I think Allen Carr's "Easy Way" method is brilliant. It comes down to two basic principles, "don't smoke", and "don't mope". I can really relate to this approach because I've been convinced from the start (even before I listened to Carr) that it was moping that killed my prior quit attempts. I was steeled from the start not to feel sorry for myslf but a little worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off. After going through Carr's book, I am much more confident.
So how does one beat the mopes and become a cheerful quitter? It's a matter of shattering the delusions we have built up over the years as smokers. The key to this according to Carr (and so far it's working for me) is to gain a better understanding of this disease we've given ourselves. Once you understand that putting nicotine in your system in any form to satisfy a craving also begins a process that guanantees you will have another craving when that bit of nicotine is exausted. The only way to break this chain reaction is to abstain from nicotine- remembering at all times that the cravings are temporary and will disappear if you abstain long enough to rid your body of nicotine.
Going through Carr's process plants firmly in your mind that the thought "I want/need to smoke" is a self-delusion and an absurdity (i.e. we want to quit and smoking gives us nothing). All those years we were chasing our tails in a futile effort to gain the peace, tranquillity, freedom from fear, zest for life, health and happines, that is to say, the life we had before we became smokers! All those years we though the road to that blissful state was through nicotine when all along nicotine was taking us in the opposite direction because it in fact causes anxiety, fear, lethargy, self-louthing, and disease and charges us a fortune for the privilege.
Now when I'm tempted to mope about not being able to smoke, I snap myself right out of it if I remember that I'm pinning for an illusion. Smoking never did give me any pleasure, it only relieved the discomfort caused by the last one I smoked. I was deluded into mistaking the ceasation of discomfort for pleasure, and at the same time ensuring that the discomfort would continue forever. The only way off the merry-go-round is to not smoke, which is exactly what we all are doing! We are winning so be happy! The wicked-witch inside of us is melting and that empty feeling we are afraid will last forever is actually the death throes of the evil master that has enslaved us all these years.
Rejoice!
P.S. If you are having trouble with the mopes and the above looks like the ravings of a lunatic, please, please get Carr's book, "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking". I got it in audio form and listen to it in my car. It really helped me to get a whole new outlook on my quit.
