If you are new, it is suggested that you come to at least six meetings before deciding if this program can help you. First come to meetings, then come to understand, then come to believe. Take what you need for now and leave the rest for another time. You do not have to have quit smoking or chewing tobacco to come to meetings. It is our experience that those who continue to regularly attend meetings will eventually stop using nicotine.

You will receive no pressure from the group to quit using nicotine. We’ve all been there, we understand. Take your time. Listen, share your story, read the literature, use the tools, and keep showing up! Recovery is a process that we practice every day. Keep in mind that many have come before you with just as much fear and doubt and now live free and clean.

The Twelve Steps are the heart of our program of recovery. They suggest a spiritual approach to gaining and maintaining freedom from nicotine. By “spiritual” we do not mean religious. Our reference to God in the Steps is our way of involving a power greater than ourselves in our recovery. Each person comes to his or her own understanding of a Higher Power without anyone else’s urging or influence.

Between meetings, the phone/email list is possibly the most effective tool we can give you. Use it when you want to smoke. We have found that none of us can do this alone. We really want you to call us. If one of us is not available, call someone else. It will make a difference in not using nicotine!

As we say in the Serenity Prayer, even if we can’t change the craving for nicotine, we can accept it and we can live with it. So, we pray for the courage to change the things we can. What we can change is our unwillingness to live—even for a short time—with the craving for the next “fix,” or cigarette. If you continue to use nicotine even though you say this prayer, then say it again! Keep saying it as you reflect on what it means to you, a nicotine user. Eventually it will work, as it has for thousands of others.