Frequently Asked Questions
1. Will I experience withdrawal from nicotine from this program?
Studies show that many people who quit smoking do not experience much physical withdrawal at all, but some may have particular difficulty. This seems to depend on how much a person smokes and for how long, and how their bodies react to nicotine and the other substances in the cigarette. Withdrawal mostly comes from the psychological effect of stopping a powerful behavioral and social habit, such as smoking. Abrupt cessation disrupts lots of things in the smokers’ lifestyle and way of functioning.
The SmokeFade program minimizes or eliminates much of these kinds of withdrawal effects by its very gradual step-down approach, and the way it progressively builds up what we call the smokers’ “non-smoking muscles” (learning to be a non-smoker in more and more places and situations).
2. What if I want to quit completely, will this program help me do that?
Yes. Both the cut-down program and the quit program will help you quit completely. Each uses warm-turkey, gradual reduction techniques that have been shown to work well. Even with a quitting goal, you can choose to start with the more gradual cut-down program first, and then go on to the quit program. Or you may skip the cut-down program and go right to the faster (but still gradual) quit program. It’s up to you. We will help you decide which is better for you, based on your readiness, and then guide you through an individually tailored program for you.
3. What if I don’t really want to quit, or I’m just not ready to quit now. Will the SmokeFade program work for me to just cut down?
Yes. While the SmokeFade Program was designed and validated initially as a very gradual quitting program for the most hard-core smokers, it was also found to helpful to many smokers in cutting-down without quitting completely. Our research findings demonstrated that many of these smokers who just cut-down also were able to maintain their smoking reduction for a considerable time without going back to their original type and rate of smoking. Research on motivation also tells us that people who make partial changes in the direction of complete change are more likely to be successful in their ultimate change goal — in this case eventually quitting smoking altogether (a goal we, of course, recommend for all smokers).
4. Will my health improve or my disease risk decrease if I just cut down and don’t quit?
There is compelling evidence showing that smoking is one of the most significant risk factors for developing and dying from a number of diseases, including heart disease and heart attack, lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancers of the lungs, mouth, stomach and bladder. The most likely consequence of chronic smoking is a heart attack and heart disease. Perhaps the best news about quitting smoking is that the smokers’ heart disease and heart attack risk drops to near non-smoker level within a few month of quitting! Quitting is always best.
There is good evidence that the more cigarettes a person smokes, the higher their risk of various smoking-related diseases. Smoking-related disease risk is thus based on the amount of smoking done (number of years and packs smoked), in relation to the overall amount of tar and other toxic components in the cigarette brand. It stands to reason that there may be a health benefit to the smoker who cuts back in numbers of cigarettes smoked or changes to lower toxicity (e.g. tar and carbon monoxide) yield cigarettes. Ultimately, we believe that by cutting back, the smoker is much closer to finally quitting — a result with proven health benefits.
5. Will my $29 sign up charge pay for the quit program as well if I only sign up for the cut-down program?
We have designed the cut-down and quit programs to be independent of each other. For those who pay the fee for the cut-down program, we will give a discount for signing up for the quit program after that. But once you pay for one of the two programs, you can always come back and re-do the program, or to start from where you left off.
6. Can others do the program as well with me on my fee?
No. The SmokeFade program is individualized for each separate smoker. The interactive feedback part of the program will be specifically adapted to the individual based on his or her smoking history and progress through the program. We do encourage you to enter the program with another and we'll be happy to give a family or friend a discount for their membership.
7. How successful is your program and how does it compare to other smoking cessation programs?
The studies with the Smokefade approach suggest it is as effective or more effective than the very best anti-smoking programs. About ¼ of all smokers who complete the program will have successfully quit, with a good proportion of those who don’t entirely quit or maintain cessation, continuing to smoke less, and perhaps less harmfully at one-year follow-up. Our overall quit and cut-down rates compare very favorable with the very best smoking treatment programs.
8. Is there a guarantee that I will be successful in cutting down or quitting?
The SmokeFade Program uses the latest science and is highly effective in helping smokers quit or cut-down. Nevertheless, there are no guarantees in life (other than death and taxes as they say). All smokers are different. Smokers have different motives and situations. The SmokeFade program gives a one-year guarantee that if they are initially unsuccessful in achieving their goals of cutting back or quitting entirely, that they can re-enter the program wherever they left off to continue on. At any time in this year period smokers can also come back to the program to give them a “booster” session to help them maintain their non-smoking or cut-down status.
9. Do I have to have a ‘smoke-buddy’ to sign up for the program?
No. The Smoke Buddy portion of the program is a special feature that should help you to be successful in achieving your goal of cutting down or quitting. But it is not required. It is highly recommended since research shows that social support, the kind that can be offered from a caring “helper” may enhance the effectiveness of the program.
10. What if I’m not quite ready to sign up now. I’d like to think about it some more?
This is absolutely OK. We understand that not everyone is ready to do something about their smoking right now. Many people need to think about it for a while. Do they want or need to do something about their smoking? Is now the right time? Is this the right program for them? These are legitimate questions that we greatly respect. We do strongly suggest that you take the “Test Your Knowledge” and the “Are you Ready” quizzes (if you have not already) and look at the feedback. That might give you a better sense of how ready you are and what our suggestions are. We sometimes actually tell smokers that they don’t appear quite ready to start if they are not in our opinion.
We can put you on a “thinking about it” list and get back to you later if you would like.
11. I’ve heard that switching brands from regular to lighter or ultra-light brands of cigarettes — as a part of cutting down — is not a good thing to do because smokers will just (over)compensate by smoking more and taking more and deeper puffs to get their nicotine dose. Is this true?
Not necessarily. Research conducted and published by Dr. Martin and colleagues, as well as other smoking scientists, suggests that while smoking compensation may occur upon cutting back or switching brands (but not quitting), this is frequently only a temporary and incomplete effect. Whether or not a person compensates by smoking more or more intensely upon switching to lighter cigarettes is dependent in part on how suddenly the change in brands takes place and how large the drop in tar and nicotine is. The Smokefade program avoids much of this effect by only very gradually changing the smoker’s brand and smoking style.
12. What if I want to take longer than the 28 days of the program. Is there a way to individualize the pace of the cut down or quit?
This is just fine. We have programmed into SmokeFade a self-pacing aspect that allows you to ‘camp out’ at various places in the step-wise program, or to go a bit faster. This will depend on you and how you are doing. The programs will be individualized according to your requirements and preferences.
13. Can I use supplemental nicotine — patches, gum or aerosols — or prescribed medications such as Zoloft to help me quit? Will this be a problem for the program?
Of course. Research suggests that for some (but not all) smokers, nicotine supplementation as well as prescribed medications such as a low dose anti-depressant (or one of the newer nicotine receptor blockers) can be helpful. The SmokeFade program goes well with pharmacological adjunctive treatment. We do know that for the vast majority of smokers, pharmacological treatment through nicotine or prescribed medications is insufficient for achieving complete smoking cessation. Smoking is a powerful behavioral, psychological and social HABIT that is powerfully conditioned to many situations, events, feelings and behaviors. The SmokeFade program helps to dismantle these powerful habit aspects, as well as gradually decreasing the dependence on tobacco itself. Supplementing with nicotine can be useful to some, especially when used at the point of quitting.
14. Is there a help line I can email or call if I have trouble?
Presently we do not have a help line. SmokeFade was designed to be a very low-cost program delivered through the Internet. A phone or email help line would increase the cost. We may include this kind of help, depending on feedback from users. Let us know what you think.
15. Is there any way to do the program for free?
Yes. We will be conducting on-going research on our programs to evaluate its success and to improve its effects. We will have a special place on the website where you and others can sign up to be a participant in one of our various research programs. Each of these will offer free treatment, in return for permission to use your data, and so that we can manipulate certain things to see which is better.