Alan Carr's "Easyway" books

[phoenix2]

I just picked up this book yesterday and checked out his website. Remember people mentioning it here, too.

Just wondering if anyone had any positive or negative things to share about his method.

[les]

TOTALLY helped me. This has been the easiest and LAST quit! The book is awesome!

[amy-withers]

The BEST Book I have ever read!!!!! His approach is different and if you follow what he says, quitting will be a piece of cake. It worked for me and I have had no problems in social situations where people are smoking. If you are still smoking, don't quit until you finish the book. I would say Good Luck, but with Allen's book you won't need it.

Amy

[phoenix2]

Thanks, guys. I've started the book and was pretty impressed - especially about the brainwashing concept. I know a lot (now) about challenging my own thoughts & beliefs and his idea that we've been convinced that quitting is difficult - when in reality it's not that bad - connected with me.

I've already noticed that I don't smoke quite as obsessively as I did. But there might be other reasons for that too. I've got a pile of old emotional excuses for smoking (they've stopped being "reasons"). Lots & lots of this kind of work with myself in the past few years. But always - got stuck at being able to master the smoking and walk away from it.

I'll keep reading! 😄

[phoenix2]

Well - I've finished the book. It all makes beautiful, simple, uncomplicated sense - doesn't it?

I'm allowing a day or so, to let things settle in my mind. The point I've always had trouble with, was step number 1:

Make a firm, clear decision/committment.

But, at least, the "fear" that we talk ourselves into, has diminished for me. I guess I was one of the "deprived" willpower quitters... and my mind would always circle me right back to the point where I was vulnerable to the suggestion: I want a smoke. Has to do with protecting others from my emotions and being able function intellectually.

At least, now - I realize that "I" am not the one wanting the smoke; it's simply the addiction screaming "feed me".

[rj_]

Don't know about his, but from comments sound like it could be a big benefit.
I am a firm believer in Education+determination+positive attitude = success.
Here is a Free book to help with education
Best to Ya,
RJ Free at Last.

[dharmagirl]

I read this book for the first time about a year ago. It all made a lot of sense to me and there are some things that he approaches in a way completely different from anything I had encountered before. The idea that by using NRT you are only prolonging the misery of withdrawl seems so logical. However, I tried many times to quit cold turkey as he recommends, and failed each time.

I am somewhat of an expert at quitting. I have done it so many times I can't even count them. I have been successful two times. The first time I remained quit for over ten years (never be stupid enough to think that after all this time you can have just one!) This time I am approaching one month. I feel absolutely sure that I will never smoke again. Both times I used NRT.

I believe that what Alan Carr says about the withdrawl from nicotine being primarily a mental process is true. But I don't think he understood how that mental attachment can be so strong in some people that even a slight physical withdrawl discomfort becomes more than a person can deal with.

I've begun to think that addiction to nicotine has three elements: first, the physical addiction which, as he says, is not nearly as bad as we have been brainwashed into thinking; second, the emotional addiction which can be deeply embedded in our subcounscious minds and related to family dynamics, self image, self esteem, grief, sorrow, fear and other emotional factors that can be so complex as to defy our efforts to understand them; and third, life structure which encompasses our tendency to be creatures of habit who find it so comforting and safe to live our lives according to a set pattern and so disorienting and downright crazy-making to change something totally embedded into the fabric of our daily lives. I believe that for me this last element has been my biggest challenge.

For me, NRT has made it possible for me to quit. I remember my other successful quit and I realize I followed much the same protocol. By using NRT I was able to tackle the life-structure portion of the process first, then by reducing the dosage of NRT the emotional and physical become manageable. I started this quit using the 14 mg patch and chewing the 2mg gum. After two weeks I cut out the patches. Now I am down to 5 pieces of gum per day and not really feeling like I need it much, so will cut the rest of it out in the next week.

Perhaps the most important thing that Alan Carr focuses on is the way that our mental state completely controlls how we will feel when we quit. I am not trying to say that NRT will do the trick for you if you have not done the preparatory work. It won't. But there is nothing wrong with a crutch when you have a broken leg. It only becomes a problem when your leg has long healed and you are still hobbling around on a crutch.

All that being said, I think it is helpful to read this book and every other book you can get your hands on about quitting. We are each a unique combination of motivations, physical chemistry, history, family complications, desires, needs, and insecurities. We each also have a unique arsenol of helpful tools such as our strengths, our faith, our support groups, our past successes, and our personal motivations. I have found it helpful to draw on every source of support I could find and to pick and choose those suggestions that resonate for me.

This website is great! Blessings,
Dharmagirl

[hwc]

"Make a firm, clear decision/committment."

That's critical IMO. Otherwise, you sit there with every single crave and have a little mental debate, "Should I, or shouldn't I?" That's just torture. You'll eventually cave. On the other hand, if you have already made the decision, then the crave comes along, you recognize it for what it is, acknowledge that, yes, you would like a cigarette, but "I don't do that anymore". End of story. The commitment keeps the crave from ever getting an opportunity to win the battle.

It does NOT have to be an all or nothing commitment. It can be for an hour at a time. In my case, it was a day by day commitment. I made it through the first day, so I figured I'd recommit for a second day. It wasn't until the third day that I made a permanent commitment.

Ideally, you just want to get yourself fourteen days into it. The nicotine withdrawal is over and you now have the luxury of choosing:

a) Smoke no cigarettes, not one puff

b) Smoke all of the cigarettes, 7500 a year for a pack a day smoker, and all the baggage that comes with that. Pretty easy choice, once you've beaten down the addiction to the point where you actually have a choice.

[hwc]

" believe that what Alan Carr says about the withdrawl from nicotine being primarily a mental process is true. But I don't think he understood how that mental attachment can be so strong in some people that even a slight physical withdrawl discomfort becomes more than a person can deal with."

I think he understood it. However, I also think Alan Carr's approach was that of a motivational guru. His whole program was designed to make people believe that quitting would be a piiece of cake. To the extent that he is successful, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There's a lot to like in the Carr program. It has proven track record. A couple of studies show that his seminar attendees had about a 50% quit rate, which is an awesome number.

Joel Spitzer, who also saw 50% quit rates in his stop-smoking clinics, espouses the same general principles of quitting as Carr, but with less salesmanship and more hard cold fact based appproach. For example Spritzer says that quitting cold turkey may be easy, may be difficult, or somewhere in between and that it can vary for from person to person and from quit to quit by the same person and that there is no predicting it. Doesn't matter. The goal is the same: to ride out the initial struggle and break the hold of the physical nicotine addiciton, thus allowing process of breaking the mental triggers to begin without the nicotine addiction undermining the whole thing.

[phoenix2]

Dharmagirl -
thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experience! I know EXACTLY what you mean about "disorienting and crazymaking" getting in the way of beginning a quit - or continuing one. Yeah - I've quit a few (!) times myself. The last was for 2 years - and yes, those unresolved mental/emotional issues were the root cause of my turning to smoking yet again to "deal" with it. Except that I wasn't dealing with it; I was using smoking to avoid dealing with it. Boy is all that a LONG story!

The best thing I've discovered so far, is that "I" am not the one thinking "I want a cigarette now". This is the addiction, whispering it's seductive, enslaving little reminder... and the best thing about this realization, is that I can separate ME from the addiction. That, in turn, allows me to make a firm committment and decision about that seductive, addicting "reminder" - the craves.

That said - I'm still armed with all the CBT techniques I've collected/learned and some non-NRT aids. I have high blood pressure, and have already experienced problems with NRT. BUT: even so, there is NRT gum in the house. As a last resort? Yes, I might go there.

It's helped a lot that you shared your understanding of the emotional addiction. That is EXACTLY what I've been working through the past few years, and smoking was completely, totally, even mysteriously entangled in all of my back "story". I've been so close - for some months now - to letting all that go. But, the smoking was unapproachable... because I relied on it to help me work through that story. Now that THAT'S all done - the only thing left were the facts about addiction... and separating the addiction... from my self. Oh - and the residual fear... always, that's there... but I've got techniques for dealing with it now.

I subconsciously gave myself a hint about how I need to quit. While journaling, I wrote "don't remember" - without intending to. It wasn't even in context with what I was writing. I've pondered this for a few weeks; I think it was message from my unconscious - if I don't remember to smoke - i.e., deny the whispers of addiction - I'll be done with it.

Thanks so much for your validating post. I wish you luck on your own quit and offer my support, if you need it. It doesn't sound like you need much support, though!