SUZANNE TATE: Great American Smokeout Four Days Away; Will You Do It?

Ten years ago I wrote my first column reminding people of the Great American Smokeout. The reasons were simple: The paper I worked for at the time published my column on Thursdays, the day the annual event is held. And it was an easy topic for a column. Information is spoon-fed to writers who want to make the topic their own.

But here’s the truth: My heart was never in it. Neither were my lungs, or my brain for that matter. I had forgotten about the Smokeout by the time the paper was printed. I’m sure I had smoked several cigarettes by the time I read my own column, if I even bothered to read my own words.

I was going through the motions. To me, the Great American Smokeout – just 24 hours of abstaining – was a joke. I smoked and I liked it and didn’t really aim to change.

But retrenchment, especially about something that is proven to cause cancer, is not a popular topic for a newspaper column. I wasn’t going to write: “Hey folks, I love to smoke. I don’t plan to get cancer. I’m sorry if my smoking bothers you, but get over it.” I knew people needed resources to quit and a plan to carry it out, even if I didn’t listen to my own words.

This year: Same topic, different message.

First off, today is not the Great American Smokeout; Thursday is. There is no benefit in telling anyone on the day of the event. It’s like telling people about a Christmas sale on Dec. 25. If there is any hope of people taking part in the Great American Smokeout, they need some time to consider it and ramp up emotionally. So here’s your advance notice: It’s coming up on Thursday, so consider joining in.

And you don’t have to commit to a lifetime of quitting, although certainly a day of abstinence is supposed to be a springboard. The Smokeout is supposed to be one day, one 24-hour period that smokers come together and try to go smoke-free. It’s one small step down a long, sometimes winding, road.

What else is different this year? For me, after more years of smoking than I would care to admit, I’ve finally quit. A visit to the emergency room got my attention. I was sick enough to realize I had to change. Sick enough to realize I had to stop. Sick enough to quit kidding myself.

I quit cold turkey, largely because I was afraid. Organizers of the Great American Smokeout would say a better way is to have a plan and stick to it. But quitting is quitting, and the hardest part, as with abstaining from anything, is maintenance over time. I will attest to that. The itch still comes back and you have to have a plan to deal with it.

But Thursday could be one small step to changing your life. Consider it now, when you have time to mull it over. There are plentiful resources online at the American Cancer Society’s Web site: http://www.cancer.org.

And there is an associated site focused only on the Smokeout: http://www.smokefreeyou.org. It also is full of resources to support you and your family and friends as you work to quit.

An important note: The Web sites address the core issue – nicotine addiction. Smokers are addicted to the pleasurable feelings nicotine gives them. Weaning themselves from using tobacco is a struggle, both physically and psychologically. And the sites give smokers and their loved ones practical suggestions for dealing with the realities of nicotine addiction, which can be as powerful as addictions to heroin and cocaine.

Despite the difficulty of quitting, many smokers want to quit because they want a longer, healthier life. Many are not as dense as me and don’t need a blaring wakeup call like the one I got.

But about 1,300 people die every day in this country from smoking-related illnesses – more than alcohol, car accidents, suicide and murder combined. Yes, nicotine brings pleasure, but it also carries illness and death.

If past Smokeouts are any indication, as many as one-third of the nation’s 46 million smokers could take the day off from smoking on Thursday. Most smokers regularly report they want to quit or reduce the amount they are smoking. Thursday’s national event can be a step in that direction.

An important partner in quitting is your doctor or other health care provider. They have informational resources for you and your family, they can prescribe medication to help ease nicotine addiction, they can assess your overall health and the importance of quitting smoking, and they can be a sounding board for your concerns. Bring your health care provider into the loop and let them help you, if you are ready to take this step.

If you smoke and you want to stop, mark Thursday on your calendar. In the meantime, go to http://www.smokefreeyou.org to get resources for you and your family.

Get ready now so you can make this year’s event a milestone, not a promise as empty as a trick smoke ring.

Suzanne Tate is the opinion page editor at the Bristol Herald Courier. You may reach her at (276) 645-2534 or .