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About Us ...


Mission Statement

  • To provide a totally free educational resource devoted to the costs, risks and known dangers posed by smoking.

  • To impart an understanding of the powerfully addictive nature of tobacco products.

  • To reach youth and young adults and help them grasp the full range of risks associated with nicotine dependency before they begin to experiment.

  • To counter extremely deceptive shotgun tobacco marketing that has little regard for the age or maturity of the mind it strikes.

  • To alter youth perceptions as to why the adults they see smoking continue to smoke.

  • To help motivate all wanting to arrest their dependency upon nicotine to do so.

  • To help all understand that although nicotine is one of the most powerful drugs known to man that it is simply a chemical with an I.Q. of zero, and is no match for educated and supported dreams and desire.

  • To provide information to assist abrupt nicotine cessation quitters in understanding the recovery circumstances they may encounter and how to deal with each.

  • To counter marketing which falsely suggests that quitting cold turkey is nearly impossible or that pharmacological interventions are mandatory in order to succeed.

  • To help all who have arrested their dependency understand that the only means of preventing relapse is to remain committed to never using nicotine again ... to Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew.


Methods

WhyQuit unites four independent cessation resources - motivation enhancement, a quality education, serious group support, and free professional cessation counseling.  Each resource serves a dual dependency prevention objective of motivating youth not to start, helping them see through the smoke and deceptive marketing, and providing a ring-side seat in watching those addicted to nicotine as they reclaim control of their minds, health and life.

Qualifications

WhyQuit's education foundation is anchored in the life's work of Joel Spitzer, a Chicago nicotine dependency prevention and cessation counselor and programs director who started his professional career as a smoking prevention health educator with the American Cancer Society in 1972.  Since then Joel has presented over 570 live seminars to over 92,000 attendees and more than 325 full nicotine cessation clinics reaching over 4,500 participants. Joel currently serves as a smoking prevention and cessation consultant to the Evanston Department of Health and Human Services.

WhyQuit, Freedom and Ask Joel are staffed by cessation educators who have each studied under Joel Spitzer.  Please note that none of the forum's educators, including Joel Spitzer, are physicians or doctors and WhyQuit's and Freedom's information and services are designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a site visitor and his/her physician.  Do not rely upon any information at this site to replace individual consultations with your doctor or other qualified health care provider.

Disclosure of Financial and Competing Interests

Each site has been developed, is maintained, and is funded by its editor, author or managers.   No site has received any public or private funding whatsoever, no financial donations have ever been accepted by anyone associated with any site, and no editor, author or manager receives any financial compensation whatsoever for their online work.  For a detailed statement visit WhyQuit's Disclosure page.


WhyQuit ?


Why Quit ?

The original WhyQuit.Com was founded by John R. Polito of Charleston, South Carolina on July 15, 1999. A former three pack-a-day thirty-year smoker, John experienced about a dozen failed attempts before promising himself that he'd never attempt quitting again. He fully surrendered to the reality that he was a true drug addict and that his addiction would cost him his life. It was then that he no longer needed his thirty-year collection of denial rationalizations, minimizations and blame transference. It was then that his eyes fully opened and he permitted himself to discover an entire world of online education and support.
 
The first story ever shared at WhyQuit was Bryan's.  The original site purpose was to help dispel the myth that smoking only harms old smokers.  Since then WhyQuit has evolved into the Internet's premier abrupt nicotine cessation destination. Aside from maintaining WhyQuit, John co-founded and has served as a co-manager at Freedom from Tobacco from 1999 until 2005. In 2001 he began presenting live nicotine cessation programs in S.C. He presented regular bimonthy nicotine cessation seminars at the College of Charleston from 2003 to 2006, where the number of daily student smokers declined by 30% between January 2004 and December 2005. On February 11, 2008 John completed presenting 63 nicotine cessation seminars in 28 South Carolina state prisons that went tobacco-free.



Joel's Library


Joel Spitzer's Quit Smoking Reinforcement Library

Joel Spitzer has been a leading authority in the development and implementation of smoking cessation and prevention programs for over 30 years.  Far from simply following and teaching the commonly held beliefs of the day, Joel recognized early on that nicotine was a true chemical dependency while the medical and scientific community continued to contend it was simply a habit.  His unique insights allowed him to develop and implement nicotine prevention and intervention strategies that were decades ahead of their time.  One important tool was his collection of about ninety short clinic follow-up letters that he sent to graduates to help reinforce their recovery.  His collection of letters was affectionately referred to by Freedom memebers as "Joel's Library" and the name stuck.

His entire reinforcement library is online, free to all, and continues to grow in both size and availability.   It is getting harder to find an Internet quitting forum where members are not openly sharing and discussing his articles. Joel's teachings and daily guidance were not only instrumental in molding Freedom into a highly effective world class nicotine cessation education forum, online graduates from nations around the globe appear to be spreading the word, as requests to translate his work into different languages continue to arrive.

Ask Joel was founded on December 2, 2005. An MSN message board site, Ask Joel allows both smokers and quitters to submit questions to Joel and his growing army of online students.

Joel has selflessly dedicated his entire life toward helping free smokers. Today, you'll find him either online teaching and counseling Freedom's newest generation of arrivals, answering questions at Ask Joel, conducting quitting seminars, engaged in telephone counseling, or attempting to reply to a constant stream of e-mail. He also works with Freedom graduates as they prepare to speak to groups or present programs within their own communities.




Freedom from Tobacco

Freedom from Tobacco

Freedom from Tobacco is an MSN hosted forum that was founded on September 8, 1999 by John R. Polito and Joanne Diehl. On January 20, 2000 Joel Spitzer joined the forum, bringing with him the educational cornerstone that would transform Freedom into a highly effective recovery tool. Linda Schwartz's February 10, 2000 arrival hearlded a seriousness of purpose that to this day greets all new arrivals.

With the help of hundreds of dedicated volunteers and Joel's amazing insights and guidance, Freedom evolved into an education oriented abrupt cessation forum where every member remains highly focused on a single topic - Freedom from Nicotine!  Today an army of Freedom graduates form a knowledgeable, skilled and supportive team of dedicated volunteers who aid a new generation of arrivals in their quest for lasting freedom.
 

Freedom's Current Managers

Suzie Ryan - December 2007 - New South Wales, Australia

suzie@whyquit.com

Robin Sathaye - August 2007 - Maharashtra, India

robin@whyquit.com

Sallie Hamilton - January 2006 - Wisconsin, United States

sallie@whyquit.com



Freedom's Retired Managers


Kristen Dittman - Manager 2006 - 2008

Rick Bailey - Manager 2006 - 2007

Linda Schwartz - Admissions Director and Manager - 2000 to 2006

Joel Spitzer - Director of Education and Manager - 2000 to 2006

Joanne Diehl - Co-founder and Manager - 1999 to 2006

John R. Polito - Co-founder and Manager - 1999 to 2005




Freedom's Golden Givers

  • WhyQuit's 2002 banners were created by Melissa, a/k/a Mrs. Toast (Gold)

  • The 2002 make-over of WhyQuit's main page formatted by OBob (Gold)

  • In 2002 Joel's Library was proofed by Dave, a/k/a Hillbilly (Gold)

  • In 2003 Joel's Library was assembled into PDF book format by BillW (Gold)






Created July 1999. Last updated June 17, 2008 by John R. Polito