly plan to enroll in the next Freedom from Smoking class starting Tuesday. This time, they say it will be different.

Rebecca's Story

Rebecca, 46, attended the county's smoking cessation course six years ago and says she started reaping the benefits almost immediately. She felt better and no longer lived for those smoke breaks.
She tried to avoid situations that placed her in close contact with smokers or environments where smoking was prevalent.
Two months ago, she started up again after going to a local dance club. The people she hung out with were smokers.
Pretty soon, she says, the old urges returned.
"I kept smelling it and just watching them doing it and I asked them, 'Can I try one of those?'
"They tried to talk me out of doing it but I did it anyway."
Now, the 46-year-old is back to a pack a day.
"I'm feeling bad," Rebecca says. "I can't believe it took over my life again."

Rebecca hopes the classes will help her regain control.

"(Nicotine) starts to rule your life," she says. "You have to figure out what restaurants you can go to or the people you're with - if you can sneak out and have a cigarette. If my family knew that I was smoking again, they'd probably get really angry with me."

Rebecca tried to quit New Year's Day. That didn't last long.

"I just couldn't," she says. "I finally went over to the next-door neighbor's house to borrow a pack of cigarettes because I wanted one so badly."

Rebecca has another reason to stop smoking. As purchasing agent for the county health department, "it looks pretty bad when the health department crew is outside smoking," she says.

Because Rebecca has been through the smoking cessation program before, she knows it can work.

She intends to make it through the second time and not suffer a relapse.

Joel's Story

Joel Kelly, 64, was one of the most enthusiastic graduates of the 2007 Freedom from Smoking program.

Joel started smoking Camels when he was a mere 13 years old because, back then, it was the "cool" thing to do.

Fifty years later, the habit wasn't so cool anymore and Joel wanted to be nicotine-free.

When he graduated, he intended to stay that way. And he did for 10-and-a-half months.

"My sense of smell and taste came back," Joel says. "I was breathing better. I slept better. All the benefits that they promised you came true."

Then, in Joel's words, "I destroyed it all."

When a friend lost his home, Joel let him move in. The only problem was, his friend "smoked like a chimney" when he sat out on Joel's lanai.

"I just constantly watched someone else smoking, and the temptation was just too great," he recalls. "One day, I told him to give me a cigarette and he gave me a cigarette. I told myself, 'I can have one and not go back. I'm stronger than that."

Turns out he wasn't.

That one cigarette turned into another and pretty soon he was hooked again. Now he's up to about 20 a day.

All the things he learned from the cessation program went out the window.

Once again, he can't sleep. His clothes reek of smoke. He knows it's ruining his health.

"I felt proud of myself (when I quit)," Joel says. "I want to get it back."

If not for himself, for his daughter who, he says, "is very excited about me going back."

"I have all the incentive in the world," Joel says. "Now, it's up to me."

A Hard Habit To Break

Ann-Gayl Ellis, public information officer for the Hernando County Health Department, says "mental conditioning" plays a pivotal role in quitting smoking.

That's why the Freedom from Smoking program devotes three meetings leading up to "quit day" trying to learn each person's "triggers," or what prompts them to light up.

And that varies by individual, Ellis says.

Some may be tempted to smoke during a phone conversation, or after a good meal or at certain stress times.

Rebecca says one of her triggers occurred when she wrote letters to friends and relatives. For some reason, that produces stress and makes her crave cigarettes, she says.

For Joel, it was the after-dinner trigger.

Ellis says it is not unusual to hear stories about people resuming the habit after going months or years smoke-free.

"It's just such a hard addiction and not many people are really successful at any one time," she says.

The average person will quit six times before they finally stay clean, she says.

Ellis says the success rate of the cessation program is about 40 percent. That means four out of 10 people will complete the entire course successfully.

Based on one-year follow-up phone calls with those graduates, about 20 percent of them say they are still not smoking, she says.

"That's why we encourage people to keep trying to quit because eventually, it works for most people," Ellis says.

And Ellis should know.

She is an ex-smoker, clean for 16 years.

"It was hard for me because I enjoyed it so much," Ellis says. "But I said, 'I'm in health care and this is silly.' There's no way I can do both."

Ellis says she quit using this same Freedom from Smoking course, which allows people to bond and form strong support groups.

So far, about 13 people have signed up for this latest course. But there's room for more, Ellis says.

"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times."

So said humorist Mark Twain when he tried to kick his huge cigar habit back in the late 1800s.

And that phrase has resonated with smokers who have tried to do the same thing ever since.

Just ask Rebecca Weathers and Joel Kelly.

Both successfully stopped smoking after attending the county's Freedom From Smoking course. Both "fell off the wagon" and started up again recently.

But they are determined to quit again. Both say they want to regain control and stop letting nicotine run their lives.

Weathers and Kelly plan to enroll in the next Freedom from Smoking class starting Tuesday.

This time, they say it will be different.

Rebecca's Story

Rebecca, 46, attended the county's smoking cessation course six years ago and says she started reaping the benefits almost immediately. She felt better and no longer lived for those smoke breaks.

She tried to avoid situations that placed her in close contact with smokers or environments where smoking was prevalent.

Two months ago, she started up again after going to a local dance club. The people she hung out with were smokers. Pretty soon, she says, the old urges returned.

"I kept smelling it and just watching them doing it and I asked them, 'Can I try one of those?

"They tried to talk me out of doing it but I did it anyway.'

Now, the 46-year-old is back to a pack a day.

"I'm feeling bad," Rebecca says. "I can't believe it took over my life again."

Rebecca hopes the classes will help her regain control.

"(Nicotine) starts to rule your life," she says. "You have to figure out what restaurants you can go to or the people you're with - if you can sneak out and have a cigarette. If my family knew that I was smoking again, they'd probably get really angry with me."

Rebecca tried to quit New Year's Day. That didn't last long.

"I just couldn't," she says. "I finally went over to the next-door neighbor's house to borrow a pack of cigarettes because I wanted one so badly."

Rebecca has another reason to stop smoking. As purchasing agent for the county health department, "it looks pretty bad when the health department crew is outside smoking," she says.

Because Rebecca has been through the smoking cessation program before, she knows it can work.

She intends to make it through the second time and not suffer a relapse.

Joel's Story

Joel Kelly, 64, was one of the most enthusiastic graduates of the 2007 Freedom from Smoking program.

Kelly started smoking Camels when he was a mere 13 years old because, back then, it was the "cool" thing to do.

Fifty years later, the habit wasn't so cool anymore and Joel wanted to be nicotine-free.

When he graduated, he intended to stay that way. And he did for 10-and-a-half months.

"My sense of smell and taste came back," Joel says. "I was breathing better. I slept better. All the benefits that they promised you came true."

Then, in Joel's words, "I destroyed it all."

When a friend lost his home, Joel let him move in. The only problem was, his friend "smoked like a chimney" when he sat out on Joel's lanai.

"I just constantly watched someone else smoking, and the temptation was just too great," he recalls. "One day, I told him to give me a cigarette and he gave me a cigarette. I told myself, 'I can have one and not go back. I'm stronger than that."

Turns out he wasn't.

That one cigarette turned into another and pretty soon he was hooked again. Now he's up to about 20 a day. All the things he learned from the cessation program went out the window.

Once again, he can't sleep. His clothes reek of smoke. He knows it's ruining his health.

"I felt proud of myself (when I quit)," Joel says. "I want to get it back."

If not for himself, for his daughter who, he says, "is very excited about me going back."

"I have all the incentive in the world," Joel says. "Now, it's up to me."

A Hard Habit To Break

Ann-Gayl Ellis, public information officer for the Hernando County Health Department, says "mental conditioning" plays a pivotal role in quitting smoking.

That's why the Freedom from Smoking program devotes three meetings leading up to "quit day" trying to learn each person's 'triggers,' or what prompts them to light up.

And that varies by individual, Ellis says.

Some may be tempted to smoke during a phone conversation, or after a good meal or at certain stress times.

Rebecca says one of her triggers occurred when she wrote letters to friends and relatives. For some reason, that produces stress and makes her crave cigarettes, she says.

For Joel, it was the after-dinner trigger.

Ellis says it is not unusual to hear stories about people resuming the habit after going months or years smoke-free.

"It's just such a hard addiction and not many people are really successful at any one time," she says.

The average person will quit six times before they finally stay clean, she says.

Ellis says the success rate of the cessation program is about 40 percent. That means four out of 10 people will complete the entire course successfully.

Based on one-year follow-up phone calls with those graduates, about 20 percent of them say they are still not smoking, she says.

"That's why we encourage people to keep trying to quit because eventually, it works for most people," Ellis says.

And Ellis should know.

She is an ex-smoker, clean for 16 years.

"It was hard for me because I enjoyed it so much," Ellis says. "But I said, 'I'm in health care and this is silly.' There's no way I can do both."

Ellis says she quit using this same Freedom from Smoking course, which allows people to bond and form strong support groups.

So far, about 13 people have signed up for this latest course. But there's room for more, Ellis says.