Not Another Great American Smokeout Blog

[NDC_Team]

The Great American Smokeout began in the 70’s in Massachusetts to ask people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money towards a high school scholarship fund instead. This idea caught on across the country as the American Cancer Society adopted it and got nearly 1 million smokers to quit in 1976. Historically, the Great American Smokeout was designed to help individuals to quit and to change the attitudes of society around smoking, resulting in an increase in community programing and smoke-free laws. It is believed that by starting this, many smoke-free advocacy teams have started and have taken great strides into what our tobacco-free culture is today. Just to name a few of the groundbreaking campaigns that has occurred are: truth about chemicals, suits against manufacturers, Master Settlement Agreement, “corrective statements” advertising, and many more. There is obviously more to come now with the e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and heat-not-burn products.

Although with programing, education, and preventative measures; we have decreased the amount of individuals who start smoking through raising awareness and advocacy; I always wonder what this day means to many of you?

Some say this day is just another “Hallmark holiday” that adds pressure or unnecessary attention to their smoking behavior. Then there are some who use it as a quit date or the start of a goal to get the “ball rolling.”

Making a decision to quit is a personal choice, therefore whatever way and whenever you decide to quit, just know you are making your own history whatever day it falls on!

Virginia Fitch-Braun, MS

NDC Counselor/CTTS

[Chuck-2-20-2011]

In my case, I found that what I called "practice quits" or, not smoking for several hours to be very useful in the fact that it proves to the addict that we can achieve this small goal of remaining temporarily smoke free.

 For this reason, I can't see the harm in convincing people to quit for a day and in the end if there are actually participants, I think that those who may already be entertaining the idea of quitting might just come to the belief that they really can. So I think it could be useful for those who haven't really taken the first step yet to convince them that perhaps they can take their thoughts of quitting to the next level.

 At the same time, throughout my entire addiction I never entertained the idea of a smoke free day. I knew of them, I just wasn't interested in participating though it would at least get me to think about what I was doing to myself a little, and eventually this was the reason that I chose to actually quit.  Facing reality is a hard thing to when we're addicted but once we do, the sky's the limit.

Chuck

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I'm sure they've had some effect in encouraging some to try to quit. It would be interesting to find out for how many 

this day really inspired to quit. Also how many of those are still quit.

I think many may go through the motions but,  it takes a lot more than something like this to succeed long term.

The site owners have the ability to take a survey of how many quits began with the great American smoke out.

Why not do a 2 question survey?

Were you inspired to quit by the GAS or a similar program?

How long did you quit for?

[YoungAtHeart]

I found it exceedingly annoying and think, by its nature,  that it promoted the falsehood that smoking was nothing but a bad habit you could just stop doing for a day.    Implied was "if you wanted to.".   I always hated anything touted by doctors and researchers who had never smoked.  I was always suspicious of their studies   I especially liked the ones that said quitting now reduced your chances of dying......uh - 100% of us are going to die...whether smokers or not.

jmho!

[elvan]

I am with YoungAtHeart‌ on this one.  It was never an incentive for me to quit, it was just annoying and added to the feelings of guilt that I was already dealing with.  I always hoped that no one would mention it to me.  I would love to know how many people actually quit on that day and stayed quit.  I would expect that anyone who wants to be successful would have to do the preparation and the same one day at a time as the rest of us.  Not a fan.

Ellen

[indingrl]

thanks for sharing.

[Sootie]

As it happens......THIS year's Great American Smokeout occurs on November 15th my NINE (9! 9! 9! 9!)YEAR anniversary of quitting smoking. So it will be a big day for me. I know when I was smoking it was a day when many smokers did not smoke. I don't know of anyone who actually QUIT for good and all on that day.....seemed like they saw it as one day of "fasting" from smoke.......or at best, they'd go about 1 week and be back to smoking. I myself never "quit" or tried to on this day. I was mostly annoyed because people at work would feel you could simply come to this day and just like putting up a Christmas tree or cooking a turkey, you could simply stop smoking. Stopping smoking is certainly doable....but it takes a lot more than that.

However, I am sure the day does good by just highlighting the concept of quitting. I'm so GLAD I finally did!!!!!

[Thomas3.20.2010]

I celebrate now! As a smoker I hated it! The rebel in me bought 2 packs instead of one just to protest what I presumed was invasive government and propaganda. I now know that smoking sickerettes costs society $300 Billion with a B! It's not fair to anybody - even the tobacco people who are selling their souls to the devil. Anything that works on any level is worth it in my eyes - not out of cruelty but because I don't want folks having to suffer the way I am presently suffering from smoking related illness. That is real torture!

[Giulia]

Our own personal great smokeout has to come when it comes for each of us. And it comes to us at all different times. Just like Veterans Day and so many other holidays that have morphed to not being the ACTUAL day of the celebration but the convenient four-day holiday to make Monday or Friday a day off - Our own quit celebration day is still that magnificent day in which we put down those cigarettes for the last time.  That is the only great SMOKEOUT that counts.  And it could be from any country you hail from.  The real country is the one inside us.  

[kristen-9-7-15]

I never heard of the Great American Smokeout until I came on this site 

[karenjones]

I never heard of the smoke out either, but I say what ever puts it in the faces of smokers, over and over is like incrementally adding grains of sand until a tipping point is reached and the smoker quit. i had been in the process of 'trying ' to quit for about a year when I  noticed oral cancer, after the operation the doctor said 'you can continue to smoke, but if you do, this cancer will come back, and it will kill you. i quit right away, looking back, I am not sure how much of my 'recovery'  pain was from surgery or withdrawal, it was all mixed in with teriffic pain from having the floor of my mouth cut out. I think the smoke out is a great idea. Anything that promotes people to not smoke for an hour, a day, a month, a year is great.