Re: Please read: What would you say...?

On Oct 26, 12:56 pm, "Jef." <jefo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What would you say to a roomful of people who were entertaining the idea of
quitting smoking?
What would you tell a bunch of folks looking for information, advice,
encouragement and assistance in giving up cigarettes?

My wife works at a large hospital in Washington, D.C., as an Occupational
Therapist. Their Director of Therapy mentioned to her recently that they're
about to establish a smoking cessation group, and Marsha mentioned that I'm
a former smoker, have been active here, created a support website, and that
I know --in real life and online-- lots of quitters, and so forth and so
on...

The Director asked if I would come and speak to the group, and despite my
aversion to addressing rooms full of uptight, jittery strangers with way too
much nervous energy, I'm seriously considering it. I'm not yet entirely
clear whether the attendees will be hospital employees (one would think the
ranks of smokers working in health care would be pretty thin... but who
knows?) or just interested community/neighborhood people. (I'll probably
get a free lunch out of the deal... woohoo!)

Hey-- it isn't often that we get a chance to really lay out all the stuff
we've learned during this strange adventure we're all on, or that we're
asked to spend some of the hard-won knowledge we've saved up on our journey
toward smobriety. Sometimes we tend to get carried away in our zeal to tell
everyone the great news about how we've managed to turn our lives around.
Our attempts to share this information may cross the line into proselytizing
or preaching, and wind up turning the listener off, instead of serving as
helpful motivation.

Godnose I'm no expert on the subject, but I'm almost 8 years clean, now, and
I fancy that I've learned a few solid things along the way-- largely with
the help of this community. I was in awe of the quitters I saw when I first
came here-- the ones with A WHOLE YEAR OR MORE clean...! My God! How do
people manage to DO that...?
Well, I found out, the hard way. Didn't we all? I certainly know what
worked *for me*, and what was helpful and what wasn't. Don't we all? I've
always found JUNKIE THINKING to be amazingly clear and effective at
stripping away a lot of delusional rationalization, and will certainly share
that, as well as my own story.

There is so much accumulated wisdom here that AS3 is an absolutely
staggering resource. I'd like to refer a bunch of soon-to-be trembling
newbies here, in the hope that some of them will find the same beneficial
resources available to them that have helped me. We have a WORLD of
experience here. It'd be nice to be able to say to these folks:
"So, that's a bunch of good advice from people in California, New Hampshire,
Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois and Minnesota-- and then there's
this, from some of our *foreign* members..." They'll be dazzled, eh?

So: If you had thirty minutes of time, a roomful of shaky, about-to-be
quitters, and the chance to offer them some help, what would you say? Got a
sentence or two of pithy advice? I'll gladly quote you, and credit any
helpful bon mots, illuminating, anecdotal info or other examples of
inspirational prose to whoever provides it. Whaddaya say? A whole roomful of
wanna-be quitters... think of the possibilities!

Thanks--

Jef.

AA's are called upon regularly to do just that.
You are not an expert of any sort as far as this is concerned.
There is a simple formula.
"What it was like, what happened, and what it's like now."
Share your "experience", "strength" and "hope" as honestly as
possible and you cannot fail.

Put yourself in their shoes.
You wanna be dazzled with brilliant wisdom?
Hell no.
You wanna hear what someone just like you tried that worked.
You were scared too?
You almost killed someone and didn't?
It got better?
You hardly think about it anymore.
You went on a tour of wineries and finagled a free hotel room?

Hope you save one life.



.

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