The Best Quit Smoking Support

If you are a smoker and you want to quit, you have to be serious about it. The best quit smoking support you can have is true friends and family. I have been around people who have smoked my whole life. At one point or another these people have said that they were in control and could stop, but there actions have spoken louder than there words.

I am not a smoker, but I have witnessed many people that I love and know live a life totally controlled by tobacco, and its had a profound affect on me. One of those people was my grandfather. He ended up dying at 67 from throat cancer because of his smoking habit that he picked up as a young adult.

About ten years before he died, he lost his voice and then started wearing a trachea to help him breath functionally. During that time my uncle ( my grandfathers son ) ended up having a similar complication, and was soon issued a trachea because of smoking. Right before my grandfather died I remember being a young boy, and sitting across from him right before he was to go to the hospital.

My grandfather never really expressed his emotions that much, as I remember him being more of a stoic man than anything else. However, what he said to me that day stuck out harshly and will remain in my mind for years to come. He said, 'Don't drink, and don't ever smoke.' It was one of the only true memories that stuck out to me concerning advise that my grandfather gave me that was sincere and emotional. That little peice of advise has played a huge part for me in how I view tobacco.

During my grandfathers funeral I found it ironic and sad to see so many people from my dads side of the family smoking before and after the service. I remember all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles having a cigarette in there mouth at one time or another during that day, and it really hadn't really impacted me until I saw them all together for the funeral. To this day they all still smoke very heavily, except for my uncle that has the trachea. He soon quit after he saw his father pass away from the disease. The only other person on my fathers side of the family who doesn't smoke is my grandmother, who is alive and well.

My best friend is also a smoker, and he started about two years ago. He has tried numerous times to quit on his own using the gum, patches, and just sheer willpower, but he has failed with no avail. There are times when he gets extremely frustrated because he wants to become a pilot but most of the major airline industries don't allow pilots who are smokers to work for them. Many times he would ask me to help him quit smoking just by being there. He would calm down considerably when I was around him, knowing that he was accountable to me. Before my friend moved away he started smoking about once or twice a day, and since I have talked to him its up to at least a pack a half a week.

Looking back on the people that I know that have had there life's completely altered by tobacco, I am glad that I never started the habit. I am concerned for my friend and my dads side of the family. I hope they either try to stop with someone they know that can be accountable to them, or get real help, because I don't want to see them end up like my grandfather.
By Brett Manard