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Why is it difficult to stop vaping and smoking?

How can you help someone quit?

Core Lesson 10: Smoking and Vaping Cessation

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STUDENT GROUND RULES

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TEACHER GROUND RULES

LISTEN

I will listen carefully to what you have to say and treat all responses with respect.

ENCOURAGE

RESPECT

I will encourage all students to participate in the program's activities.

I will treat our discussions with respect. I will keep things I hear in class private or confidential, unless I as the teacher am concerned about your wellbeing or safety.

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Why is it hard to stop or quit vaping and smoking?

Quitting Is Not Easy!

Display visual Why It’s Hard to Quit Vaping/ Smoking?

The majority of kids your age do not vape or smoke nicotine. It’s also true that the majority of adults do not use nicotine. It’s possible that we know someone who does.

By show of hands, does anyone know someone who smokes or vapes nicotine, or uses smokeless tobacco?

If a person is already smoking or vaping nicotine, why is it hard for them to stop?

Write student responses onto the list. Typical responses might be:

Peer pressure
Friends do it
A habit, used to it
Something to do in social situations
Addiction

Can someone define or describe addiction to nicotine?

In short, a person that has developed an addiction to nicotine needs it in their body to feel mentally and physically okay.

Can a person stop using if they’re addicted to nicotine?

Yes, they can. It may be difficult to quit, but after they stop, the craving of nicotine, feeling jittery, and other bad effects will go away.

What happens to someone’s organs, especially lungs, when they quit smoking?

The organs and body can recover. Health can return. The sooner a person quits, then the less the body is exposed to life-threatening damage.

Keep in mind the truths about nicotine to counter any myths that students might respond with. If any of the following myths are mentioned, correct the myth and restate the truth.

Myth: Vaping/smoking calms you down/relieves stress.

Fact: Vaping/smoking appears to calm you down because when people are addicted to nicotine and don’t have it, they feel irritable and can even get withdrawal symptoms. When they begin to vape again or smoke another cigarette, the withdrawal symptoms and irritable feelings go away until the nicotine level drops again, and the irritable feelings return.

Myth: Vaping/smoking keeps you thin.

Fact: Vaping/smoking stimulates the central nervous system, which may suppress appetite, and it numbs your taste buds so eating is not as pleasurable. It doesn’t change eating habits, though, and overall, it is not an effective way to lose weight and has many negative health consequences.

Myth: E-cigarettes or vapes are safer than regular cigarettes.

Fact: This has not been proven. Research has shown that after a short time from switching to vaping, a person begins to use both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes, which introduces even more nicotine and dangerous chemicals into their system.

Otherwise, do not bring any myths up.

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Video: Clearing the Air

https://www.projectalert.com/videos

Show and Discuss Video: Clearing the Air (14 min.)

Now, we’ll see a video that shows students who have quit smoking. They talk about why they started, why it was hard to quit, and how they quit.

Show video Clearing the Air

What were the reasons these older teenagers gave for quitting?

Some reasons are that smoking caused them to be:

Out of breath
Tired;
Their friends don’t like it
It was too costly
They were caught and got in trouble
They didn’t like feeling addicted or being controlled by nicotine.

How did they quit?

Some ways they quit were:

Cold turkey, stopping entirely one day
Friends deciding to quit together
Someone helped them
Quit hanging out with people that used nicotine
Did something else in place to relieve cravings or cope with their feelings.

Notice one teen reported they tried several times to quit. Even if you haven’t been vaping or smoking for long, it can be difficult to quit. It takes persistence to quit.

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Making Quitting Lists

What gets people to quit?
How do people quit?
What are the good things you get from quitting?
How can you help a friend or family member who is trying to quit?

Get into groups and choose a Recorder and a Reporter.

Display chart with title Quitting Lists

Now we are going to do an activity in which you come up with your own suggestions about quitting.

I’m going to divide the class into four groups. Each group will get a sheet with a question about quitting. Your job as a group is to write at least four answers to the question. The four questions are:

What gets people to quit?
How do people quit?
What are the good things you get from quitting?
How can you help a friend or family member who is trying to quit?

Each group with have a chosen Recorder who will write down the group’s responses.

Each group will have a chosen Reporter who will read aloud the group’s responses to the class.

You’ll have five minutes to work together to complete your lists.

Groups may use some of the reasons that students in the video said and add your own ideas.

Each group needs at least one sheet of paper and writing utensil. Be sure to take these supplies with you when you move into your group. Break students into groups.

Begin!

Circulate and help groups as needed.

Time is up. Who will volunteer as the first Reporter?

Write group one responses.

Who will volunteer as the second Reporter, providing additional ideas?

Repeat this process so that each group can provide additional ideas.

Typical student responses:

What gets people to quit?
Reduced performance playing sports
Feeling sick
Lose good friends
People they care about also quit
Don’t like the feeling of a substance that controls their lives
Friends want them to stop
How do people quit?
Cold turkey
Parents/friends help them
Friends quit together
Treatment
Do other things when they feel the urge to smoke (hobby, exercise, eat, talk to friends, breathe deeply)
Reduce use and then stop
Try several times before succeeding
What are the benefits of quitting?
Better health
Better at sports
Whiter teeth
Don’t smell
Don’t lose friends
Not nervous
Happy family
Save money
How can you help a friend or family member who is trying to quit?
Moral support or encouragement
Showing that you care
Describe things you look forward to doing together when they quit
Tell them what bad things smoking does
Tell them what good things quitting does
Tell them about treatment programs
Say you love them and are afraid for the life-threatening affects its having

Be sure to elicit the importance of providing moral support, providing encouragement, or showing that you care, if the students have not mentioned it.

If you were trying to quit vaping/smoking, how would you like your friends or family to react?

If responses include throwing out or discarding cigarettes or vaping device, mention that this might be acceptable to some people but might make other people angry.

If responses include using e-cigarettes or vaping devices instead of regular cigarettes as an effective quitting aid, correct this myth. Let students know this has not been proven.

Inform students that highly addictive nicotine is still present in e-cigarettes.

Also, research has found that after a short time from switching to e-cigarettes, a person begins to use both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes, which introduces even more nicotine into their system.

Some studies found that teens that use e-cigarettes are more likely to start smoking regular cigarettes.

If you were trying to quit, you would want support from the people you care about and/or the people that care about you. You would want them to care about you succeeding.

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Making Changes

What are some habits you’d like to change?

In the video, students were talking about changing a behavior. What are some of the other habits or behaviors teens have that they might want to change?

Some ideas like too much screen time, eating too much junk food, biting nails, or [insert student suggestions].

We are all capable of making changes in our lives. Now you’re going to think about a behavior you may want to change in your own life. If you are vaping/smoking, that might be what you want to change. If you are not, think of something else you might want to change, like waiting until the last minute to complete your homework or study for a test.

Distribute Making Changes in My Life handout to each student.

This sheet and what you write down is for your eyes only.

Write at least one behavior change you would like to see in your life.

Next, write the first step you could take to change, and then write a date for taking this step. Write at least one person who could support your change and what they might do.

Please take about three minutes to think and write.

After about three minutes.

This is for you to keep, and you may want to put it in a place where you will see it every day. It may help you stay on track. Share it with your support person so they know that you would like their support. It may help you make the changes you want.

It takes courage to quit using nicotine, and courage to make other kinds of changes, but if you really want to you can do it.

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Wrap-up

Today We:

Learned why it's so hard to quit smoking.
Thought about how we could help someone quit
Considered a change we want to make in our own lives

Next Lesson We Will:

Review what we have learned in Project ALERT!

Today, we talked about why it’s hard to quit using nicotine and how to help people you care about quit.

Remember, addiction to nicotine is very powerful. It’s not easy to quit, and it takes courage. But there are many benefits to quitting: your lungs get healthier, you breathe more easily, you stop life-threatening damage to your organs, you have more money, you no longer crave smoking/vaping, and you feel more in control of your life.

Most importantly, we talked about what kind of changes you might want to make in your own life and planned the first steps to making those changes.

Our next Project ALERT lesson will be our last. We’ll review what we covered in the prior 10 lessons and celebrate our completion of Project ALERT.

Optional: Ask students to write down at least one way they can support someone who wants to stop using substances for participation pointes or exit ticket.