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Clinic
Success Story:
Neil Found the Help he
Needed
Name:
Neil Basen
Age: 58
Smoked: 20
years
Hometown: Madison
How he quit: UW-CTRI
Smoking Cessation & Prevention
Clinic
On rainy days when business is slow, Neil Basen,
58, of Madison parks his cab and holds a pen between his fingers.
It helps him resist the urge to start smoking again, one of the
many tips he picked up from the UW-CTRI Smoking Cessation Clinic.
“That helped,” Neil said. “Doug
(Jorenby) and Sandra (Japuntich) at the clinic were first rate.
They’re always willing to guide me down the right path.
There was one guy at the group sessions, Tom, who taught me how
I was a prisoner to cigarettes. I thought cigarettes were my ‘little
friend,’ a companion. It’s sad.”
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“I
knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do it.”
--Neil Basen |
Environmental cues also seemed to be a factor for Neil.
He’d go to the local bar to watch a Badger or Packer game and
light up with friends. “I’d sit at the Crystal Corner and
I’d have a drink in one hand and a cig in the other. I’d
take a sip and then a drag. Now when I go back there and see my friends
smoking, I can’t believe I did that.”
Neil had tried quitting many times but never quite found
the help he needed.
“The doctors would ask me about quitting, but
they would just check it off or just say, ‘You really ought to
think about quitting.’ We need to get the information out there
to help people quit. . . The clinic can help you with your craving period,
how to ‘step around’ it. I knew what I wanted to do but
I didn’t know how to do it.”
That’s exactly why UW-CTRI offers clinic services to anyone who
smokes or chews tobacco—to show them how to do it. “I never
thought I’d quit smoking,” Neil said. “But now I feel
better.“
For more on getting
help to quit smoking, visit our Smokers
section. To
access our news story archives, click
here.
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