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IQuit-Logo-Without-Number-and-Tagline-Square-RGB-650x650THE IQUIT WITH AHEC FLORIDA NETWORK
The Area Health Education clomid for bodybuilding Center (AHEC) provides free tobacco cessation services in your area. The overall goal of the AHEC Tobacco Training & Cessation Program known as the IQUIT Program, is to strengthen the capacity of Florida’s healthcare system to deliver effective evidence-based tobacco use treatment, and prevention services throughout the state. The Program is founded upon the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs in the following areas:
Educating and Training Health Professions Students
Offering Continuing Education to Practicing Health Professionals
Providing Cessation Services for Tobacco Users
Putting the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treating Tobacco
IQUIT PROGRAM OPTIONS – TOOLS TO QUIT AND QUIT SMOKING NOW
Both programs offer education on the health effects related to tobacco use, but more importantly, they teach the benefits of quitting and what to expect when quitting. A Tobacco Cessation Specialist or trained facilitator guides participants as they identify triggers and withdrawal symptoms, and brainstorm ways to cope with them.
Topics include: a) Addiction, withdrawal and medications that help, b) Planning for the quit date, c) Dealing with triggers, d) Overcoming cravings and e) Relapse prevention
The Tools to Quit Program is 2-hour seminar where participants learn how to develop a successful quit plan.
The Quit Smoking Now program meets once a week for six weeks. Participants offer each other support as they go through the quit process.
Both programs offer free nicotine replacement therapy (while supplies last), educational materials, goodies for their quit day, and follow-up support. We like to have patients referred who are ready to quit within the next 30 days.
WANT TO QUIT?
WRITTEN BY EX-SMOKERS FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO BECOME EX-SMOKERS
You are about to return to a world you once knew – the world without tobacco – congratulations! Each year 70% of smokers want to quit and 46% try on their own and do not succeed. Quit Smoking Now! provides the information and tools needed to become tobacco free.
No one can make you stop using tobacco unless you want to. You need to promise yourself, right now, that you will keep an open mind and positive attitude about this quit attempt.
classEach quit attempt is wonderful for your health and each one is also different from another. Your altamofen success in each quit attempt depends upon your emotional state, the impact of recent trauma or setbacks in life, and the amount of stress in your day-to-day routine. Remember, everyone starts using tobacco for different reasons and continues to do so over the years for different reasons. Each will quit in the way that best fits him or her.
If you have enough desire to quit tobacco and are ready to make that commitment to yourself, your chances of success are high. They improve even more when you add these components to your quit effort:
Supportive friends and family who will help you
Access to nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as patches, gum, lozenges, Zyban and Chantix to help manage withdrawal symptoms
A combination of all of the above!
So, what do you think – is it time to quit? You can do it! Decide that a tobacco-free life is what you want. Accept the help that we are offering to you. Believe that change is possible and get ready for the exciting journey to becoming tobacco free!
Can you believe it is possible? Do you see yourself as tobacco free? Will you believe in yourself and in your ability to succeed? Go and look at yourself in a mirror and tell that person who looks back at you.
THE MYTH-SMOKING TO RELAX
Have you ever said I need to smoke to relax? Many people find it hard to even consider giving up cigarettes because they believe that smoking helps them relax.
To help us understand this theory better, we decided to consult with Karen Myers, ARNP, CTTS. Ms. Myers is one of the founding members of the faculty of the Florida State University College of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. Ms. Myers has collaborated with the AHEC Tobacco Program since its beginning in 2007 as a Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist (CTTS).
Myer’s explains the “smoking to relax” myth, and why smokers are fooled into believing that it calms their nerves: Here is the science of why a jolt of nicotine may feel like it calms the nervous system…As you smoke, chew, sniff…the nicotine gets into your brain very quickly. Within approximately 10 seconds, the nicotine reaches receptors in the brain. As it does, you’ll feel your mood improve, and your muscles relax. So you feel better and are rewarded by a brief reprieve from your “stress.”
The problem is this relief does not last. After the very brief sense of relaxation, the brain goes into withdrawal and the craving for more nicotine increases. So as you continue to smoke, the nicotine reduces your withdrawal symptoms.
This relief of withdrawal symptoms feels tren tabs similar to your sense of a decrease in your stress or anxiety. This is referred to as “self-medicating”. But be careful: self-medicating your withdrawal symptoms with continued smoking does not eliminate or reduce your stress. This cycle of continued tobacco use to avoid nicotine withdrawal symptoms is one of the major reasons people become addicted to nicotine.
So next time you feel like you have to have that smoke to help yourself relax, just wait and let the craving pass. Find something else to do for a few minutes: meditate, exercise, or focus on positive thoughts. The urge will pass in a few minutes, and you can celebrate not hitting the nicotine.