Capital Counseling is proud to be partnering with The Center for Smoking Cessation at Seton Health to bring their tremendously effective The Butt Stops Here smoking cessation program to Capital EAP members.
In the US, nearly 1 in 5 adults over the age of 18 smoke. Each year, approximately 443,000 of these individuals will die from conditions attributed to smoking. Those deaths are happening, on average, 13 to 14 years earlier than it would have had they not been smokers – a loss of nearly one fifth of the average person’s lifespan.
While many of these deaths are attributed to cancer (more than a third), smoking causes more than just cancer, including:
- Erectile dysfunction
- Infertility
- Eye disease – leading to blindness
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema)
- Coronary heart disease
- Acute myeloid leukemia
- Pneumonia
- Slowed healing of wounds
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Negative reproductive effects: still birth, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
- many more
Of cancers, smoking is linked to bladder, esophagus, larynx, lung, mouth, throat, cervix, uterus, kidney, stomach, and pancreas cancers. Every year, these deaths leave about 31,000 kids fatherless and every day about 4,400 kids age 12 to 17 try a cigarette for the first time. Many become smokers and die because of it. In the time it has taken you to read this far, 5 more people died from smoking.
Smoking is a chemical addiction that is terribly difficult to quit. Cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance that travels quickly to the brain when it is inhaled and can cause a feeling of temporary relaxation and/or stress relief. Nicotine can also elevate your mood and your heart rate. But this feeling is only temporary. After your body rids itself of the drug, you start to crave another cigarette. The surgeon general’s study on nicotine concluded that “behavioral characteristics that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.”
Because of this, quitting often takes more than desire, personal strength and fortitude. It also takes support – both to initiate the process for quitting, and to stay on the path. Programs like The Butt Stops Here” provide both the tools and the support to improve the chances of success. But your help – the help of friends, family and coworkers can be one of the greatest aids in saving the life of someone struggling with this addiction.
If you’re a smoker, Capital EAP can help you to quit. We really can. And if you’re not a smoker but know someone that is, Capital EAP can help you with suggestions for talking about the subject, and urging that person to take that first step toward quitting.
Call us now to get started, or Learn More about The Butt Stops Here classes and schedules.