Become an Ex
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Jonathan Foulds, MA, MAppSci, PhD
Can smoking cessation internet sites help you to quit? 4/21/07
http://www.healthline.com/blogs/smoking_cessation/2007/04/can-smoking-cessation-internet-sites.html
There are quite a few good ones, and so far my favorite is at www.quitnet.com .
But I recently checked out a fairly new one and was very impressed. Its at www.becomeanex.org . It has been funded by a coalition on public health agencies, and appears to have been really well put together and is really easy to use. One of its main selling points is its emphasis on quitting smoking as a process, and its recognition that it is not all over in a month. So this site presents quitting as a process, provides loads of useful tips and advice, and is particularly good at helping you link with networks of other smokers for added support. The site makes good use of new technologies to make it easy to register, easy to communicate with other smokers trying to quit, and fairly easy to ask a question not just of others trying to quit, but also of recognized experts, like Dr Richard Hurt of the Mayo Clinic.
I found it very simple to register. You can set up your own profile, add your photo and details if you want (or not if you don’t), and there are plenty of subgroups you can join, made up of people with a particular thing in common (e.g. living in Texas, or using Chantix). The only slight problem I had was that when I clicked on some of the video components they didn’t all run smoothly. That may have just been a problem with my PC as I’m a bit technologically challenged. I believe this site is fairly new, (launched March, 2008) but I think it looks like it could be very helpful to tobacco users thinking about quitting.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
www.becomeanex.org
Labels: becomeanex, cessation, cigarette smoking, jonathan foulds, website
2 Comments:
At Thu May 01, 09:17:00 AM 2008,
Anonymous said…
OK. When I quit using the best antidepressant known to man--tobacco--I'm sure to sink into a permanently depressed state. What drugs do you recommend to alleviate this life threatening condition? I'm told Prozac et al don't work and make it tough to eat, sleep and copulate.
I really don't see how anyone can call this process healthy.
At Thu May 01, 10:01:00 AM 2008,
Jonathan Foulds, MA, MAppSci, PhD said…
Dear Anonymous of May 1,
Fortunately it is very uncommon for people to sink into a permanently depressed state when they quit smoking. So the medicines that are helpful for stopping smoking are not used to treat depression, but rather to reduce a wider group of withdrawal symptoms, reduce craving, and to help increase the chances of successfully quitting.
I've discussed most of the effective medicines in previous posts. You may find it helpful to check out my post on Jan 31, 2007 as it lists and provides links to articles on those topics.
You are right that Prozac does not appear to help people quit smoking. But nicotine replacement, bupropion (Zyban), and Chantix do.
Most of the mood disturbance on stopping smoking has typically gone within the first 4 weeks. Most quitters gain years of healthy living by quitting, so the process is certainly healthy, even if the first few weeks sometimes feel a bit rough.
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