Posted on 12/19/2008 9:48:13 PM PST by melt
It's important to understand that stopping is not simply about willpower or determination (qualities that Obama personifies). Smoking is an addictive behaviour and to quit you need to overcome the addiction and learn new behaviour. On the addiction front, Obama uses Nicorette gum. He even handed some out to someone in the crowd who said they were trying to quit. But many quitters use it only when they have a craving. That isn't going to work. You need to chew the gum of the right strength as directed, using up to 15 pieces a day. There are dozens of randomised controlled trials showing that if nicotine replacement is used properly, you double your chances of quitting successfully.
Obama also seems to have got it right when he says “you need to eliminate connections”. In other words, if you always smoke after a meal, while on the phone or with a cup of coffee, you need to find something to distract yourself at these times. Exercise - Obama spends an hour a day in the gym - helps, as does the support of those around you. Hopefully, the non-smoking Michelle Obama will be firm but fair. He will just have to make sure that he doesn't hang out too much with secret-service men who smoke.
Whether Obama's efforts are successful or not may ultimately depend on his motivation for giving up. If he is just quitting to save himself from embarrassing photos having a crafty one behind the White House bike shed, he might not succeed. He needs to really want to give up: for financial reasons (unlikely), for the sake of those around him, or for his health.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Separated at birth...?
Barf Alert
Hell quit? He can’t even tell the truth about his smoking.
What the hell is wrong with people. They don’t even know who Obama is and yet they seem to worship him for reasons I will never understand. What next?
True. Who dreams up these dopey “news” stories? Who cares if he smokes? There are more important concerns.
Nobody except radical left wing social engineering leftist care if he smokes or not. It would ruin their years of demonization of smokers in order to coerce them to quit.
How about policy issues? Does anybody here give a crap if Obama lights up in the White House? Tell me.
Huh? Willpower and determination is all that is required to quit. Only takes a lot of willpower for the first 3 days, after that it just takes a little determination. The withdrawal period is only bad for the first two or three days.
I wonder if this article isn’t designed to make the sheeple think it’s a cigarette he’s holding in that “Time” photo, rather than a joint.
As for me, if a guy is President, let him smoke all he wants. Most of the Presidents up until the insanely paranoid hippie class took over enjoyed puffing tobacco.
Please explain. I don't know what that means.
FDR and Churchill both smoked and drank copious ammounts of alcohol while in office and no one cared.
Nicotine is an excellent tranquilizer.
That ain’t no “joker” joint ...
Exactly. Check the upsurge in the incidence of workplace violence when cigs were declared off-limits. It's astonishing.
Better yet, can he quit being a pre-packaged pretender?
I don't care if he smokes.
Being loaded up with morphine for three days helped me.
Just stop! It’s a matter of balls, either you got them, or you don’t!
No excuses, all you are doing is lying, to yourself.
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