I’m about halfway through Allen Carr’s book Easy Way to Stop Smoking and I’m really getting some insight. But I’m nervous.
It all seems so easy and makes sense, and it doesn’t even admonish me for smoking while I’m reading the book. In fact, I may light one up right now.
But, when does it start to make the desire go away? Am I going to feel a panic if I don’t buy the next pack of cigarettes while waiting for my epiphany? When does said epiphany arrive? Am I going to be in the middle of a cigarette and look at it aghast and throw it away, never to have a temptation to smoke again?
I smoke around a pack a day now. Allen Carr smoked 100 cigarettes a day and then just stopped.
I hope it will be that easy for me. But I’m still a bit nervous about it.
Don’t worry. When you’re ready to smoke your last one, Carr will tell you how to do it, and it will make sense. Go ahead and buy another pack if you don’t have enough to last until the end of the book; when you’re ready you can just pitch whatever’s left into the trash can, and feel no regrets.
I quit smoking for a while using Carr’s method, and it was the easiest quit I’ve ever done, but then I started again, because I didn’t really want to quit. I’m going to have to do it again sooner or later, I suppose.
One of the guys I work with is quitting. I bought him *Easy Way to Stop Smoking * based on people’s experiences here. It came in over the weekend and I’m going to give it to him today.
Good luck! Sending you all the supporting thoughts I can.
Well, I guess the more I read, the more I get psyched up for it. It’s not that I don’t want to quit, just that it seems like it’s almost something I have to prepare for.
His sort of approach takes practice, I’ve found. You’re essentially re-educating yourself to see that all the things that you thought were positive about smoking (or whatever) were really an illusion and all of the scary things you thought about the quitting process were exaggerated. It works, but it requires making these new ways of thinking into just as much of a habit as the old ways were.
I haven’t read Carr’s book, but I did quit cold-turkey three years ago. Haven’t smoked one since.
Know what the secret was? - Don’t just throw out your current pack of smokes, but also throw out all the stuff that goes along with smoking. You know what I mean, if you are a smoker. The favorite lighter, the coffee can on the back porch you throw your butts in, the spare pack of smokes - whatever it is that you keep around to make smoking easier. Make it a real chore and effort to get a smoke and smoke it.
Though that being said, nothing works unless you really want to do it. All of my previous quitting attempts had been half-assed, for the simple reason that I did not really wish to quit - which was symbolized by keeping the lighter, the coffee can, etc.
Sorry for the late reply. Things got busy last night.
I know what you mean. I’m about halfway through and I’m still smoking. The thing is, it’s when I get up in the morning with this disgusting, hacking cough that I want to quit the most. But what’s the first thing I do? Light up.
I can second Marlitharn; keep on reading and the book will just tell you when it is time to stop smoking the last cigarette, and by then you’ll be ready for it.
One of the many good things about Carr’s book is that is convinces you that most of the fear of the withdrawal symptoms supposedly involved in quitting is exaggerated, and that exaggerated fear is one of the reasons people doggedly keep on smoking.
All change is scary, even change for the better. What if it doesn’t work? What if it does? Aaaahhhh! Unknown! Unknown! That’s what your brain, which does pattern-recognition and the familiar so very, very well is saying right now. Advertising got one thing right once; JUST DO IT. Hold your nose and take the plunge. Be brave. Be daring. Be scared, and do it anyway.
Hey, this works for soda pop? I might have to read it! I love my soda, and though I keep trying to cut down (I drink about 5 cans a week), I’m not doing it. Mostly because I don’t really want to. It’s not like I go through withdrawal, I just really like it. But I’m also trying to lose weight, and I’m pretty sure soda doesn’t help.
Have you considered that it might be just the carbonation that you’re after, dangermom? When I figured that out about myself, I switched to club soda with a little fruit juice in it instead of full-sugar or full-chemical sodas.
I do buy flavored club soda, and I like it; the carbonation is a big part of my soda habit. But I also like the flavor of my favorite soda. I also need to be less cheap; soda is a lot less expensive than club soda and it hurts to pay so much money for fizzy water. But you’re right.
That’s funny; club soda is exactly the same price as regular soda here, which makes me wonder a little (it’s obviously cheaper to produce club soda with no flavouring in it at all, but that shows you what kind of markup is involved in all sodas, I guess). Gotta have my bubbles.
My secret for getting the nicotine monkey off my back?
A heart attack!
After all that IV nitro via drip (man, what a raging headache!!!), stent placements, and hypotensive episodes upon first standing up, I never returned to the habit. Over 10 years free of nicotine now.
Never read the book but am smoke free since March this year. I had been taking Zoloft for depression and switched to Wellbutrin (the same as Zyban) which helped with the cravings. To deal with the psychological urges (oral fixation and using a cigarette like a pointer for example) I started chewing cinnamon sticks (like the kinds you would put in hot apple cider). They are the same size and shape as a cig and you can safely chew them. Plus, if you do slip and light up a smoke, the cinnamon makes the cig taste like crap. Same thing if you gargle with Lavoris or drink milk.
My hardest part was that I kept noticing where and when I was at and how it related to smoking. “Oh, it’s 10 AM. I’d usually take a smoke break now.” Or “I just passed exit 117. I’d usually light up around here.” I adjusted my schedule and route for a little bit to remove those reminders.
Good luck to you. I still get occasional urges, especially during high stress times (like when I got laid off a couple weeks ago) but I reminded myself of how far I’ve come and refuse to surrender to cancer sticks.
