If you smoke cigarettes, you can probably think of many reasons to keep on smoking:

• I can always count on smoking to relax me when I'm stressed out.
• Smoking helps me manage my weight.
• It helps me concentrate and stay focused at work.
• It signals me that dinner is over or that my busy day is at an end.
• It helps me feel more comfortable in social settings.

You may have these or other reasons to continue to smoke. On the other hand, you may have thought about reasons for quitting. Smokers sometimes say:

• I'm worried about my health.
• Cigarettes cost too much.
• It's less socially acceptable than it used to be.
• Smoking causes problems with my spouse or my friends.
• It's more and more uncomfortable trying to explain to my children why I smoke.

Most smokers want to quit for some very good reasons but are worried about how they will manage life without cigarettes. If you have your own important reasons for wanting to quit and would like to try, you can be successful if you have a good plan. That plan should include:

• Support from your family, friends and co-workers,
• Strategies for managing stress,
• Ways to handle the moods, feelings, activities, people or places that turn on your need to smoke,
• And possibly medication to help you get through the discomfort that often occurs in the early stage of quitting.

When you decide you are ready...

• Call the MyHealth Ready to Quit Line at 1-800-807-0751. Health coaches are ready to answer your questions, offer support, and guide you through the quitting process. Telephone counseling and print material is available at no cost to UPMC Health Plan members.
  
  
• Be sure to talk to your doctor about whether a smoking cessation medication might be helpful for you. Using a medication doubles your chances of success compared to "going cold turkey."
  
  
• To access Ready, Set, Stop! Online, our FREE interactive web-based program, log on to UPMC Health Plan's "MyHealth OnLine" and select "Stop Smoking" from the menu options.
  
  
• To download our FREE self-help quitting guide, Journey to a Smoke-Free Life, go to http://patienteducation.upmc.com/S.htm, then select "Smoking."
  
  

• Download a PDF