Quit Smart Stop Smoking: With the Quit Smart System It's Easier Than You Think!

The guidebook, QuitSmart Stop Smoking: With the QuitSmart System it's easier than you think!, is written in an easy-to-read, non-technical style. Dr. Mark Tager wrote, in a review published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, "The appealing prose, cartoons and charts make for engaging reading." The guidebook teaches that successful quitting is not so much a matter of willpower as it is of skill-doing the right things and thinking the right thoughts to make sure you succeed, and succeed without suffering. There is no attempt to scare you into quitting. In fact, the dangers of smoking are not listed until the end of the book, and then only to reinforce the new ex-smoker's abstinence. The smoker who is physically addicted -- identified by a brief questionnaire -- is given two options for gradually weaning off nicotine. Prior to quitting, the smoker can switch to brands of cigarettes that contain progressively less nicotine -- the book provides the nicotine content of all U.S. cigarette brands. Over a couple of weeks of brand switching, much of the nicotine is eliminated from the smoker's system, and the person can then quit with few physical withdrawal symptoms. This method is sometimes called "Warm Chicken Quitting." The second option for weaning off nicotine is use of medication. Information is included on nicotine- replacement products (including a chapter by Dr. Jed Rose, inventor of the nicotine skin patch) and on Zyban, the non-nicotine pill. The QuitSmart Guidebook also presents up-to-date information on many other issues facing the person trying to break free from cigarettes. In a chapter titled "Thinking Makes it So," the reader is taught to foster the self image of a calm and happy nonsmoker: "You are what you believe. Believing you are a permanent non-smoker who is calm and happy will naturally lead to that outcome." The reader also learns six habit busters and eleven coping methods, and seven ways to control weight.