WhyQuitWelcomeNewsIndex/SearchWhy?The LawJoel's LibrarySmart TurkeyTurkeyvilleCrave Coping

WhyQuit News

Why How Help Law

Ten reasons to turn Stoptober into Smarttober

September 24, 2013   John R. Polito

Why not shift the focus of the UK NHS SSS's October Quittober quit smoking campaignfrom providing free nicotine for all addicted to it, to Smarttober and transforming England's most productive stop smoking method, cold turkey, into smart turkey?Imagine a focus makeover for the UK National Health Service's (NHS) 2nd annual October Stoptober quit smoking campaign. Instead of making the pharmaceutical industry richer by purchasing "free" yet highly ineffective replacement nicotine for all, imagine transforming Stoptober into Smarttober and encouraging England's smokers to become more dependency recovery savvy than smoked nicotine's influence upon their brain.

Instead of NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSS) continuing to insanely bash and trash the world's most productive quitting method -- cold turkey -- as recommended in a September 7 response to a British Medical Journal SSS ten year evaluation, why not instead use NHS SSS and Smarttober to transform cold turkey into smart turkey. Imagine devoting an entire month to sharing knowledge and understanding designed to destroy destructive quitting fears and the anxieties they breed.

Why Smart Turkey?

As shown by a July 31, 2013 Gallup Poll, cold turkey continues to generate more long-term successful ex-smokers than all other methods combined. But for many, the thought of going cold fosters anxiety and dread. Instead of destroying those fears, NHS and friends feed, fuel and lie about them.

Cold turkey is the abrupt ending of nicotine use without resort to quitting products or procedures. Smart turkey simply adds to the mix our most powerful weapon of all, our intelligence. It focuses upon study and mastery of the keys to successful abrupt nicotine cessation. Here's 10 reasons to consider using smart turkey to transform Stoptober into Smarttober:

  1. It's Fast - Nicotine's bloodstream elimination half-life in 2 hours. It guarantees that you will totally empty your body of all nicotine and move beyond peak withdrawal within 72 hours of ending use. Why spend weeks or months toying with alternative forms of nicotine delivery, or risky designer drugs that mimic and imitate it? Wouldn't accepting NHS's enticing offer of "free" pharma grade nicotine mean transforming Stoptober into Starttober until at least Stopember?
    A chart showing England's National Health Service (NHS) costs for Stop Smoking Services and approved quit smoking products costs or NRT or replacement nicotine (gum, patch, inhaler and spray) and prescriptions (Zyban and Champix) from 2001 to 2012
  2. It's Free - Cold turkey has always been free, but so is smart turkey. The Internet is loaded with free smart turkey learning centers. More than 4 million downloads, Joel's Library not only shares his highly popular ebook "Never Take Another Puff" but 200 video quitting lessons. Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home is another popular smart turkey quitting ebook, which also aid those dependent upon smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes or NRT. Turkeyville is Facebook's most popular smart turkey support group and Freedom is Yuku's.
  3. It's Safe - Never in the history of the world have we seen a news story about a cold turkey quitter committing suicide. By definition it's impossible for a successful cold turkey quitter to end up hooked on the cure and addicted to nicotine gum, the lozenge or patch, or slave to electronic nicotine.
  4. Productive - Take your own poll of all long-term successful ex-smokers you know who have been 100 percent nicotine-free and off of all quitting products for at least one year. As found in the July Gallup Poll, you'll likely discover a giant elephant in the room, that the vast majority abruptly ended nicotine use without resort to products or procedures. As in the Gallup Poll, you may learn that only a tiny fraction of successful quitters credit approved products (8 percent), with just 1 in 100 ex-smokers succeeding by using Nicorette.
  5. Effective - A little known fact is that NHS SSS cold turkey quitters always generate a slightly higher 4-week stop smoking rate than those toying with replacement nicotine (NRT). Keep in mind that while at the 4-week mark the NRT quitter still has another 4 weeks of use before attempting to stop using nicotine and adjust to natural dopamine stimulation (normally, an 8 week "therapy" period), the abrupt cessation quitter's brain has already fully adjusted. The end result? A 2006 study found that 25.5% of NHS cold turkey quitters were still not smoking at one year, compared to only 15.2% of NRT quitters.
  6. Science-Based - During the past decade, cold turkey has prevailed over approved quitting products in every independent population level quitting method effectiveness assessment. As shown by the Pierce 2012 study, it doesn't matter whether you are a heavy smoker or a light smoker, the unassisted quitter's odds of success are substantially higher than those using NRT or prescription medication, or than quitting programs which force ineffective quitting products upon them.
  7. You'll Discover Why We Smoked - Smart turkey compels us to confront and turn to our advantage the truth about why we smoked. Although you may not like this, we are real drug addicts and there is no cure. Nicotine addiction is a brain wanting disorder in which nicotine compromised dopamine pathways assign nicotine use the same priority as they assign to eating food. The wanting, urges and craves felt by the actively feeding nicotine addict flow from the same dopamine pathways as the wanting felt by the alcoholic, and the heroin, cocaine and meth addict.
  8. The Law of Addiction - The smart turkey knows the key to successful cessation, respect for the Law of Addiction. They fully accept the fact that quitting is all or nothing. For us, there is no such thing as just one, or just once, as one puff will always be too many, while thousands never enough.
  9. Destroy Use Rationalizations - The smart turkey examines and destroys false use rationalizations. The smart turkey understands why smoking does not relieve stress but actually makes it worse, and why there is no such thing as just one, or just once. They also understand common pitfalls such as the importance of crutch avoidance, awareness that their blood caffeine level will double, that their blood sugar may plummet, and that early alcohol use is associated with half of all relapses.
  10. Protection Against Relapse - A recent study found that during the 9/11 terrorist attacks that 1 million American ex-smokers relapsed to smoking. The smart turkey understands why. They also understand the factors that contribute to relapse. Such awareness obviously increases their likelihood of staying clean and free for life.

Dueling Messages: Pharma Lies vs. Cold Turkey Truths

Pharma's Version of Don't Go Cold Turkey

Only 3% of cold turkey quitters remaining free after 1 year? What is Pfizer smoking?

July 2018 PLoS One quit smoking method effectiveness chart







Additional cold turkey news articles

WhyQuit News




Smart Turkeys understand that nicotine addiction is real drug addiction, that one puff would be too many, while thousands wouldn't be enough
Discover Smart Turkey

Knowledge is a Quitting Method

WhyQuit's small banner
WhyQuit.com Joel's Library Turkeyville
Written 09/24/13.
Reformatted 02/07/22 by John R. Polito