Our Quarter Century-Plus

Since 1978

Through his X Smokers program, Peter Lambert, former heavy smoker for more than 25 years, has been helping smokers break free ever since he conquered his own addiction.

Comparative success

A survey by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Western Ontario, covering 1978 – 1999, shows an initial quit rate of 94 percent, with an overall success rate of 70 percent after one year.

The Addiction

X Smokers has proved the addiction is:

10 percent chemical,
10 percent habit, and
80 percent psychological.

The X Smokers Method

Deals with all aspects of the addiction. Strongest focus is on emotional dependence.

Eight weekly group sessions employing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
First five sessions include extensive behaviour modification coupled with fundamental smokers’ belief changes (CBT).
Participants continue to smoke for five sessions, ultimately reducing nicotine to about 20 percent of what NRT achieves while learning to cope with daily living without the emotional compulsion.
In the final three weeks, intensive, in-depth techniques are provided to help prevent relapse. Essential for permanence.

The Chemical Myth

Treating smoking chemically deals with the symptoms (about 10 percent of the problem) but not the causes of the addiction.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy’s argument is that it buys time to recondition the habit. If it is so effective, then why are we not giving alcohol to alcoholics so they can break their bottle-to-mouth habit?

X Smokers lets smokers break their emotional attachment to smoking while reducing nicotine significantly through brief use of low-yield cigarettes. Patch users must quit a 7 mg./day-addiction to the patch, whereas X Smokers weans smokers down to about one mg./day before they quit – much more easily.

Zyban affects dopamine levels while quitting, but you can’t buy education in a pill. X Smokers provides motivation, a comprehensive addiction education and coping skills. We then support the smoker against relapse for life.

Emotional Dependence

The psychology of smoking creates difficulty both in quitting and more importantly, in maintaining freedom. Relapse after significant periods of abstinence isn’t because of habit or a need for nicotine. Emotional crises, social activity, or a misunderstanding of smoking’s true role in the addict’s life are what trigger recidivism.

X Smokers teaches comprehensive coping skills. The method involves behaviour modification, but unless ingrained beliefs are understood and altered dramatically through cognitive therapy, old behaviours can easily re-emerge when conditions are appropriate. Therefore, a major part of X Smokers’ education involves changing long-held, ingrained belief systems.

The Quest for Permanence

X Smokers’ above average success is the result of preparation for the future. We take smokers way beyond the point of just quitting. This is vital to both permanent abstinence and long-term contentment with their new lifestyle. Unlike many former smokers who stop without learning to change long-held beliefs, our graduates quickly become very comfortable with their freedom and don’t spend months or years missing their cigarettes.

Quick fixes

Smoking patients may request “quick fixes” because they are so heavily promoted but, unfortunately, these products often set the smoker up for failure. When they don’t work long-term, they discourage future attempts—sometimes for years.

It’s Guaranteed

Unlike any other method, X Smokers guarantees that any group member still smoking at the end of the eight-week course will be given a 100 percent refund.