You know you need to stop smoking.  But there are so many programs and products out there to choose from – and many of these are expensive.  How can you compare these programs before plunking your money down?  One way is to go online and look up stop smoking program reviews.  Although some will focus on just a couple of programs, others will compare several together.

Who Writes This Stuff?

Stop smoking program reviews are written by people from all walks of life, depending if the web site is taking any money from a stop smoking product.  Some stop smoking reviews are little more than long commercials with personal testimonies that can’t really be proven if such a person exists. If something promises miraculous results, then those are the stop smoking program reviews you want to ignore.

You want to try to find stop smoking program reviews that contrast and compare a lot of programs and products.  They should be easy to read, laid out in a sensible way and have an easy to understand rating system so you can quickly repair.  They also shouldn’t promise to work any miracles.  The best stop smoking reviews will also let you know that any method of quitting will be hard work.

Education Is Best Defense

One of the advantages about stop smoking program reviews is that they are free to read.  By learning as much as you can about what smoking does to you, what other people went through during nicotine withdraw and what programs are available in your area, you can arm yourself against the siren song of the cigarette.

Even your body is a great source of knowledge.  For example, this writer’s mother knew it was time to quit cold turkey when she leaned over and completely lost her breath.  Her then two year old child looked up at her and asked Mommy what was wrong.  She had a sudden intuition that if she died, who would look after her kids?  That was forty years ago and she never smoked again.  Her body (and its pain) was a powerful teacher.

Ultimately, no stop smoking program review is going to substitute for the real work of quitting.  Just as there are many reasons why people started smoking in the first place, there are many methods by which they can successfully stop smoking forever.  Even if one method doesn’t work for you, there are plenty of more to try.

Even though tobacco used to be one of the major crops grown in Pennsylvania, the Keystone state is even more interested in growing its population of non-smokers.  Many states in America do offer state stop smoking programs, so even if you don’t live in Pennsylvania, you don’t have to move here in order to get financial helps and support in your new smoke-free life.

They Do Work

With all of the problems going on in the state of Pennsylvania, there are many citizens who grumble about their tax dollars going to support state stop smoking programs rather than for any other state project.  But these state stop smoking programs are working.  In 2004, there were an estimated 2.3 million smokers in Pennsylvania.  This has dropped to 2.2 million.

One hundred thousand people might not seem like much, but those 100,000 have now made their lives healthier.  They will less likely to further tax the over-stressed Pennsylvania health care system and will miss less days of work.  That’s 100,000 Pennsylvanian families who will be able to hang onto their loved ones a little bit longer.  Can you really put a price tag on that?

What They’re Doing

Parts of the state’s stop smoking programs have included banning smoking in many places like hospitals, universities and government buildings.  Another effective and humorous campaign has been to launch a series of public service announcements on television featuring ways to quit.  They also had another featuring a teenager buying cigarettes getting eaten alive by carnivorous rabbits.

Pennsylvania Free Quitline

But one of the most successful state stop smoking programs in Pennsylvania has been the Pennsylvania Free Quitline.  Even in a stop smoking program review by the website Goliath listed the free phone service as extremely effective, helping over 6,000 Pennsylvanians to quit within its first year of operation in 2003.

It’s not like talking to a phone psychic, though, where you hear what you want to hear.  You do hear a lot of stuff that may make you angry or upset, but it can also save your life.  This is because Pennsylvania Free Quitline is staffed by counselors trained to not only get you the information you need, but help give you the motivation you need.  They also can help find financial help for getting nicotine replacement products and find any local services, support groups or workshops in your area.  There are Spanish speaking counselors, too, so there’s no excuse not to call if you are only fluent talking in Spanish.