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Tip
Sheet: Culture & Living Tip sheets highlight timely news and events at Washington University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the stories below or for assistance in arranging interviews, please see the contact information listed with each story. For comments on the Culture & Living news tips service, please contact the editor, Sue Killenberg McGinn at (314) 935-5254 or susan_killenberg_mcginn@aismail.wustl.edu. Keeping a smoke-free New Year’s resolution ‘It's a hard thing to do, but it's also very doable' Media assistance: Gerry Everding - (314) 935-6375 Source: Edwin B. Fisher's Web page - (314) 286-1901 or efisher@im.wustl.edu Related: Seven Steps to a Smoke-Free Life Related: Division of Health Behavior Research Related: Siteman Cancer Center: smoking prevention [St. Louis, Mo., Dec. '02/Jan. '03] - The New Year is a time when many of us make resolutions to change our lives for the better. Unfortunately, the decision to end a tobacco habit is a resolution that some smokers re-use year after year. However, with the right coaching, there's hope even for smokers who repeatedly try and fail to quit, says Edwin B. Fisher, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the Division for Health Behavior Research at the university’s School of Medicine.
"There tends to be a lot of chaos in our lives during the holiday season and this chaos can undermine our best efforts to change our lifestyles," says Fisher, who is also a professor of medicine and of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and associate director for cancer prevention and control at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at the medical school and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "So maybe that's a good reason to think of quitting during January rather than quitting on Dec. 31." By thinking of the month of January as the time for change, smokers who want to quit can use the momentum of the New Year without forcing themselves to try to quit during the craziness of the holiday season itself. Quitting smoking is hard, Fisher says, because nicotine is so addictive and because most smokers have woven the activity of smoking cigarettes into so many aspects of their lives. "It's a hard thing to do, but it's also very doable," adds Fisher, who is the author of the American Lung Association's 7 Steps to a Smoke-Free Life. "About 50 percent of all adults who have smoked in this country, have quit smoking. As a matter of fact, the average individual who has quit smoking successfully has tried two or three times and failed before." Need a concrete plan -- not a wish and a prayer While there is no single formula for quitting, Fisher offers the following suggestions.
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