From: moss@irch.kfk.de on a.s.s-s
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Allen Carr's _Easy Way To Stop Smoking_ 
Penguin Books, London, 1991

 First, Allen Carr's qualifications: he's not a doctor or a psychologist,
 he's a guy who smoked five packs per day (I didn't even know that was
 possible!) and who quit one day with no difficulty whatsoever. He was so
 astounded by this that he subsequently devoted his time to finding
 out why quitting had been so easy for him, and then wrote a book about it.

 He understands how smokers' minds work, so he doesn't fill his book
 with a load of horror stories on why you shouldn't smoke. We all know
 that already, and it doesn't help. Allen Carr turns it around and
 asks, why smoke? Our bodies tell us "have a cigarette" and we give way,
 or we fight it with huge amounts of willpower. Instead, we should ask
 our bodies "what for"? He takes all the stock answers - it tastes good,
 it helps me relax, it helps me concentrate, it relieves stress, it
 relieves boredom - and disproves them one by one. In fact, we smoke
 to relieve the withdrawal symptoms that we all suffer between cigarettes,
 because nicotine is a fast acting, fast decaying drug. All the other
 justifications are rationalizations which don't stand up to scrutiny.
 The logical conclusion is that you shouldn't even think in terms of
 "giving up" cigarettes, because you're not giving up anything - you're
 just stopping smoking because you simply don't need cigarettes.

 His next point is that quitting is actually very easy. Most smokers
 make the mistake of confusing the physical withdrawal symptoms with
 the psychological "crawling up the walls" cravings and panic that you 
 get when you want to smoke and can't. The actual physical withdrawal
 symptoms are a mild, empty, hunger-like feeling, which doesn't hurt
 and which is easy to ignore. The psychological cravings, because
 they're psychological, will simply cease to exist if you can
 develop the right mental attitude. For this reason, Carr is very
 insistent that the reader continues to smoke until he's got his attitude
 right (ie. until he's finished the book), so as to avoid the negative
 experience of a failed attempt to quit. Think about the question given
 above - what positive benefits do you get from smoking - until you're
 completely convinced that SMOKING GIVES YOU NOTHING. You don't need huge
 feats of willpower, because you're not giving up anything. Making
 quitting into a test of willpower only makes it harder. You don't need
 replacements like sweets or gum, because you're not giving up anything
 that needs replacing. You don't need nicotine patches or nicotine gum,
 because you don't need nicotine. ENJOY the withdrawal symptoms, because
 that's how it feels when you defeat your addiction.

 We all know that it takes about three weeks for the body to be cleared
 of nicotine. But don't think in terms of "making it" three weeks without
 a cigarette, which would lead you to expect something wonderful to happen
 after three weeks. Nothing happens, because the physical withdrawal
 symptoms are so mild that you don't even notice they've gone. That
 wonderful thing happens in the moment you stub out your last cigarette
 and become a non-smoker. Don't get melancholy and depressed about life
 without cigarettes, because you're not giving up anything. Enjoy life
 as a non-smoker, it's better in every way. Don't even try to avoid
 thinking about cigarettes - every time you think of them, think about
 how wonderful it is that you don't need them.

 Allen Carr gives five point that need to be internalized before you
 begin:

 1. Be quite clear in your mind, you're going to quit. Not hoping to
    quit or trying to quit, just going to quit. It's easy.

 2. You're not giving up anything, but you're gaining a hell of a lot.

 3. There's no such thing as "just one cigarette". Your choices are to
    quit, or to smoke for the rest of your life.

 4. Don't think of smoking as an unpleasant habit. It's an addiction, and
    it's getting worse every day. The right time to quit is now.

 5. Understand the difference between the chemical addiction and the
    "junkie" mentality. As soon as you stub out your last cigarette, you're
    a non-smoker. Non-smokers are people who don't need cigarettes.

 If you've really taken these points on board, quitting will be simple
 and absolutely painless. You don't believe it? That's not surprising,
 we've all been brainwashed by advertising, by films, by society's
 general tolerant attitude to smoking, and by our own addiction. You
 need to open your mind and think about what Carr is saying in order to
 ditch this conditioning and realize that Carr is right.

 Finally, a disclaimer - the above is my personal summary of Allen Carr's
 book, and I may have left out or misunderstood something important.
 If in doubt, read the book. The title is Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop
 Smoking, and it was published by Penguin Books, London, in 1991. The
 ISBN number of my copy is 3-442-13664-4, but be careful because I have
 the German translation ("Endlich Nichtraucher", Goldmann G1290).
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