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Working backward to quit smoking .By Scott Farmer
SCOTT FARMER, MNHFS FOUNDER
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Scott holds a master's degree in exercise physiology. He is certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and as a Clinical Exercise Specialist through the American College of Sports Medicine. Scott has also studied hockey specific training under Peter Twist, an eleven-year veteran strength conditioning coach for the Vancouver Canucks.
Athletically, Scott has played and trained in sports for over 30 years; having played High School, College, Semi-Pro and Amateur baseball. He has coached athletes from the little league level up to high school and is a certified hockey coach with USA Hockey TM
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“Smoking has a higher failure rate than heroin”. “I was able to quit drinking but I can’t
quit smoking!”
I have heard these statements time and time again from addiction specialist and my
patients and clients. I had to ask myself “how could this be”. Smoking is less
intoxicating, less destructive in terms of ability to get things done and remain responsible.
People don’t kill to get cigarettes; they don’t crash cars because of central nervous system
failure. So what makes quitting cigarettes so much more challenging?
I though of this and many ideas crossed my mind. Cigarettes are more socially accepted
(not by much though); they are allowed in more places (not by much though); so maybe
the fact that because more opportunities exist then more association with smoking is
created, triggering more unconscious desires. I don’t doubt that at some level this is true;
however, I can’t help but think that the therapeutic approach toward other drugs and
alcohol may be more comprehensive.
It is a pretty common fact that greater than 50 percent of smokers have some level of
depression. And Dr. Shipley found in his research that starting smoking in earlier years
creates a higher likelihood of an anxiety disorder. Yet when we look at common
treatments for smoking, psychology isn’t really the foundation of smoking cessation,
especially when compared to treatment programs for other drugs. Now I am not basing
my hypothesis on having a master’s in exercise physiology. I am basing it on 9 years of
working in smoking cessation and my own struggles with depression and anxiety and the
research I have done to try and help myself.
I want to start with an idea I call “following the links of the chain backwards”. Instead of
just looking at smoking, I want to look backwards. When I asked my smoking friends
why they smoke the number one reason they give me is emotion. Emotion could come in
the form of boredom, anger, frustration, anxiety and even happiness. (The cigarette used
to celebrate finishing a task)
Now in the numerous books written by psychiatrist and psychologist one common theme
keeps jumping out at me. Thinking creates emotion and emotion drives behavior.
Smoking is a behavior and I just mentioned that emotion was the number one reason why
people smoke; then it makes sense that a thought, whether unconscious or conscious,
provoked an emotion. A thought is based on our experiences and knowledge possessed.
More or less a thought is an interpretation of what is being heard, seen or sensed and if
we work to change our interpretation (eastern philosophy refers to this as the automatic
wiring of our brain) we can than change emotion and finally behavior, a behavior like
smoking.
When it comes to success of any goal Dr. Maxell Maltz has proven through research that
all living animals have an innate success mechanism. He illustrates this by using a baby
squirrel. A baby squirrel is born in the fall and already knows to collect acorns for the
winter, even though the squirrel has never seen a snowflake. He believes humans have
this skill too but many times conscious thought inhibits us from trusting that wonderful
tool we are all blessed to have. Dr. Maltz also lists 7 personality success types and 7
failure types.
Success
1. Sense of direction – A bicycle maintains its equilibrium only as long as it is
going forward toward something.
2. Understanding - Most of the time the other person’s reaction or position is not
taken in order to make us suffer, nor to be hardheaded, nor malicious, but because
he “understands” and interprets the situation differently than us.
3. Courage – Nothing in the world is guaranteed. Often the difference between a
successful man and a failure is not ones better abilities or ideas, but the courage
that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.
4. Charity – Successful personalities have some interest in and regard for other
people. They have a respect for others’ problems and needs. They respect the
dignity of human personality and deal with other people as if they were human
beings, rather than as pawns in their own game. They recognize that every person
is a child of God and is a unique individuality, which deserves some dignity and
respect.
5. Esteem – “ Of all the traps and pitfalls in life, self-disesteem is the deadliest, and
the hardest to over come; for it is a pit designed and dug by our own hands,
summed up in the phrase, “It’s no use – I can’t do it. “ For real self-esteem is not
derived from the great things you’ve done, the things you own, the mark you’ve
made – but an appreciation of yourself for what you are – a child of God. When
you come to this realization, however, you must necessarily conclude that other
people are to be appreciated for the same reason.”
6. Self Confidence – “ Practice improves skill and success… not because
“repetition” has any value in itself. If it did we would “learn” our errors instead of
our “hits.” A person learning to pitch horseshoes, for example, will miss the stake
many more times than he will hit it. If mere repetition were the answer to
improved skill, his practice should make him more expert at missing since that is
what he has practiced most. However, although his misses may outnumber hits
ten to one, through practice his misses gradually diminish and his hits come more
and more frequently. This is because the computer in his brain remembers and
reinforces his successful attempts, and forgets the misses.
7. Self Acceptance – Self-acceptance means accepting and coming to terms with
ourselves now, just as we are, with all our faults, weaknesses, short comings,
errors, as well as our assets and strengths. Self-acceptance is easier, however, if
we realize that these negatives belong to us – they are not us. You may have made
a mistake but this does not mean that you are a mistake.
Failure
1. Frustration – Chronic frustration usually means that the goals we have set for
ourselves are unrealistic, or the image we have of ourselves is inadequate, or both.
2. Aggressiveness – The failure-type personality does not direct his aggressiveness
toward the accomplishment of a worthwhile goal. Instead it is used in such selfdestructive
channels as ulcers, high-blood pressure, worry, excessive smoking,
compulsive overwork, or it may be turned upon other persons in the form of
irritability, rudeness, gossip, nagging, fault-finding.
3. Insecurity – The feeling of insecurity is based upon a concept or belief of inner
inadequacy. If you feel that you do not “measure up” to what is required, you feel
insecure. A great deal of insecurity is not due to the fact that our inner resources
are actually inadequate, but due to the fact that we use a false measuring stick. We
compare our actual abilities to an imagined “ideal, perfect, or absolute self.
Thinking or yourself in terms of absolutes induces insecurity.
4. Loneliness – The person who is alienated from his real self has cut himself off
from the basic and fundamental “contact” with life. The lonely person often sets
up a vicious cycle. Because of his feeling of alienation from self, human contacts
are not very satisfying, and he becomes a social recluse. In doing so, he cuts
himself off from one of the pathways to finding himself, which is to lose oneself
in social activities with other people.
5. Uncertainty – Uncertainty is a “way” of avoiding mistakes, and responsibility. It
is based upon the fallacious premise that if no decision is made, nothing can go
wrong. Being “wrong” holds untold horrors to the person who tries to conceive of
himself as perfect. If he were ever wrong his picture of a perfect, all-powerful self
would crumble. Therefore, decision-making becomes a life or death matter.
6. Resentment – Resentment is an attempt to make our own failure palatable by
explaining it in terms of unfair treatment, injustice. But, as a salve for failure,
resentment is a cure that is worse than the disease.
7. Emptiness – It is impossible to psychologically accept something that you feel
does not belong to you – or is not consistent with your self. The person who holds
an unworthy and undeserving self-image may hold his negative tendencies in
check long enough to achieve a genuine success – then be unable to accept it
psychologically and enjoy it. He may even feel guilty about it- as if he had stolen
it. His negative self-image may even spur such a person on to achievement by the
well-known principle of over-compensation.
As I copy the brilliant writings of these great doctors of the mind, I can’t help but see
longitudinal application that their research covers. Looking at their ideas gives us the
tools to follow our chain backwards to our human roots. By increasing our knowledge of
what it means to be a human, we are given the power to make changes. But I can tell you
from my own experience with depression, change takes time and persistence. Over years
of thinking a certain way, feeling a certain way and acting a certain way, we have burned
a neurological path so deep than only a rare few can get themselves out without any help.
For most people it is imperative to change the very things that keep the pathways burned.
One of the difficulties that we all run into is our culture. With Western or Westernized
culture we have seen some rather unfortunate statistics. Depression up over 60% since
WWII, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer all at epidemic levels. In Dr.
Kaufman’s book titled “Shame: The Power of Caring” he describes three cultural impacts
that effect the psychological health of our nation.
1. Success ethic – which enjoins us to compete for success and to achieve by
external standards of performance. The mythic figure of the self-made man or
woman is a dominant image of the literature of our nation. We are stimulated to
seek our advantage over others through competition. We are taught to view
achievement as the measure of our intrinsic worth or adequacy. We are further
taught to strive after success and to measure it directly through our
accomplishments. Hence, external performance becomes the measure of selfesteem.
Striving for success can breed anxiety in the form of fear of failure
because success is never entirely within our control. When success by any
external standard becomes the measure of self-validation, then competition is
inevitably fostered, generating hostility and fear. Failure to attain these goals
produces loss of self-esteem and feeling of inferiority.
2. Independent and self-sufficient – Deeply imbedded in our cultural
consciousness are images of the pioneer, cowboy and more recently, the detective.
These archetypal figures mirror how to stand proudly alone, never needing
anything, never depending on anyone. Needing becomes not a source of strength,
but a clear sign of inadequacy. To need is to be inadequate, shameful. Crying and
touching are expressions of personality which are heavily shamed in this culture:
we are shamed for being human.
3. Popular and conform – In a culture which esteems popularity and conformity,
individuality is neither recognized nor valued, Being different from other
becomes shameful. To avoid shame, one must avoid being different, or seen as
different. The awareness of difference itself translates into feeling lesser,
deficient.
Both Dr. Maltz and Dr. Kaufman describe a copy defense strategy. Strategies which
Dr. David Burns calls the ten distorted thoughts of humans. By identifying these
distortions in our thoughts, we can begin to challenge them and create new healthier
neuro pathways. This will allow us to change behavior and begin to heal.
1. All or nothing thinking – You see things in black-or-white categories. If a
situation falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure.
2. Overgeneralization – You see a single negative event, such as a romantic
rejection or a career reversal, as a never-ending pattern of defeat by using
words such as “always” or “never” when you think about it.
3. Mental Filter – You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it
exclusively, so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop
of ink that discolors a beaker of water.
4. Discounting the positive – You reject positive experiences by insisting they
“don’t count.” If you do a good job, you may tell yourself that it wasn’t good
enough or that anyone could have done as well.
5. Jumping to conclusions – You interpret things negatively when there are no
facts to support your conclusion. Mind Reading: Without checking it out,
you arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you. Fortune
Telling: You predict that things will turn out badly.
6. Magnification – You exaggerate the importance of your problems and
shortcomings, or you minimize the importance or your desirable qualities.
7. Emotional reasoning – You assume that your negative emotions necessarily
reflect the way things really are: “ I feel terrified about going on air-planes. It
must be very dangerous to fly.
8. Should statements – You tell yourself that things should be the way you
hoped or expected them to be. After playing a difficult piece on the piano, a
gifted pianist told herself, “ I shouldn’t have made so many mistakes.” This
made her feel so disgusted that she quit practicing for several days. “Must”,
“oughts” and “have tos” are similar offenders. “Should statements” that are
directed against yourself lead to guilt and frustration.
9. Labeling – Labeling is an extreme form of all-or-nothing thinking. Instead of
saying “ I made a mistake,’ you attach a negative label to yourself: “ I’m a
loser.”
10. Personalization – Personalization occurs when you hold your-self personally
responsible for an event that isn’t entirely under your control.
Quitting smoking is tough. Finding a successful way to quit can be challenging
because one size doesn’t fit all. The truth is, even in the medical field success in
helping people quit is not real impressive. There are many unexplained
phenomenons with smoking. Like why did most (> 90%)of the thousands of
patients I worked with in the hospital have no nicotine withdrawal?
The truth is that no one has found a cure for smoking addiction. I think that
thinking, feeling and behaving (which smoking is) has no lines of distinction and
is dependent on each other. If a person wants to change a behavior like smoking,
taking a look at his or her perception of life may be a valuable step. Changing
certain components of one’s self can help lower stress and other emotional
disturbances. This can make the need for nicotine obsolete.
Scott M Farmer MS. CSCS., CES
Minnesota Health Fitness and Sports ™
President and Owner
Exercise Physiologist and Strength Coach
Certified Cardiac Therapist
State Certified Smoking Cessation Counselor
Waiora Consultant and Broker
Set up your own home based business, I can help!
Where all natural meets medicinal
Toll Free 1-866-663-2502
Local 1-320-281-4032
Fax 1-320-230-1691
Email: Scott@agingyouthfully.net
Scott@mnhfs.com
Web: http://www.agingyouthfully.net
http://www.mnhfs.com
Scott Farmer MS, CSCS, CES (Coordinator)
Bachelor Degree in Exercise Physiology. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 1990
Master Degree in Exercise Physiology with an emphasis cardiac rehab and counseling. Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA 1992
Certified Clinical Exercise Specialist. American College of Sports Medicine 1994 to present
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. National Strength and Conditioning Association 2001 to present
Board member of Minnesota Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (MNACVPR) 1994 to 2004
President of MNACVPR 1996
Cardiac Therapist/Clinical Cardiology 1992 to 2005
Owner of Minnesota Health, Fitness and Sports org. 2002
Smoking Cessation counselor 1995 to present
Minnesota state smoking cessation counselor 2003 to present
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