The Easyway to Stop Smoking

[IsmailaGodHasHeard]

You are wrong. Your Grandpa is wrong.
But we forgive you.

I am ignoring you.

 

[blackout]

I am ignoring you.

You are wrong. You are not ignoring me.

 

[Poisonshady313]

As a heavy ex-smoker to one who has never smoked, the ritual of reaching for the cigarette does have something to do with the addiction.

As one who has never smoked and only has the word of heavy ex-smokers to go by, I go by Allen Carr's expertise in this field.

Obviously, the addict isn't addicted to reaching. The anticipation of imminent satisfaction of the nicotine craving while taking out another cigarette is pleasurable in itself. Substituting the list provides a pleasant anticipation, too, an anticipation that reading the list will alleviate the pain caused by nicotine deprivation.

That's part of the problem. The belief that a substitution is necessary. That reinforces the idea that stopping smoking is some sort of sacrifice. Cue the feeling of deprivation and the anxiety that goes with it.

When not feeding the addiction with the drug itself, you can't hope to feed it with a substitute. It'll just cause aggravation and stress, like being unable to scratch an itch. Rather than finding new ways to scratch the itch, wouldn't it be wonderful to simply not have the itch?

 

[Poisonshady313]

Sort of. Not you personally. Just the Allen Carr method. Read the title. Easyway. I get that insinuation from it. I guess they had to come up with some kind of catchy name for it. (Hardway wouldn't be very catchy.) At one time they (the Easyway organisation) were making claims like 95% success rate. You put it at 53 or a bit higher, which is more realistic. There are just so many many factors here, some somewhat shady marketing strategies being one of them. We've all had tragedy from it in one way or another. Personally, I wish there was as much focus on the harm of alcohol, but for some reason the pro-alcohol lobby seems to work better than the big tobacco one did.

You said it yourself. It CAN be easy for some. That's what Allen Carr says. Follow his method, and it CAN be easy. Most people who pick up the book are skeptical when they see the title. But when they get to the end of the book, they're pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually is.

Quitting smoking is usually hard when all you know are the ways to try to stop that have proven themselves to be hard. One of the things that sets Easyway apart from the other methods is that the method itself is easy... and one comes to understand that stopping smoking itself doesn't have to be hard, once you know how to do it the easy way.

And he has an Easy Way to Stop Drinking book as well.

 

[Poisonshady313]

Speaking from experience, the nicotine is the hardest part of quitting. There is no feeling quite like the crawly, itchy, tingling, sweaty discomfort that comes over one trying to break a chemical addiction.

I hope you'll forgive me if I prefer the experience of Carr and the thousands he's helped personally, and the millions of others helped by his program.

According to Carr (and I'm paraphrasing 'cause I'm going from memory), the withdrawal from nicotine is a very subtle, almost imperceptible sensation of emptiness, a lot like hunger. Hunger isn't troublesome or painful... until we're starving. We can go long periods without food without suffering, as smokers can go long periods without smoking (at work, at school, on a plane, in a theater, etc...)... but that emptiness isn't a problem until you're told you can't eat/smoke.

The fear of being deprived and the anxiety over not being able to scratch the itch is what causes the miserable withdrawal symptoms. Once you've got your mind focused on the right perspective, getting over the physical chemical addiction is not just easy, but even enjoyable.

(All this is explained far more clearly in the book.)

Not in my experience.

I prefer to trust the experience of the man who created a method designed for the purpose of, and proven to be successful at turning smokers into non-smokers easily, painlessly, inexpensively, immediately, and permanently.

Thanks for your concern but I'm not suffering and expect I won't be needing the book.

I'm genuinely thrilled to hear that.

Personally, I read the book because I was curious and a bit skeptical. You might like to take a look the next time you're in a library or bookstore, so you don't have to pay for it, just to see what all the hype is about.

I do hope the many folks who are suffering from nicotine addition will find a path to alleviate their suffering.

I do too. I just hope that before they go spending hundreds of dollars and three months of their time exposing themselves to all kinds of awful side effects and the near guarantee that it won't work, they give Easyway a shot.

What's to lose? Less than the cost of one pack of cigarettes and a couple of hours spent reading a book? If it doesn't work, and it does work more often than not, one would be no worse off than before.

 

[Poisonshady313]

No we are not. My Grandpa is wise.

I don't doubt that he is wise.

That doesn't mean he's not wrong.

When an ex-smoker tells you it was easy for her to end her addiction, you have no business calling her a liar, or calling into question whether she was actually addicted.

It's not helpful. All it is is hurtful, disrespectful, and discouraging. It can take someone who is already nervous and uncertain about making an attempt to quit and make them not want to bother even trying.

Why would you want to do that to someone who wants to quit smoking?

 

[Poisonshady313]

According to Carr (and I'm paraphrasing 'cause I'm going from memory), the withdrawal from nicotine is a very subtle, almost imperceptible sensation of emptiness, a lot like hunger. Hunger isn't troublesome or painful... until we're starving. We can go long periods without food without suffering, as smokers can go long periods of smoking (at work, at school, on a plane, in a theater, etc...)... but that emptiness isn't a problem until you're told you can't eat/smoke.

The fear of being deprived and the anxiety over not being able to scratch the itch is what causes the miserable withdrawal symptoms. Once you've got your mind focused on the right perspective, getting over the physical chemical addiction is not just easy, but even enjoyable.

(All this is explained far more clearly in the book.)

Here's an excerpt from the book that talks about what I tried to say:

The best way to understand the subtleties of the nicotine trap is to compare it with eating. If we are in the habit of eating regular meals, we are not aware of being hungry between meals. Only if the meal is delayed are we aware of being hungry, and even then, there is no physical pain, just an empty, insecure feeling which we know as: 'I need to eat.' And the process of satisfying our hunger is a very pleasant pastime.

Smoking appears to be almost identical. The empty, insecure feeling which we know as: 'wanting or needing a cigarette' is identical to a hunger for food, although one will not satisfy the other. Like hunger, there is no physical pain and the feeling is so imperceptible that we are not even aware of it between cigarettes. It's only if we want to light up and aren't allowed to do so that we become aware of any discomfort.
But when we do light up we feel satisfied.

It is this similarity to eating which helps to fool smokers into believing that they receive some genuine pleasure. Some smokers find it very difficult to grasp that there is no pleasure or crutch, whatsoever to smoking. Some argue: 'How can you say there is no crutch? You tell me when I light up that I'll feel less nervous than before.'

Although eating and smoking appear to be very similar. In fact they are exact opposites:

1 You eat to survive and to prolong your life, whereas smoking shortens your life.

2 Food does genuinely taste good, and eating is a genuinely pleasant experience that
we can enjoy throughout our lives, whereas smoking involves breathing foul and poisonous fumes into your lungs.
3 Eating doesn't create hunger and genuinely relieves it, whereas the first cigarette starts the craving for nicotine and each subsequent one, far from relieving it, ensures that you suffer it for the rest of life.

This is an opportune moment to dispel another common myth about smoking - that smoking is a habit. Is eating a habit? If you think so, try breaking it completely. No, to describe eating as a habit would be the same as describing breathing as a habit. Both are essential for survival. It is true that different people are in the habit of satisfying their hunger at different times and with varying types of food. But eating itself is not a habit. Neither is smoking. The only reason any smoker lights a cigarette is to try to end the empty, insecure feeling that the previous cigarette created. It is true that different smokers are in the habit of trying to relieve their withdrawal pangs at different times, but smoking itself is not a habit.

Society frequently refers to the smoking habit and in this book, for convenience, I also refer to the 'habit'. However, be constantly aware that smoking is not habit, on the contrary it is no more nor less than DRUG ADDICTION!

 

[Poisonshady313]

Another excerpt regarding substitutions:

Substitutes include chewing gum, sweets, peppermints, herbal cigarettes and pills. DO NOT USE ANY OF THEM. They make it harder, not easier. If you do get a pang and use a substitute, it will prolong the pang and make it harder. What you are really saying is 'I need to smoke or fill the void,' It will be like giving in to a hijacker or the tantrums of a child. It will just keep the pangs coming and prolong the torture. In any event the substitutes will not relieve the pangs. Your craving is for nicotine, not food. All it will do is keep you thinking about smoking. Remember these points:

1 There is no substitute for nicotine.
2 You do not need nicotine. It is not food; it is poison. When the pangs come remind yourself that it is smokers who suffer withdrawal pangs, not non-smokers. See them as another evil of the drug.
See them as the death of a monster.
3 Remember: cigarettes create the void; they do not fill it. The quicker you teach your brain that you do not need to smoke, or do anything else in its place, the sooner you will be free.

In particular avoid any product that contains nicotine, whether it be gum, patch, nasal spray or the latest gimmick, the inhalator which is similar to a plastic cigarette. It is true that a small proportion of smokers who attempt to quit using nicotine substitutes do succeed and attribute their success to such use. However they quit in spite of their use and not because of it. It is unfortunate that many doctors still recommend nicotine replacement therapy (NRT),

This is not surprising because, if you don't fully understand the nicotine trap, NRT sounds very logical. It is based on the belief that when you attempt to quit smoking, you have two powerful enemies to defeat:

1 To break the habit.
2 To survive the terrible physical nicotine withdrawal pains.

If you have two powerful enemies to defeat it is sensible not to fight them simultaneously but one at a time. So the NRT theory is that you first stop smoking but continue to take a nicotine replacement. Then, once you have broken the habit, you gradually reduce the supply of nicotine, thus tackling each enemy separately.

It sounds logical, but it is based on the wrong facts. Smoking is not habit but nicotine addiction and the actual physical pain from nicotine withdrawal is almost imperceptible. What you are trying to achieve when you quit smoking is to kill both the little nicotine monster in your body and the big monster inside your brain as quickly as possible. All NRT does is to prolong the life of the little monster which in turn will prolong the life of the big monster.

Remember EASYWAY makes it easy to quit immediately. You can kill the big monster (brainwashing) before you extinguish your final cigarette. The little monster will soon be dead and even while it is dying, will be no more of a problem than it was when you were a smoker.

Just think, how can you possibly cure an addict of addiction to a drug by recommending the same drug? One eminent and highly respected doctor has actually stated on national television that some smokers are so dependent on nicotine that if they did quit they would have to take a nicotine substitute for life. How can a doctor get so confused as to believe that the human body is not just dependent upon food, water and oxygen, but on a powerful poison?

We often have smokers attend our clinics who have quit smoking but are hooked on nicotine gum. Others are hooked on the gum and are still smoking. Do not be fooled by the fact that the gum tastes awful - so did the first cigarette.

All substitutes have exactly the same effect as nicotine chewing gum, I'm now talking about this business of 'I can't have a cigarette, so I'll have ordinary chewing gum, or sweets, or peppermints to help fill the void.' Although the empty feeling of wanting a cigarette is indistinguishable from hunger for food, one will not satisfy the other. In fact, if anything is designed to make you want a cigarette, it's stuffing yourself with chewing gum or peppermints.

But the chief evil of substitutes is that they prolong the real problem, which is the brainwashing. Do you need a substitute for 'flu when it's over? Of course you don't. By saying 'I need a substitute for smoking' what you are really saying is 'I am making a sacrifice/ The depression associated with the Willpower Method is caused by the fact that the smoker believes he is making a sacrifice. All you will be doing is to substitute one problem for another. There is no pleasure in stuffing yourself with sweets. You will just get fat and miserable, and in no time at all you'll be back on the weed.

Casual smokers find it difficult to dismiss the belief that they are being deprived of their little reward: the cigarette during the canteen break of office or factory workers who aren't allowed to smoke while working, or of teachers in the staff room between lessons, or the quickie by doctors between patients. Some say: 'I wouldn't even take the break if I didn't smoke.' That proves the point, often the break is taken, not because the smoker needs it or even wants it, but because the smoker desperately needs to scratch the itch. Remember, those cigarettes never were genuine rewards. They were equivalent to wearing tight shoes to get the pleasure of taking them off. So if you feel that you must have a little reward, let that be your substitute; while you are working, wear a pair of shoes a size too small for you, don't allow yourself to remove them until you have your break, then experience that wonderful moment of relaxation and satisfaction when you do remove them. Perhaps you feel that would be rather stupid. You are absolutely right. It's hard to visualize while you are still in the trap, but that is what smokers do. It's also hard to visualize that soon you won't need that little 'reward', and you'll regard your friends who are still in the trap with genuine pity and wonder why they cannot see the point.

However, if you go on kidding yourself that the cigarette was a genuine reward or that you need a substitute to take its place, you will feel deprived and miserable, and the chances are that you'll end up smoking again. If you need a genuine break, as housewives, teachers, doctors and other workers do, you'll soon be enjoying that break even more because you won't have to choke yourself.

Remember, you don't need a substitute. Those pangs are a craving for poison and will soon be gone. Let that be your prop for the next few days. Enjoy ridding your body of poison and your mind of slavery and dependence. If, because your appetite is better, you eat more at main meals and put on a couple of pounds during the next few days, don't worry about it. When you experience the 'moment of revelation' that I describe later, you will have confidence, and you'll find that any problem you have that is capable of being solved by positive thinking you will be able to solve, including eating habits. But what you mustn't do is to start picking between meals. If you do, you will get fat and miserable and you will never know when you've kicked the weed. You'll just be moving the problem instead of getting rid of it.

 

[Poisonshady313]

I promise I won't post any more excerpts. Those two just said a lot of what I've been trying to say in a more coherent way.

I prefer for people to just pick up a book and read it for themselves, whether they're trying to quit smoking, have already quit but still crave and long for a cigarette, or just to learn about another method that sounds too good to be true, yet is not as popular as it should be for something so effective.

The people who challenge me in this thread regarding Carr's method, I would have an easier time taking you seriously if you based your objections on an actual familiarity with the book, instead of dismissing the main points because it doesn't harmonize with your experience. Your experience which didn't include knowledge of or the use of Allen Carr's Easyway.

 

[Poisonshady313]

At one time they (the Easyway organisation) were making claims like 95% success rate. You put it at 53 or a bit higher, which is more realistic. There are just so many many factors here, some somewhat shady marketing strategies being one of them.

95% is based on the clinic's full money back guarantee. He's very clear about that. There's nothing shady going on whatsoever.

We've all had tragedy from it in one way or another. Personally, I wish there was as much focus on the harm of alcohol, but for some reason the pro-alcohol lobby seems to work better than the big tobacco one did.

Here's a list of his books.

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
The Easy Way to Stop Drinking
The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently
Allen Carr's Easy Way for Women to Stop Smoking
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Control Alcohol
Allen Carr's Easyweigh to Lose Weight
The Easy Way to Enjoy Flying
The Easy Way to Stop Worrying
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Be Successful
The Little Book of Quitting
The Illustrated Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Scandal
Burning Ambition



I have only read The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, but I started reading The Easy Way to Stop Drinking during my lunch break when I worked in a bookstore. Haven't had a chance to finish it. With AA, alcoholics are told that alcoholism is an incurable disease. They have people battling temptation for the rest of their lives.

Allen Carr's Easyway is the cure for alcoholism.

I'll not dwell on this topic, because I didn't finish reading that one. I'm not so familiar with it.

But if there are alcoholics in your life trying to break their addiction, I recommend that you recommend Allen Carr. A $10 book and a couple of hours to read it. There's nothing to lose.

 

[Two-bit guru]

Could you possibly be addicted to Allan Carr? J/K :cigar::cigar:

 

[atanu]

My teenage daughter tells me that there is a fantastic book called 'Secret' that will solve all problems. I am reluctant to spend so many 10 $s. I will try Secret first.

 

[Kathryn]

This is just another con game. Everyone has a method.

Wow, this (and your other comments on this thread) is rude. On another thread, you're bemoaning your battered feelings on this forum. May I suggest that you've brought this upon yourself by your rudeness and inflammatory manner?

As for Easyway being a con game - how can you say that when you haven't read the book, and when others who HAVE read the book have put down their cigarettes and never again picked them up? If it's a con game, it's sure a cheap one - the book only costs about $7.

Listen, if I had a disease and someone told me that I could spend $7, dress like a Hindu swami, and dance around a fire at midnight while throwing chicken bones over my left shoulder - and I'd be cured - I'd give it a try if other methods weren't working and they were walking around completely cured.

It's not like the Easyway method asks you to invest $299 and hit your family and friends up to build your downspout. It's a BOOK for pete's sake, that's easy to read and that offers advice that works for many people.

You haven't even cracked the book. Whatever it was you tried for 19 times didn't work, and you're STILL obviously emotionally scarred by your own experiences trying to quit smoking. What makes you think that your advice on THIS method has any validity?

 

[Kathryn]

As for the addiction to nicotine being some sort of lifelong curse, I can attest otherwise. Several women on the thread have given the example of quitting the second they found out they were pregnant. I had the same experience - not only with nicotine, but also caffeine. Caffeine is another addictive substance that is hard to "purge" from our lives. The very moment that I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I stopped both cold turkey. Instantly. No problem whatsoever.

It IS a matter of your mindset. When you clearly realize that the benefits and the REASONS for quitting WHATEVER you're struggling with outweigh whatever it is you're getting in return - when you OWN that realization and knowledge rather than fight against it from a base of fear - you're more than halfway there already.

I love wine. I could easily, EASILY slide into alcoholism. In fact, when I was single, I struggled with this, because my life was imbalanced, and I developed the habit of going home in the evening, and having one glass - then two - then three -then a bottle - of wine every evening sitting by myself and typing online or watching movies, or sitting around with girlfriends chatting.

I was dating my (now) husband at the time. He worked overseas. He realized that when he would call me sometimes, I would be tipsy - even drunk (though I would never have admitted this). He told me one day, "Honey, I love you, but I think we may want different things in life. I'm not telling you to quit drinking - it's your choice, your life, and I am not into controlling others. But what I'm saying is that I choose not to deal with that in MY life."

Wow.

I immediately stopped that behavior. Immediately. My priorities immediately slipped into their proper places. The next night, I didn't even WANT a glass of wine. I've never struggled with it since.

I knew what I wanted - I wanted a healthy relationship with the man I loved. Period. A bottle of wine a night wasn't included in that scenario.

We've been married now for six years. And on occasion I have a glass or two of wine. But it's not every night, or even once a week. I respect him too much to bring that into our lives. The occasional glass of wine is healthy - a bottle of wine a night isn't. And I can't have ONE glass of wine every night - because then I will have two or three. In other words, I've found and accepted my own limitations and I have absolutely no problem sticking within those boundaries because my priorities are very clear.

My priority is a healthy marriage and a healthy life. My realization of that happened in one instant, even though of course for years I "knew" that more than a glass of wine a day was more detrimental than healthy.

So - it can happen in an instant. Anyone who claims otherwise frankly doesn't know what they're talking about. I'm not calling them a liar - I'm just saying that they don't fully understand the intricacies of human nature and how our psyche affects our physical experiences.

 

[Poisonshady313]

My teenage daughter tells me that there is a fantastic book called 'Secret' that will solve all problems. I am reluctant to spend so many 10 $s. I will try Secret first.

That's fine.

Though something strikes me as odd. You are reluctant to spend so many as $10. A pack of cigarettes costs as much (more in some places).

And how much do you figure a copy of "Secret" will cost you?

It's list price is $23.95, $15.70 on amazon.com. More expensive than Allen Carr's book.

And let's take a look at the criticism of this method as presented by wikipedia...

The claims made by both the book and film have been highly controversial, and have been criticized by reviewers and readers in both traditional and web-based media. The book has also been heavily criticized by former believers and practitioners, with some going as far as claiming that "The Secret" was conceived by the author and that the only people generating wealth and happiness from it are the author and the publishers.

Others assert "The Secret" offers false hope to those in true need of more conventional assistance in their lives. In 2007 Barbara Ehrenreich, an author and social critic, ridiculed the book's weight control advice to "not observe" overweight people. According to the Religion Dispatches, Byrne argued that natural disasters strike those "on the same frequency as the event" and implied the 2006 tsunami victims could have spared themselves. In businesses using the DVD for employee training or morale-building, some reacted to it as "a gimmick" and "disturbing" like "being indoctrinated into a cult".

In 2009, Ehrenreich published Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America as a response to "positive thinking" books, like The Secret, that teach "if I just change my thoughts, I could have it all". She worried this was delusional or even dangerous because it avoided dealing with the real sources behind problems.It encouraged "victim-blaming, political complacency, and a culture-wide "flight from realism" by suggesting failure is the result of not trying "hard enough" or believing "firmly enough in the inevitability of your success". Those who were "disappointed, resentful, or downcast" were 'victims' or 'losers'. Ehrenreich advocated "not negative thinking or despair" but "realism, checking out what’s really there and figuring out how to change it"

Sounds to me like it's set up to be a willpower method that Carr speaks so strongly against. It doesn't do anything to teach you the truth about why smokers smoke, and why they often find it so hard to quit.

If you figure it'll get you to have a more positive outlook on life, by all means go for it.

If you think it'll get you to stop smoking, I recommend first trying a book written specifically to get people to stop smoking... and that's Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking.

 

[Poisonshady313]

Kathryn, how is your husband doing? Has he finished the book? Has it worked?

Turk, how about you?

 

[Kathryn]

My husband is nearly thru the book and today he smoked a cigarette this morning and said, "This is it - this is the last one." I said, "Should I grab the camera and take a picture?" and he said, "Uhh, no, don't make any sort of big deal about it!"

We'll see! So far he hasn't smoked anymore today.

 

[gnomon]

I read that book years ago and kept smoking.

A coworker of mine recommended that book to me earlier in the week as I bummed a cigarette off of her. If I went by anecdotal experience I would say the book is not very helpful.

But it probably does help a lot of people.

Everyone is different in their methods.

Me, I have not had a cigarette since Wednesday afternoon. My current method of quitting is a tube sticking out of the side of my face draining blood from a surgical wound into a little bottle sitting right next to my head.

Not saying that if I had a cigarette I wouldn't smoke it but it's much easier lying in bed like this not to desire one so much. I'm taking advantage of this medical leave, which is followed by a week's vacation I had already planned, to stay away from my biggest trigger (work) and just relax. Maybe try to get out for some walks after the doc's remove this ridiculous head gear and stitches.

 

[Kathryn]

Yikes, I don't know what you've done to yourself (or had done), but I sure hope you feel better soon!

 

[gnomon]

Yikes, I don't know what you've done to yourself (or had done), but I sure hope you feel better soon!

I had a tumor on my parotid gland. Looks like one of the benign variety. The doctor stated it looked like a benign tumor but it will get tested anyway. Such a tumor isn't related to smoking that I know of but I figured this is as good a time as any to quit.

I posted a couple of pics in the "post your pic" thread but hid them behind spoilers if you want to see.