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.

[phoenix2]

hwc -

I discovered Joel's site a few years ago. There is a massive amount of excellent information there. I tend to agree with you about Carr's motivational guru character. But the repetition of those ideas is useful in re-programming the mind. I was having trouble trying to figure how I could separate me - my whole self - from smoking; it seemed so wrapped up in my identity. The most valuable idea or perspective that Carr provided for me, is that the desire to smoke is caused by the addiction; NOT me.

That solved, for me, the puzzle of why I so adamantly wanted to quit... and why I just as fiercely resisted and sabotaged each attempt. I thought the voice of addiction of was ME. Well, DUH - huh? I feel completely stupid that I didn't see this before - but then, that's part of the "brainwashing" - and denial - that Carr talks about. As dumb as a tech support call from someone asking "where's the 'any key'?

For me: I had to work through the mental/emotional triggers FIRST. This provides the confidence - or self-efficacy (belief in my ability) - to tackle the physical addiction and not cave at the first mental/emotional self-deception or addiction-whisper.

Today is the day.

[hwc]

The key to understanding both Joel Spitzer and Alan Carr's explanations of what it takes to quit is that smoking a cigarette does not stop the crave. In fact, smoking a cigarette is what causes the next crave. It is the administration of the addictive drug, nicotine that causes the crave when the levels of that addictive drug start to fall.

It's so logical. Non-smokers don't have craves for cigarettes. Smokers do, whether they are trying to quit or smoking three packs a day, but tryng to wake up in nicotine withdrawal every morning or experiencing intense nicotine withdrawal on a three hour flight or going stir crazy after an hour in the car without a dose of their drugs. Thus, the only real way to stop the craving is to take away the thing that is causing the craves: nicotine.

It's easy to understand why Spitzer and Carr both see the contradiction in prescribing nicotine as a cure for nicotine addiction. They both believe that doing so reduces the quitting rates and, in fact, the quitting rates in the United States have fallen since nicotine maintenance products became widely available over the counter. It's not that any one person can't quit with these nicotine products. Heck, people have quit by wearing magnets in their ears. It's the impact on society of replacing a more effective treatment plan with a less effective approach.

Even in clinical trials, the average six month quit rate for users of nicotine replacement products averaged just 7%. And, there is evidence to suggest that repeat users do even worse;, thus the widespread use of nicotine replacement could continue to drive quit rates down.

[laura35]

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

That is exactly what I do!!!!! I debate in my mind...........

[hwc]

Jean:

That's the trap of nicotine addiction. It's even crazier when you really think about what the debate is really all about. It's a debate between the fear of continuing to the smoke and the fear of what will happen if you don't continue to smoke. The nicotine addiction has you in a heads I win, tails you lose proposition. That's the bear trap. And, if our legs weren't caught in it, none of us would even think about smoking.

You can't quit by pure willpower. Willpower is what leads to those internal debates. Instead, it takes recognizing the trap for what it is and realiziing that the only way out is to become an ex-smoker...to tell the big lie of smoking to go jump in a lake.

I kind of stumbled into it. When I had craves, I just flat out said, sure I'd like to smoke. I'm a nicotine addict. But, it's worth not even considering it because I know it's the only way to get where I want to be. I used a series of deep breaths -- smoker's wheeze and all -- to remind myself of what I was hoping to leave behind and how nice it would be to take deep breaths without a cough. I never once seriously entertained the possibility of smoking a cigarette. I never really had that "should I or shouldn't I" debate.

Here's the problem. I don't know how you force yourself into that mindset. For me, watching Joel Spitzer's videos put me there. Having just finished one of Alan Carr's books, I think he can put you there, too. It takes really understanding the con job lies of nicotine addiction.

[dharmagirl]

Hi Phoenix -

One thing about fear. The night I quit, in the hour before my last smoke, I had a fear that just seemed to overwhelm my being. It was this: When I quit I will not be able to function. Now, I know from my past experience that even in the first few days, when all I want to do it sleep and escape, I can still function enough to do those things in my day that really need doing. And in actuality, I was able to function just fine. But the power with which that fear went through my entire being was so intense. Of course, we know rationally that that thought was my addiction speaking, pumping up the fear. The interesting thing about fear of quitting is that the fear is so much worse than the actual experience of quitting as long as you are aware as you said in your post that the voice speaking is not really you. It's your addiction. Now that I am almost a month into my quit (wow, I still marvel at this!!) I look back on that fear and wonder just what I was afraid of! Jimmy's post below this one is right on. You have control of which thoughts you allow to have room in your consciousness, and this is the main work of your quit. This is what will determine if you succeed or fail, and if you succeed, whether it will be a joyful liberation or a crave-filled struggle. About "don't remember": When you do quit, it's not that you don't remember to smoke. Your mind will be filled with thoughts of smoking. One trick I found very helpful is this: you can't control what thoughts pop into your head, but you can add to them. For example, when the voice in your head says "I'm dying for a smoke" you can add on to it "but actually, if I smoke I'm dying and I choose to live!" Do this with every thought that comes to you that might weaken your quit. When you first quit what you will most likely have a hard time remembering is why it is so important that you quit. Remind yourself constantly of your reasons. Eventually, with time you will forget about this struggle most of the time and when you do remember it will be with relief and gratitude that you are free.
Blessings, Dharmagirl

[hwc]

The fear is the result of forty years of bombardment in the media about how awful quitting smoking has to be. If you think about it, even this website and similar programs instill a high level of fear that quitting is so bad you need drugs to do it. Combine that with the anxiety over missing a single cigarette the nicotine addiction has made us live iwith for years and you've got the perfect recipe.

The antidote is to understand the trap. The fear goes away once you stop the hourly withdrawal - crave - smoke - withdrawal - crave - smoke addiction cycle. It's certainly not like cigarettes ar doing anything beneficial.

[rj_]

amen,
great thread, unfortunately I'm not as eloquent as some but the long and short of it is...
Education of nicotine addiction+determination to break the chain of addiction = success
Aint Freedom Grand...RJ

[phoenix2]

Well - the OTHER idea Carr says is important - is timing. I tried selecting the perfect time to smoke my last one, announced it to my hubby, and even saw the glimpse of freedom & happiness that Carr talks about.

got up the next morning... and smoked like nothing had happened. By noon, though: something concrete had taken hold... and I began to smoke LESS than normal; not at my habitual times.

I don't really consider this a failure; even though I'm still smoking. I did learn something out of the failure about emotional attachment; proved my theory to myself that the addiction could deceive me into feeling things that aren't true - only to motivate me into giving in to the need for a fix. I was able to observe this in action... and still separate my own emotions from those that the self-serving addiction generate.

So: as I'm going through a particularly stressful time right now... my father died recently... I'm trying to break the cycle of sabotage by not beating myself up about this. To consciously ask myself: do I really want/need THIS cigarette? Or is it just feeding the addiction? This is the step that needs to be included in the educational materials here. Many of us believe that the feelings of addiction are our very own feelings. We need to learn how to separate ourselves from this feeling - gain some practice at it, like not smoking in the car - or at work - all the while, knowing that we are allowing ourselves to learn what we ourselves FEEL like without giving in to the addiction... and putting the addiction on notice that while we're not going to attack it head-on - at least right now - we ARE going to box it in... set some limits... take back control of US and those emotions.

At the same time: I can't postpone the disposal of the boxed up addiction indefinitely. That's what I feel I've been doing for the past year - like dipping your toe in cold water - and saying "not yet". SIGH... but, I have to give myself a break - being hard-assed with the addiction, only makes me smoke more - and makes me completely miserable. So... I'm going to allow 2 weeks; reread Carr; pull up my whyquit bookmarks; work specifically on releasing the emotions that I associate with smoking.... and REPLACE those emotions with other ones.

And I'm going to make sure that I'm really busy with some projects that I've also procrastinated on... to help me boost that feeling of "I can do it"... "I am doing it".