2009-10-25

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr



This book helped me personally to quit smoking.
Given I had already tried a couple times before and had not succeeded with just will and discipline...

Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking gives you great tips to overcome ordinary situations and how to brain wash your brain BACK to what it was supposed to be BEFORE you became a slave to nicotine.

Also a good perk is that you can smoke through the entire book!

This is what Wikipedia says about Allen Carr the man and his book:

Carr finally quit smoking on 15 July 1983, aged 48, after a visit to a hypnotherapist. However, Carr claimed that it wasn't the hypnotherapy itself that enabled him to quit - "I succeeded in spite of and not because of that visit" and "I lit up the moment I left the clinic and made my way home...". There were two key pieces of information that enabled Allen to quit later that day. First, the hypnotherapist told him smoking was "just nicotine addiction" which Allen had never perceived before that moment i.e. that he was an addict. Second his son John lent him a medical handbook which explained that the physical withdrawal from nicotine is just like an "empty, insecure feeling" ("Packing it in the Easy Way" pp.110-116, Penguin, 2005). These two realizations crystallized in his mind just how easy it was to stop and so then enabled him to follow an overwhelming desire to explain his method to as many smokers as possible ("The Only Way To Stop Smoking Permanently":page 8, Penguin, 1995).[citation needed]
[edit] Philosophy

Carr teaches that, contrary to their perception, smokers do not receive a boost from smoking a cigarette: smoking only relieves the withdrawal symptoms from the previous cigarette, which in turn creates more withdrawal symptoms once it is finished. In this way the drug addiction perpetuates itself. He asserted that the "relief" smokers feel on lighting a cigarette, the feeling of being "back to normal", is the feeling experienced by non-smokers all the time. So that smokers, when they light a cigarette are really trying to achieve a state that non-smokers enjoy their whole lives. He further asserted that withdrawal symptoms are actually created by doubt and fear in the mind of the ex-smoker, and therefore that stopping smoking is not as traumatic as is commonly assumed, if that doubt and fear can be removed.

At Allen Carr Clinics during quit smoking sessions, smokers are allowed to continue smoking while their doubts and fears are removed, with the aim of encouraging and developing the mindset of a non-smoker before the final cigarette is even extinguished. A further reason for allowing smokers to smoke while undergoing counseling, is that Carr believed it was more difficult to convince a smoker to quit, until they understood the mechanism of "the nicotine trap". This is because their attention is diminished while they continue to believe it is traumatic and extremely difficult to quit and maintain the belief that they are dependent on nicotine.

Another assertion, unique to Carr's method is that willpower is not required to quit smoking. This is because it takes no willpower to stop doing something that an individual has no desire to do, which is the realization smokers come to once their doubt and fear about stopping has gone. When this is combined with the understanding that the actual physical withdrawal from nicotine is so inconsequential as to be minor and therefore almost insignificant, it enables smokers to finally break free. Smokers using willpower who do not come to these realizations, allow the mental "withdrawal" or anguish to overpower them, resulting in physical manifestations (e.g. sweaty palms, panic feelings, irritation, flushes etc.). It is precisely because many smokers believe these symptoms are caused by lack of nicotine (i.e. physical withdrawal) and not by their psychological dependency and feeling of deprivation, that they are not successful at quitting.

His contention was that fear of "giving up" is what causes the majority of smokers to continue smoking, therefore necessitating the smoker's perpetuation of the illusion of genuine enjoyment, as a moral justification of the inherent absurdity of smoking in the face of overwhelming medical and scientific evidence of its dangers.

Carr was very specific and analytical in his use of language. Thus he rarely referred to "giving up smoking" (preferring "stopping smoking") as the very words "giving up" hint at the suggestion that a smoker would be sacrificing something that was worth having; instead of freeing themselves. Such analyses were a cornerstone to his approach to overcoming the "nicotine trap" which was both subtle and pervasive.
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Here's a free download in PDF format http://joga.365.lt/Allen-Carr_Easy-Way-To-Stop-Smoking_Download-free-PDF-EBook. Although I highly suggest also buying the book, or attending a program near you, or purchasing the audio CD's.

I really hope you start the book.

Love, E

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