Since 2012, Public Health England and the UK NHS have played a growing role in sponsoring Stoptober, an annual nationwide campaign in which smokers are encouraged to quit smoking for the month of October.

An American smoking cessation educator since 1972, Joel Spitzer has dedicated nearly five decades to empowering smokers to arrest their chemical dependence upon inhaled nicotine.

Joel's method? He'll tell you that he doesn't have one.

Instead, he shares insights into the method that each year helps more nicotine addicts arrest their dependency than all others combined: cold turkey; the full and immediate end of nicotine use.

Joel's newest video lesson is titled "Quitting cold turkey during Stoptober."

In it, Joel notes that here in America we don't hear much about Stoptober.

Here, media coverage focuses on the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, which is the third Thursday in November. We also see some coverage of "World No Tobacco Day," which happens on May 31.

While Joel worked for the American Cancer Society when the first Great American Smokeout occurred, he's never been fond of it.

"It was just a one-day program," Joel notes in the video.

"Stoptober is a little bit different because it's a month-long program, a 28-day program that starts at the beginning of October."

"I always thought that that was a limitation of the Great American Smokeout, that it was a one-day thing. They did all this hype and all this build-up. They got all these people motivated to quit, they had the day, and then it was over."

"To me, that was pretty lacking because people were basically starting a withdrawal process, that if they could have been supported through that program, through that time period, that they could have pulled off successful quits in much larger numbers."

"So I like the concept of Stoptober because, in a way, it allows people to start a quit, go through a true detox, getting nicotine out of their system, and really breaking free of the grip that nicotine has while it's in the system," says Joel.

There's just one problem. "From what I gather, most people who participate or are guided through by the official program, they're not detoxifying.

There's a strong push that people should be using nicotine replacements. There's even emphasis that, well, they can even vape and that's going to be better than smoking."

"It's losing what I think is the real edge. And that edge is that they could have been detoxifying. By the time they were through the first three days, they would have been detoxed."

Hence, the reason for Joel's new video.

"If you decide you really want to go cold turkey, I want to know that we have materials to help people who want to go cold turkey."

Two of the primary links shared by Joel following his video are:

• Can you spare about an hour and a half to help to save your life? A 90-minute crash course addressing the importance of quitting smoking and how to successfully stop and stay free over the long-term.
• Daily video lessons to help you quit

And how does Joel's video end? The same way his nearly 500 other videos do. By reminding smokers that the key to breaking and staying free is "to make and stick to a personal commitment to Never Take Another Puff."

---

---