It’s that time of the year, the third Thursday of November is known as the Great American Smokeout. In 1977, the American Cancer Society launched this event to encourage smokers to quit for 24 hours. This event has helped people to learn about the many tools that they can use to help them quit and stay quit. For some of you this may be your quit date, and for others it may just be a day on the calendar, either way we are glad you stopped by the blog to see what the Ex community has to offer.
I am curious; it has now been 40 years since they launched the event, what are your thoughts on the Great American Smokeout?
For more information visit the Center for Disease Control: Get Ready...Set...Quit! Great American Smokeout | Features | CDC
Personally, I HATED the day and the idea of it when I was a smoker. It was in the same "Ignore" category as people who nagged me to quit. You can't MAKE a person quit. They must come to it for their own reasons in their own time.
I thought of it as another uninformed gimmick by those who never smoked and thought you could actually just give it up for a day - just like that.
I think it discouraged more people than helped - and proved to a lot of people that it was just too hard to do. You have to educate, prepare, plan and commit to quitting. This day treats it like it is just a bad habit - which will all know it is not.