Quitomzilla For Firefox Helps You Quit Smoking
Smoking is one of those things that I could never get my head around. Why would anyone want to pay money for something that damages their health? I have a few friends who are smoking, and one of the things that I witnessed over the years were lackluster and honest attempts to quit smoking. And while some managed to quit from one day to the other, many failed in their attempts after a week, month or even years of not smoking.
The incentive to stop smoking should be obvious: You can save a lot of money which you could spend for other things. You first may spend them on things that help you mitigate the desire to smoke. The second benefit is that your overall health will improve over time.
The Firefox add-on Quitomzilla helps smokers quit smoking by keeping track of statistics associated with smoking. The add-on keeps track of the money that was saved by not smoking, the number of cigarettes that were not smoked, and the overall time since the last cigarette.
First time users need to open the add-on's configuration with a left-click on the status bar icon. Here they can set the quit date and time, the price of a pack of smokes with 20 cigarettes, the currency and the cigarettes that they consumed per day.
The extension furthermore displays milestone information in the browser. These milestones use macros that reveal how much money has been saved since the day of quitting smoking and how many cigarettes have not been smoked.
The milestone message can be edited in the options. Firefox users who want to quit smoking should give it a try. While it probably is not enough to keep users from smoking on its own, it could very well assist them in that task.
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As for this Firefox extension, it seems like an odd place for the app. I mean, it’d be made for someone who spends their entire day within Firefox. A stand-alone mobile app seems more appropriate.
My late Dad always maintained that giving up smoking was the easiest thing in the world – after all, he’d done it hundreds of times!
It killed both him and my mother (who, in the 1940s, actually started smoking on her doctor’s advice!!) A persistent chest condition I’ve had all my life might well, my GP advises, be traced back to 2nd-hand smoke.
Which at least meant that, having grown up in an otherwise loving household that reeked of tobacco – a house I was glad to be out of most days – I never needed to quit because I was never even remotely tempted to start.
Later, working for the public in a variety of jobs, I’d often ponder over otherwise good-looking young people who seemed unconscious to the possible effect (on making friends, getting a job, etc) of the stench that preceeded them by several feet. These days, when it’s no longer universal and so actively discouraged and warned against, my heart just quakes when I see stupid young people smoking.
I don’t know if this addon is worthwhile – but good luck to anything that might even remotely help, I say. I should imagine this sort of app might also help those with an alcohol problem too – as with smoking it’s often the sheer cost that brings people to their senses.
I always say that I started smoking the day I was conceived because my mother was a 2-pack a day smoker. Since I shared her air, I got hooked on nicotine early. Maybe that is why some babies cry so much – they are suffering withdrawal. I honestly think that mothers who smoke cause a genetic change in their children during gestation that makes them more likely to become smokers.
I’m amazed I started smoking when I did because our house also reeked of tobacco. As did the cars. Yes, I can’t forget those car rides sitting in the back of the car while my mother & father blew smoke. It used to make me sick to my stomach.
Here’s a well known website for people who want to quit:
http://whyquit.com/
Wow! As a ‘young smoker’, you have given me a powerful reason to quit. The best I’ve been able to do is make a partial switch to the new eCigs. I hope for a full switch, then taper down. That story is horrific and I am sorry for you. Of course, what may be equally horrific is my insurance provider someday seeing this comment and denying me coverage, but I’ve always disclosed the fact that I’m a smoker for fear of that.
Smoking is a slow killer, and it sure makes life miserable along the way! Anyone wanting to quit smoking should look into hypnosis therapy. I quit in 2007 with the help of a hypnotherapist and I never smoked again! There’s a lot of good information on http://www.hypnosismiracle.com… Check it out sometime!
Not available (yet?) for Firefox 10.0.1
This is a good idea. Surprised no one did this before!
They should add a count of days since you last smoked also.
As to why people smoke, it is an addiction, just like heroin or other drugs. Actually, it might help some people quit if they thought of themselves as a drug addict who can’t go anywhere without carrying around their drug.
I smoked for many years. Here’s the secret to quitting – You REALLY have to want to do it. Once you make the decision to not be a smoker, you don’t need crutches like nicotine gum or patches, etc. You just do it. Throw in some exercise and in a couple of weeks you’ll be breathing so good that you won’t ever want to pick up a cig again.
wow this sounds cool, martin.
but the law in this country allows the people to smoke, and this is also a business too big to fail, hehe.
Anyway, we would have a lot of app like this, to quit smoking, to quit eating meat, to quit wearing the fur, to quit ……………