promote Allen Carr's Easyway to other 43ers who want to stop smoking

my brother in law had given me allen carr’s “the easy way to stop smoking” book with very high regard…i accepted the book half irritated and offended by it’s gesture…lol i was at the time a smoker who enjoyed my ciggs and that was that. well i picked up that same book not but one week later out of boredome ….i was soon enveloped insided the pages and soon enough found myself waiting to finish the book with much antisipation of quiting. three days later i did and WOW could not believe how EASY it was. i had quit in the past using the will power method.. and at the time thought that was the only real way to quit. how wrong was I…Allen Carr is a genius and has allowed smokers to look at it a whole other way…mind over matter!! quitting smoking is soo much easier than anyone thought it to be!!

I haven’t actually read most of the book, but have read some of Carr’s other books, and am reasonably familar with his theories, which are quit interesting.

One thing Carr claims is that smokers don’t actually get any pleasure from smoking, and the perception of enjoyment they get is merely relief from the withdrawl symptoms of nicotine, and is what non-smokers feel all the time (same principle for other alleged benefits of smoking like stress relief e.t.c).

Although I fair bit of what Allen Carr says makes sense, scientests disagree with key parts of his theories. From some websites:
1
“Research has shown that nicotine increases the level of dopamine in the brain, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and well-being”
2
“Nicotine also attaches to neurons (brain cells) that releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Nicotine stimulates neurons to release unusually large amounts of dopamine. Dopamine stimulates the brains pleasure and reward circuit, a group of brain structures called the limbic system involved in … feelings of pleasure…. smoking cigarettes causes a flood of dopamine in the smokers brain. it is this flood of dopamine that gives the smoker intense feelings of pleasure”

To put it simply, Nicotine (a chemichal found in cigarette smoke) causes the brain to produce a chemical called dopamine, which creates feelings of pleasure, reward e.t.c (Dopamine is also released when eating having sex, hence why we enjoy those things). Thus (at least when first starting) the pleasure created by smoking isn’t an illusion (as Carr thinks) but real. However, with time the body adjusts, and cuts the production of dopamine, meaning that the smoker needs nicotine to get the normal level of dopamine (more consistent with Carr’s theories, but you should still enjoy it, and get depressed when withdrawn)

In short, Carrs theory doesn’t stack up too well scientifically (and this isn’t the only area).

Carr does make some good points, and has suceeded in not only helping a lot of people quit smoking, but convincing a lot of people into thiking that the pleasure people allege to experience from smoking is merely an illusion we have been brainwashed into.

Is it possible Carr is wrong, and has brainwashed almost everybody who has read the book into beleieving things that run counter to scientific knowledge?

Anyone know anyone who has read the book and decided to continue smoking?

This is the best way to quit smoking, hands down…

I wonder why it isn’t more well-known in the US?

I m bugged of tryin to stop smoking !I have tried umpteen nr of times but the sub-consious mind seems to rule ! I have read all the comments and i m really enthusiatic of doing it by the book ! So went out ther and got myself a copy..thot i log all the stages pre,during and post!

Btw i smoke 15-20 Cigs a day and this is increasing my metabolism rate, which is stagnating my weight gain and i still am that scrawny and the mal-nourished 24 year old! i am telling this with authority cos when i had managed to quit smoking for 1 month i gained 4 kilos !

So want to get there and doing this will directly help me achieve my goal of gaining 10 kilos !

but I passed my copy along to some friends of mine. I hope it helps! Although it may be a while yet.

I will certainly promote it to anyone I know/meet who needs help! It took a few tries for me but it really did provide the mental trick I needed.

Just notice I didn’t even realize I used to smoke a lot a couple of yrs ago…I mean; Im so not thinking about smoking that I forgot I used to smoke! The book helped me a lot, In Spain they made a tv show based on the book so everyone could watch it and stop right then.

The best thing of quitting smoking is that after you put out the last cigarrette, you’ve just quit smoking. It helped me a lot.

Also, just use your hands on something else like cross-stitch or something like that; I also did that and it does help a lot!! I tell ya!

I smoked for 40 years and quit many times. I learned something new each time and when I put together all I’d learned, I finally did it. Alan Carr’s book taught me two things. He convinced me never to just have a drag as it is feeding the dragon. What I connected to most though was where he talks about feeling sorry for yourself when you can’t smoke. This was me. He said to change the mind set and feel sorry for the person still smoking and to feel blessed not to be smoking yourself. I could go on and on about this but will keep it short.

Good luck to anyone trying to quit and just don’t smoke.

i think one of most important myths that he busts is the ‘nicotine replacement therapies’ which are promoted on most stop smoking campaigns. i had almost no physical withdrawal, so why do i need a replacment? read it – i smoked for 16 years and this was the only think that has really helped me…

I smoked from when I was 18 till I was 23. Then I decided that I was smoking too much and started cutting back until I finally stopped smoking. This worked just fine, until I started having cravings so strong that I would wake up in the middle of the night just really wanting to have a cigarette.

When I finally fell for it again, after 13 months of not smoking, I enlisted a friend of mine to go with me to get cigarettes. And we did. But he hates cigarettes, and this is something that I just didn’t know about him. We bought the box, and he told me about how disgusting and how horrible it was to smoke, and then he convinced me of giving him the box with all 19 cigarettes left, and he destroyed them, one by one, in front of me, and as he destroyed each cigarette, he reinforced positive messages. “You won’t stink.” “You will stop poisoning yourself.” etc. It was a painful experience, but it made a very powerful impression on me. Even if I had a craving, I was able to not smoke.

Then I was sent to Germany on an active duty stint with the military. The military is known for the very high rate of smokers, and so is Germany, so after 15 months of not smoking, of which 4 months were deployment time, I broke down and started smoking again. This time, however, it lasted for about a month. I knew how disgusting it was, and I had been advocating for others to quit smoking, including a guy I was dating at the time.

I was able to quit smoking, but he wasn’t, and that is when I stumbled upon Allen Carr’s EasyWay Method. They were selling the book at the base’s exchange store. I flipped through it before I bought it, and thought that it might be helpful, and bought it for the guy I was dating.

I was having bad cravings again, and I had even had a puff or two from someone else’s cigarette, and I decided to get myself a copy of the book. I didn’t even finish reading it, but I was back on my way to quit smoking.

I have been smoke free for 8 months now, but now, when I get a craving, instead of going crazy over figuring out a way to cheat my own rules about smoking, I open up the book and read a chapter or two… and my cravings get fixed for a couple of months!

I don’t know exactly what it is about it, but the way Allen Carr describes the smoking experience makes a lot of sense and makes you realize what a nasty, disgusting habit it is.

Needless to say, my friend is very proud that I have been able to persevere in it again, and is very happy that I feel so confident that this time, I got off nicotine for good!

The guy I was dating was able to cut back considerably, and is still working on the book. He doesn’t really like to read, so it’s a little tougher for him to quit smoking with this method. I also bought a copy for another friend of mine, and I just recently learned that she has actually quit, after 40 years of chain-smoking!!!!

The book works!

I smoked without interruption ever from the age 11 to 45. 34 years of poisoning my body, being sick, lacking energy, having wet hands, stinking, being embarrassed and ridiculed and annoying everybody else !
I have now abstained for 4 full months and hopefully forever.
Allen Carr’s book made me realise that I could do it although it took me 3 more years to actually succeed.
I’m enjoying a new life now…
The best thing one can ever do and my biggest fight and pride.