ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

-Name: Frieda Bush.

-Age: 43.

-Smoking history: I smoked my first cigarette at 14 and didn't smoke again until I was 18, when I began a pack-a-day habit. I quit when I got pregnant at 19 and stayed quit until 21. In the intervening 22 years I have quit repeatedly (once for as long as three years). I started smoking again in July of last year after not smoking for a year and a half. I smoke about a pack a day (when I'm not trying to quit).

-Motivation: I have had a racking cough for about two months. I'm finally feeling better after two rounds of antibiotics and a round of steroids. Quite frankly, after struggling to breathe for months I'm glad to be alive. And I know this is not the way I want to die. I have plenty of other reasons to quit. Both of my parents died of smoking-related cancers in their late 60s. And I love my grandsons to pieces. I felt like crying the day my oldest grandson saw me smoking and told me that he knew he couldn't smoke at 4, but he was going to smoke when he grew up. I want to be around to see that he doesn't.

-Method: I've chosen to use the Free and Clear program through Group Health Cooperative. It combines nicotine fading and group sessions to help people quit. I will also be using Zyban to help with the irritability that comes with withdrawal.

-Name: Jim Carlile.

-Age: 24.

-Smoking history: I smoked my first cigarette under some buzzing power lines behind my neighborhood in Birmingham, Ala., and have been a full-time smoker since then. That was 10 years ago. I've smoked more than a pack a day for almost half of my life.

When you're 14 years old, you don't think about where you'll be when you're 24. You don't see yourself making a few feeble efforts to quit while your habit bleeds your paycheck of money that could be used for more adult endeavors -- such as buying punk rock records and comic books.

There have been one or two attempts at quitting, but I've always managed to make myself believe that smoking was an integral part of my life -- that it somehow helped define who I was.

-Motivation: I'd like to be able to walk a flight of stairs and not pant. I'd like to figure out when, exactly, cigarettes changed from teen-age rebellion to hopeless addiction. I'd like to have a little spending money. I'd like to smell somewhat pleasant. I want to be able to encourage my little sister to quit (she started smoking when she was 14 as well -- just like her big brother). I want to tell my parents that I quit smoking and have them believe it this time.

-Method: Hypnosis.

-Name: Amy Uptmor.

-Age: 26.

-Smoking history: I smoked my first cigarette when I was 19. It started out as a casual thing, a cigarette here or there at a party or when among friends. I didn't smoke full-time until I was 21. I was pulling an all-nighter to write a paper and decided smoking would be a great way to keep me awake. That binge turned into a full-time habit without any thought.

-Motivation: Long-term smoking has helped me throw many misconceptions about smoking out the door. I actually used to think that smoking made me thin or curbed my appetite, but at this moment I weigh more than I ever have in my life; I used to believe that smoking is enjoyable, but few things are less enjoyable than coughing up a lung every morning or huffing and puffing my way up one flight of stairs; I used to believe, thanks to chain-smoking comedian Denis Leary, that if smoking did indeed shorten my life it would take away only the worst years, but now that I'm engaged to be married and considering a happy future, I want all the years I can get.

-Method: Nicotine patch combined with eating better and exercising more. Smoking isn't the only bad habit I have, and if I'm going to throw my life into turmoil by quitting smoking, I might as well work on a few more things while I'm at it. I'm confident that a healthier lifestyle will make me feel better, and that will help me quit.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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