A new edition of the revolutionary bestseller, with four million copies in print. Allen Carr’s innovative Easyway method—which he discovered after his own 100-cigarette-a-day habit nearly drove him to despair—has helped millions kick smoking without feeling anxious and deprived. That’s because he helps smokers discover the psychological reasons behind their dependency, explains in detail how to handle the withdrawal symptoms, shows them how to avoid situations when temptation might become too strong, and enables them to stay smoke-free. Carr discusses such issues as nicotine addiction; the social “brainwashing” that encourages smoking; the false belief that a cigarette relieves stress; the role boredom plays in sabotaging efforts to stop; and the main reasons for failure. With this proven program, smokers will be throwing away their packs for good.
Allen Carr was an author of books about quitting smoking and other psychological dependencies including alcohol addiction. He quit smoking after 33 years as a hundred-a-day chain smoker.
This is really, truly a terrible book that uses very transparent psychological trickery to convince you to stop smoking. But, it totally worked on me so it gets 5 stars.
کسی از روی کنجکاوی یا تفریح دست به مطالعه این کتاب نمی زنه، یا خودش سیگار می کشه یا یکی از اطرافیانش، و خب برای چنین شخصی فقط یه چیز اهمیت داره: این کتاب و متد واقعا کار می کنه؟! باید بگم آره، قطعا کار می کنه
تجربه شخصی من
من اولین سیگار زندگیم رو 8 سال پیش کشیدم و برای 6 سال به قول نویسندهی این کتاب یک سیگاری قهار بودم. از روز اول تا ابتدای این ماه حدودا 44000 نخ سیگار کشیدم. از مضرات همه جانبه سیگار برای سلامتی آگاهی کامل داشتم، اما سیگار با عنوان یاور همیشه مومن (شوخی و جدی) در خوداگاه و ناخودآگاه من ثبت شده بود از این رو هیچ وقت تصمیم به کنار گذاشتنش نداشتم. یکی دو سال اول خودم رو سیگاری نمی دونستم و در مقابلِ کسی که من رو با این عنوان صدا می زد موضع می گرفتم که: من سیگاری نیستم، هر وقت بخوام می تونم بذارمش کنار. چون تجربه های اقماری ترک رو داشتم و این تصور توی ذهنم بود که با اینکه سیگار می کشم ولی اسیرش نیستم. اما مدتی که گذشت دیدم واقعا اینطوری نیست و یکی دو تلاش برای رهایی و ترک نتیجه خوبی نداشت. پذیرفته بودم که قراره تا آخر عمر سیگار بکشم و در نهایت هم به یکی از بیماریهایی که نتیجه سیگار کشیدن هست دچار میشم این طرز فکر ادامه داشت تا روزی که آگهی این کتاب رو اتفاقی پیدا کردم و بعد از یه بررسی مختصر خریدمش. کتاب رو به عنوان آخرین تلاش احتمالا نافرجام خودم دیدم. روزی که کتاب بدستم رسید یکی از همکارانم با شوخی و طعنه گفت تو میخوای سیگار رو هم با کتاب ترک کنی؟! مگه همچین چیزی شدنیه؟ پنجاه صفحه از کتاب رو که خوندم به گرفتن یک تصمیم جدی امیدوار شدم و تقریبا صفحه صد کتاب بودم که بدون هیچ برنامهریزی قبلی بلند شدم پاکت سیگار و فندک و جاسیگاری رو انداختم دور و گفتم من دیگه سیگار نمی کشم. امروز روز ششم ترک هست و بجز موارد معدود و خیلی گذرا احساس نیازی به نیکوتین پیدا نکردم
درباره کتاب
نویسنده کتاب برای سالها با شدت باورنکردنی سیگار می کشیده و تجربههای ناامید کنندهای هم درباره ترک نیکوتین داشته، ولی بالاخره یک روز موفق به ترک سیگار می شه و تصمیم میگیره (حالا به هر انگیزهای) که در این راه به سیگاریهای دیگه ام کمک کنه. نتیجهش می شه این کتاب و صدها سیمنار و جلسه مشاوره ترک و هزاران نفری که موفق به ترک سیگار با حداقل ناراحتی و سختی شدند. (البته حتما تعداد بسیار زیادی شکست خورده هم وجود داره که طبق معمول دیده نمی شن)
شیوههای رایج ترک سیگار مثل آدامس و برچسب نیکوتین اعتیاد به دخانیات رو نتیجه 1-عادت 2-اعتیاد جسمانی به نیکوتین می دونند و در این راستا ابتدا تلاش می کنن با ایجاد یک جایگزین برای سیگار عادت به سیگار رو از بین ببرند و بعد با کم کردن دوز نیکوتین اعتیاد فیزیکی رو. ولی واقعیت اینه که اعتیاد به نیکوتین شبیه اعتیاد به روانگردان ها می مونه، اعتیاد جسمی خیلی ناچیز و خفیف و اعتیاد روانی بسیار بزرگی داره. متد این کتاب به این صورت هست که اول به اعتیاد روانی (هیولای بزرگ) حملهور می شه و سعی می کنه خیلی منطقی شست و شوهای مغزی سیگاریها رو از بین ببره و در مرحله بعدی کار اعتیاد جسمی (هیولای کوچک) رو یکسره و تمام کنه. نکته مهم اینه که تقریبا اکثر سیگاریها هرچقدرم که از سیگار متنفر باشن باز هم از کنار گذاشتن و نبود اون به دهها دلیل منطقی و غیرمنطقی می ترسن، اما چون نویسنده خودش تمام این ترسها رو تجربه کرده و در متن کتاب هم آورده، به این ترس سیگاری ها دامن نمی زنه و به همین دلیل خوندن و به پایان رسوندن کتاب برای کسی که اون رو بدستش گرفت کار سختی نیست
پیشنهاد من
چیزی تحت عنوان مصرف تفریحی سیگار وجود نداره. ما یا سیگاری نیستیم، یعنی به هیچ عنوان سیگار نمی کشیم یا سیگاری هستیم، یعنی ماهی یک نخ یا هفتهای یک نخ یا روزی یکی دو پاکت سیگار می کشیم. اگر با این دستهبندی در جرگه سیگاریها قرار میگیرد توصیه اکید می کنم که به جای استفاده از شیوهی "قدرت اراده" و آدامس و چسب نیکوتین و الکترواسموک، این کتاب رو بخونید. اگر هم تصمیم به ترک ندارید باز هم این کتاب رو بخونید. طرز فکر و نگاه شما رو به سیگار تغییر می ده و حداقل دیگه نه با گول زدن خود، بلکه آگاهانه سیگار می کشید
Training for the New York City marathon last fall didn't magically stop me from smoking, but maybe watching a beloved client die abruptly and excruciatingly of lung cancer last week will do the trick? In case that's not enough, I've got Allen Carr's annoying self-help book to back me up!
I love fucking smoking. I love, love, love, LOVE it. Except, Allen Carr's going to tell me, I actually don't. I can't possibly love smoking because smoking's disgusting! All the loving I think I'm doing is actually just the insidious mendacity of addiction that is warping my mind and encouraging me to flood my otherwise gorgeous long-distance runner's lungs with carcinogens and emphysema and all other kinds of gnarly. I totally believe this, he's obviously right, and I know what Carr's gonna say because I've read this before. And it totally worked the first time -- but of course, quitting smoking's easy, it's the staying quit that's a drag.
I don't relate to a lot of quit smoking stuff, because my smoking occurs under pretty specific conditions. I'm not the kind of smoker who smokes every day, but nor am I really a true social smoker who has one or two on special occasions. I smoke when I drink, and when I do then I binge. I can go weeks without touching them, but once I get started, I'll smoke a pack -- sometimes more -- in a night without batting an eye. Drinking gets me every time, as do smoker friends. Also driving. Rock shows. Writing papers. Etc.... Why do I do this? Because I love smoking!!! No, Allen Carr tells me: that is not why. I do it because I'm addicted, and I tell myself all these crazy lies about cigarettes, like that they're fun and make me happy, and that I enjoy smoking them. God, but I believe that. I believe that I love them. I hope he talks me out of that.... it's a tall order!
I do feel pretty ready for Carr to convince me. I'm thirty years old, and I know smoking's gross. I've had two friends my own age undergo intensely difficult, painful battles against cancer, and i've spent these past few weeks watching a man I really cared about suffer in agony, knowing he wasn't going to get all the years he deserved, probably because of this addiction he'd had since age nine. When he was diagnosed with lung cancer about a month ago, he told me he couldn't wait to get out of the hospital so he could have a cigarette. He even laughed about it, and said that he just couldn't imagine his life without cigarettes. He did get discharged, with referrals to radiology, and I'm sure he smoked his face off once he got home.... only he didn't have much time to enjoy that because he was rushed back to the hospital right away, when it turned out the leg pain he'd been complaining of was metastasized cancer. He died just a couple brutal weeks later without getting to smoke again or even go outside for fresh air. One of the many very, very sad things about it all is that I'd watched this man successfully fight addictions to other things that are a lot more serious in terms of their immediate effects on a person's life. Smoking cigarettes doesn't make you homeless (though with NYC's $10 pack, that could change) or exacerbate mental illness (according to some sources, it can actually soothe symptoms), and cigarettes don't estrange you from family and friends and the rest of society. But in the final analysis, smoking cigarettes can obviously have a way bigger impact than any of those other substances, because terminal illness makes all the rest of that stuff completely irrelevant. Homeless people can find housing, schizophrenics can manage their psychiatric symptoms, and people who've lost touch their families can reunite with their loved ones -- I saw this guy accomplish all those things recently, after seeing him struggle so much in the past. But he didn't ever get to enjoy what he worked so hard to regain, because he died of fucking lung cancer right when he'd finally -- and heroically -- gotten his life together.
I guess it's not so shocking that as I get older, I understand all the moralistic hysteria about kids smoking way more than I used to. I'm from a generation for whom there was no mystery or obfuscation about the health risks of smoking, and I was fully aware while choking down my first Marlboro when I was twelve that this was a horrifically unhealthy and addictive substance that almost inevitably caused lethal diseases. I mean, as a little kid I was terrified of cigarettes! They spent so much time at school screaming at us about lung cancer that I was distraught for days after walking in on a parent smoking at late night, convinced I'd be orphaned by what I, in my innocence, had assumed was a cigarette....
But I digress. No, what I was going to say is that -- as we all know -- kids start smoking because they know it's bad, and kids love bad things, and they absolutely don't believe for one second that they'll ever get older, let alone die. They really just don't. It's documented fact. See, but now I've gotten on a bit in years so I'm starting to get that if I don't figure something out soon, someday I will die. The older I get, and the more people I see get really sick and/or die, it does get a lot harder to deny that it could happen to me. That.... well, it will happen to me.
Part of me thinks that's why I love smoking -- there's some adolescent nihilism there that I'm really attached to, some big "fuck you" to the horror of mortality when you light that bitch up and suck in a big drag -- GOD, I love that feeling! But what Allen Carr would say, and what he's going to remind me, is that that's total bullshit. That feeling's just some half-assed, asinine, transparently juvenile rationalization for a dull and simple addiction I've been senselessly feeding for close to two decades. Allen Carr's annoying self-help book is going to remind me that all that romance and glamour, all the emotional and intellectual pyrotechnics I associate with my smoking, are just more sophisticated versions of a drug addict's most pathetic excuses. All those reasons aren't true. I don't really love smoking.
Anyway, even if some of that stuff is true, it's way past time to stop. I'm too old for nihilism, and that's not how I want to go, in horrible pain and all fucked-up on morphine. If I want to make some statement, I should jump off a building.
This weekend I hung out with a friend of mine who just went through the unbelievably awful experience of breast cancer treatment, and she was talking about how when someone gets sick, everyone wants to blame them for it. I'm sure you've noticed this too, that whenever something bad happens to someone, other people just go nuts coming up with explanations of how the sick/murdered/hit-by-a-car person's brought the misfortune on themselves. Susan Sontag talks a lot about this in Illness as Metaphor, and one thing I thought was weird but that I also kind of liked was that she shoved "smoking" in with "unresolved grief" and "pent-up rage" as ridiculous factors that people use to blame other people for getting cancer. It's true that lung cancer is one of the last acceptably stigmatized illnesses -- people can happily pass judgment on smokers who get it in a way that they're just dying to but can't for anyone else who gets sick. And I will be DAMNED if I ultimately give any smug asshole that satisfaction! When I have a terminal illness -- and unless I have some kind of terrible accident, chances are that at some point in the future I most likely will -- I hope it'll be one people can't blame me for giving myself. Or, much more importantly, that I can't blame myself for getting. Because that's not a fun thought.
Anyway, I'm planning to read this thing by the weekend. If I can make it through the Fourth of July without smoking, that'll surely be cause for a huge celebration. And if I can't.... well, then it'll probably mean that I'll have to stop drinking.
هیچوقت فکرشو نمیکردم که برای همچین کتابی بخوام ریویو بنویسم.طبق توصیه ای که در انجمن های معتادین گمنام میکنند،اول میخوام تجربه زیستی خودم رو از سیگار بگم حدود ۱ سال پیش یک سلسله اتفاقات توی سفرهام برام اتفاق افتاد که باعث شد پی ببرم که برخلاف چیزی که من تصور میکردم ذهنم از من جداست و این فکر و خیالها و نیازهایی که سراغم میاد بیشتر خوراک دادن به ذهنمه،سیگار کشیدن،پرخوری،افسردگی،پر حرفی،جلب توجه و .... نشستم حساب کردم دیدم طی این ۱۲ سالی که سیگار میکشم اگر به طور متوسط روزی ۱ پاکت هم کشیده باشم(که بیشتر هم بوده بعضی روزها) چیزی حدود ۹۰ هزار نخ سیگار کشیدم،دیدم این شکلی تا ۴۰ سالگی دووم نمیارم.تصمیم به ترک گرفتم.البته قبلا هم دو بار تلاش کرده بودم و دو بارش شکست مفتضحانه ای خورده بودم. سیگار برای من چیزی بیشتر از یک سرگرمی بود،تبدیل شده بود به اعتیاد شدید و لازمه زندگیم بود.بعضی شبها ساعت ۴ صبح توی سنندج دکه به دکه و مغازه به مغازه میچرخیدم تا ی پاکت سیگار پیدا کنم. هر فیلمی که میدیدم دست کم یک پاکت سیگار باهاش میکشیدم و باور کنید فیلمای خیلی خیلی زیادی دیدم کتاب میخوندم باید سیگارم کنارم میبود و میکشیدم هر چن دقیقه یک بار.موسیقی گوش میکردم سیگار،فکر میکردم سیگار،غذا میخوردم سیگار،عصبی میشدم سیگار،صبح بیدار میشدم سیگار و کلا هر حرکتی که در طول روز انجام میدادم یک سیگار باهاش میکشیدم یادمه پاکت دوم رو تموم کرده بودم و پاکت سوم نخ چهارم رو داشتم میکشیدم که چن تا سرفه سنگین کردم و کف دستمو که دیدم قرمز بود.نفهمیدم چی شد که یهو سیگارو پرت کردم و پاکت خورد کردم و گفتم دیگه نمیکشم.توی شهر اسفراین یا بجنورد بودم(دقیقا یادم نمیاد) که گفتم توی ی پارکی میگیرم میخوابم.چادرمو باز کردم و تیرکش شکست.خیلی اعصابم خورد شد،رفتم سیگار بگیرم یارو دکه ای سیگار نداشت.چرخیدم توی شهر که ی جا خواب پیدا کنم که ی چادر فروشی دیدم.یارو منو دید و گفت که بیا برو حیاط پشتی ما یکی از چادر ها رو باز کن و توش بخواب تا صبح(دمش گرم) رفتم تو چادر و اومدم بخوابم وسوسه شروع شد.خودمو سرگرم کردم و اومدم توی نت سرچ کردم ترک سیگار که خوشبختانه این کتاب اومد جلوی چشمم و خریدمش(توی فیدیبو) خوندن این کتاب همانا و ترک سیگار همانا البته چن تا نکته رو باید بگم.فقط این کتاب نبود که منو ترغیب به ترک سیگار کرد.نصف موفقیتم توی این داستان پی بردن به این بود که سیگار رو ذهنم میخواد نه خودم،من و ذهنم از هم جداییم. نکته های مهم توی کتاب از این قراره ۱.سیگار رو با نیروی اراده ترک نکنید ۲.چیزی به اسم سیگار کشیدن تفننی وجود نداره ۳.شما یا سیگار هستید یا نیستید ۴.فشار روانی نیکوتین رو دست کم نگیرید نقطه قوت کتاب اینجاست که آقای آلن کار خودش سالها ی سیگاری قهار بوده و همه زوایا و مشکلات رو در نظر گرفته و از کل تجربیاتش استفاده کرده اگر خودتون یا یکی از آشناهاتون سیگاری هستش و میخوان(این خیلی مهمه که بخوان) ترک کنن این کتاب میتونه بهترین هدیه باشه مطمئن باشید که این کتاب تاثیرگذاره حداقل برای خیلی هایی که اطرافم میشناسم بوده برای خودمم که فقط میتونم همینو بگم که من بعد ۱۲ سال و روزی بیشتر از یک پاکت کشیدن ترک کردم.چن وقت دیگه میشه یک سال نهایتا جمله م رو با حرف دیگه ای از انجمن معتادین گمنام تموم میکنم،تنها پیش نیاز ترک کردن،اراده به ترک و خواستن هستش،پس در صورتی که خودتون هم اراده به ترک کرده باشید این کتاب میتونه به صورت تمام و کمال موثر باشه خواهشمندم دوستان نظراتشون رو از خوانش کتاب بگن و برای کتاب ریویو بنویسند،نجات هر انسان نجات زندگیست.......
Didn't think it would work. I started smoking at 13. Didn't think it would work. A friend told me it was magic. Still didn't think it would work. Bought a used copy (it was out of print, can you believe it?!) in 2005 and managed to keep losing it, never read it. Finally sat down with it two years later. Read it, didn't think it would work. Followed the instructions. Quit painlessly. No craziness, no weight gain. Never looked back, never missed it. Believe me, I'd tried everything before, and none of it stuck. Unbelievable. I just bought 10 copies for friends. Still don't miss smoking. Didn't turn me into an ex-smoker. Turned me into a NON-smoker. Magic.
I cannot give this book enough stars. I started smoking when I was 19 and was a pack a day smoker when I made the decision to quit and began to read this book. It really is the BEST way to quit smoking - I finished reading this book, threw out my cigarettes and never smoked again. I have suffered no withdrawal or pangs of desire ... I tried quitting several times before reading this book, either using the patch, the gum or cold turkey, and every time I tried, I was so miserable that I always started smoking again. Now, not only am I a non-smoker, I am overjoyed to be a non-smoker and I have no desire to ever smoke again, even when surrounded by other smokers! I recommend this book to any smoker who says they want to quit ... sadly, many of my smoking friends are too scared to quit. Once they decide that they do really want to quit, this book will do it for them. If you are a smoker and you want to quit, I'll bet you've tried all the gimmicks, and they don't work, right? They didn't work for me! This book ISN'T a gimmick - it works!!! I have been smoke-free for almost 2 years at this writing (I finished reading the Easy Way to Quit Smoking on 05/11/2007 and haven't had a puff since), and I feel great. I can't say enough about this book.
دوستانِ گرانقدر، من یک سیگاری هستم، و هنوز به ترکِ سیگار فکر نکردم.. و مطمئن باشید که با کتاب و نوشته و این قبیل مسائل، کسی نمیتواند سیگار را ترک کند.. چراکه سیگار کشیدن برای هر شخص دلایلِ گوناگونی دارد، بنابراین نمیتوان به آسانی نسخهٔ همه گیر برایِ آن صادر نمود دوستانِ بزرگوار، برایِ آغازِ این ریویو و مبحث، من مایل هستم تا سیگار و دخانیات را در دستهٔ "مصرف اجباری" قرار دهم عزیزانم، مصرف اجباری، جانشینی است برایِ اضطراب و نگرانی... نیاز به چنین مصرفی زاییدهٔ احساسِ تهی بودنِ درونی، نا امید بودن، افکار مغشوش و مشوّش داشتن و همچنین تنش، میباشد... چیزی که نگرانی را برطرف میکند، مطمئن باشید که ترک نمودنِ آن، افسردگی را به همراه خواهد داشت.. در کنارِ این افسردگی ممکن است آسیبهایی نیز به بدن و ذهنِ انسان وارد شود که یکی از این آسیبهایِ جدی، سکتهٔ قلبی و یا مغزی میباشد باید این نکتهٔ مهم را بدانید که با انتخابِ اشياء مصرفی است که انسان به خود این آرامشِ خاطر و اطمینان را میدهد که هنوز "هست"، همانگونه که پیش از این "بود" ... بنابراین اگر میزانِ مصرفِ او کمتر شود، مقدارِ زیادی از تشویش و نگرانی هایِ او چهرهٔ واقعیِ خویش را نشان میدهد و به یکباره پدیدار میگردد... فکرِ پایداری در برابرِ ظهورِ احتمالیِ نگرانیها و اضطراب، به نداشتن و نبودِ ارادهٔ شخص در زمینهٔ کم کردنِ موضوعِ مصرف، می انجامد آشکارترین مثال در زمینهٔ این ساختکار و مکانیزم را میتوان در رفتارِ مردم نسبت به مصرفِ سیگار و دخانیات جستجو کرد... با وجودِ خطرِ سیگار و دخانیات برایِ سلامتیِ انسان ها، بیشترِ انسانها به کشیدنِ سیگار رو می آورند... آیا این امر به دلیلِ این است که مردم، استقبالِ یک مرگِ زودرس را به چشم پوشی از یک لذتِ آنی و زودگذر، ترجیح میدهند!!؟ تحلیلِ رفتارِ سیگاری ها و پژوهش در موردِ آن، نشان میدهد که این امر، تا حدِ زیادی یک نوع توجیه برایِ معقول جلوه دادنِ موضوعِ اعتیاد میباشد مصرفِ سیگار، تشویش و نگرانی هایِ پنهانی و تنش را کاهش میدهد، و مردم ترجیح میدهند سلامتِ خود را به خطر انداخته، ولی با نگرانیها و تشویش هایِ ذهنیِ خویش روبرو نشوند در هر حال، هنگامی که کیفیتِ فراگردِ زندگی، اهمیتِ بیشتری از آنچه امروز در بر دارد، بدست آورد، بسیاری از مردم از سیگار کشیدن یا افراطِ در آن خودداری خواهند کرد. نه به خاطرِ سلامتِ جسمیِ خویش، بلکه بخاطرِ آنکه وقتی مردم با نگرانی هایِ خویش روبرو میشوند، آنوقت است که میتوانند راه هایِ دیگری برایِ زندگی بارورتر جستجو کنند عزیزانم، ما چگونه میتوانیم از مصرفِ کم صحبت کنیم، در حالیکه هنوز سطحِ مصرفِ دلخواه برایِ تمامیِ جامعه بدست نیامده است؟ .... در بخشِ ثروتمند و طبقهٔ بالا از جامعه، ما به سطحِ زیان بارِ مصرف رسیده ایم اندیشهٔ تولید و مصرفِ بدونِ حد و مرز، تا اندازهٔ زیادی یک حالتِ انفعالی و کنش پذیر و پدید آورندهٔ یک حالتِ طمع و آز در شخص میباشد، حتی پیش از آنکه حدِ مصرف به نقطهٔ اوجِ خود برسد ما اگر بخواهیم کاری کنیم که زندگی هدفِ اصلیِ مردمِ جامعه باشد، باید نخست الگویِ مصرفِ جامعه را تغییر دهیم، چنین تغییری نیاز به بالا رفتن سطحِ مطالعاتِ مردم و خردگرا شدنِ آنها دارد.. مردمی که خردگرا باشند و خود را از بندِ موهومات و خزعبلات رها کرده باشند، آنگاه آگاهیِ لازم، دربارهٔ مسئلهٔ نیازهایِ خود و تفاوت میان نیازهایِ زندگی بخش و نیازهایی که مانعِ زندگی هستند و زیانبار میباشند، را بدست خواهند آورد... این را نیز فراموش نکنید که شادابی و رضایت، میتواند بسیاری از نگرانی ها و دلشوره هایِ روزانه را کاهش دهد و در نتیجه مصرف سیگار نیز کاهش پیدا میکند.. که متأسفانه شادابی و لذت از زندگی از جامعهٔ کنونیِ سرزمینمان، رخت بربسته است به عنوانِ یک سیگاری، دوست دارم بیشتر از اینها برایتان بنویسم و این موضوع را موردِ بررسی قرار دهم... ولی ریویو برای شما دوستانِ کتابخوان، خسته کننده میشود --------------------------------------------- امیدوارم این ریویو برای شما عزیزان مفید بوده باشه «پیروز باشید و ایرانی»
Third edit: Five years. Still smoke free with very few cravings ever. Give this a shot if you have any desire to quit no matter how small.
Second edit: still smoke free more than three years later. As annoying as the book can be at points, it really worked for me.
Edit: I said I would change it to 5 stars if I quit. I'm entering day 9 without a cigarette. I can't say that it was/is as easy as he says, but it is definitely easier than it ever was before. I definitely highly recommend this book to other smokers who would like to quit.
Well, we're currently at three stars on this one because it really did make me think about quitting in a different light. If I really do quit because of it, the score will change to five stars in a heartbeat.
It's basically a sort of deprogramming book with some pretty simple ideas and ways of looking at things that I hadn't really considered before. No scare tactics. I appreciate that it is a "new" approach.
That said, the constant, self-congratulatory tone can get obnoxious and I wish the guy would have said flat out how much money he was making off of this instead of constantly saying how he was doing it solely for the good of others (come on - several of the instructions he gave are to buy more of the book to give to others... never lend out or give away your copy -- you may need it, etc... Practically sounded like a pyramid scam at points.)
Still, I haven't had a cigarette since I finished reading it. That hasn't been that long, but I am hopeful...
Also, it's a quick read. Finished it in one sitting. So it's not like I'm out a whole lot of time if it doesn't work...
It's uses simple and not unheard sentences about smoking but definitely a good boost the first few days as I'm on my quitting smoking journey. Only 5 days so far but feel like I've been thinking and talking about the things Allen Carr brought up.
2023 update: This was my first review on Goodreads, and the only one for quite some time. I wrote it because I truly wanted to share my experience, particularly because prior to reading the book, it was hard to believe it could ever help me quit smoking.
I am now 8 years smoke free, I never think about smoking and, so far, I don't have the drive/ need to pick up a cigarette. Quitting smoking remains the hardest thing I ever had to do, and I am not sure I would have the strength to do it again.
Regardless, if you want to quit, do pick up this book. Thank you Allen Carr!
2019 review: It is the worst book I ever read but it worked for me. I’ve used to smoke a pack per day for 10 years and am now 4 years smoke free.
I actually didn't finish the book, but I did smoke the last cigarette of my life while reading it, and extinguished it in utter disgust.
The book is written at a third grader's level of reading comprehension, and at times, the arguments seem positively infantile. The text is repetitive, and the author's personal history is repellant and dull. The money argument doesn't really work on me. And yet, and yet. There is some very clever rhetoric in play here, utterly simplistic in its logic, but ultimately compelling. My brain has completely rewired how I think about cigarettes, smoking, and smokers. The only two times I previously semi-successfully quit, I would miss cigarettes, and envy smokers, until I fell back off the wagon. This time, I simply SMH and wonder how I could have been so foolish for so long.
I smoked for most of 17 years, and now I'm free (a better word for quitting, I learned herein), and though I sort of hate to admit it, this book has a lot to do with it. I wish I remember who recommended it to me, but since I don't, I just try to pass it on. I do notice many of my still-smoking friends seem to ignore it, even if it's sitting on their shelf -- so it seems to me that there is definitely a component whereby you need to truly want to give up the poison before this book can work its hypnotic magic on you.
We all make questionable life decisions here and there, I'm glad this one is behind me.
بنظرم کسانی به دنبال کتابهایی از این قبیل می روند که تمایل زیادی به ترک دارند و از سیگار کشیدن و عواقبش به تنگ آمده اند. شاید یکی از عوامل شهرت کتاب هم، نه فقط مطالب خود کتاب، بلکه تصمیم جمعیت آماری خاص مصمم به ترک باشد. متدهای کتاب معجزه نمی کنند، اطلاعاتی هستند که ما جسته و گریخته میدانیمشان. آلن کار به عنوان فردی که به مدت سی سال سیگاری بوده، با دغدغه های سیگاری ها آشناست و آنها را در یک کتاب جمع کرده. اما در مورد خود من: تصمیم گرفتم مدتی از اتمام خوانش کتاب بگذرد و بعد ریویو را بنویسم که نظرم به تجربه نزدیکتر باشد. امشب، شبِ روز پانزدهمی است که بدون سیگار گذراندم و اینکه بله کتاب تاثیرگذار بوده. :)
Includes interesting facts but didn't stop me smoking unfortunately. It has given me a lot to think about before my next attempt though.
Update: Happy to say after a decade from reading this book, I'm now smoke free. Looking back, I don't think I actually wanted to quit when I read this.
EDIT: 2016 - 4 years on and I still haven't touched a cigarette - more importantly, I haven't WANTED a cigarette. I have had weird dreams where I smoke and I wake up feeling so disgusted with myself, the relief when I wake up and realise I'm still smoke-free is unreal! But yes - this book definitely worked for me.
I don't give many books a 5* rating - but I read this in 2012 and haven't picked a cigarette up since. More importantly - I haven't had the desire to. I've recommended this book to several people. If you read it, and take the information in, it works. I don't know how, but it does.
من به این کتاب 5 ستاره دادم . " تنها کتابی هست که این امتیازرو دادم چون تنها کتابی هست که واقعا منو نجات داده " من 7 سال سیگار کشیدم سیگاری تفریحی و معمولی نبودم یک سیگاری قهار شده بودم صبحا ناشتا 3 تا سیگار میکشیدم تا بتونم روزمو شروع کنم . هرروز حدودا 15 -20 نخ سیگار میکشیدم . فکر دور بودن از سیگار برام عذاب آور بود . کمتر پیش خانوادم میموندم و بیشتر دوست داشتم تنها باشم که بتونم راحت سیگار بکشم .سرکار رفتن برام سخت بود و مجبور میشدم سه بار از محل کار برم بیرون و توی ماشین سیگار بکشم . دلم نمیخواست کسی متوجه شه که سیگاری هستم و بوی سیگار میدادم و این عذاب همیشه همراهم بود مسیر زیادی رو نمیتونستم پیاده برم احساس خستگی میکردم . این احساس خستگی همیشگی بود حتی صبح بعد از بیدار شدن از خواب . نفس عمیق نمیتونستم بکشم چون توی ریم احساس درد شدیدی میکردم . تک سرفه میزدم و بعد از غذا مخصوصا ، ببخشید که اینطور میگم ولی سرفه هام خلطی بود . به کسی نمیگفتم چه عذابی میکشم حتی به خودم . جرات نداشتم به این مشکلاتم فکر کنم . هر بار توی ذهنم یکی از این مشکلات میومد یه سیگار میکشیدم و به خودم اجازه نمیدادم دربارش فکر کنم چه برسه به صحبت . نفرت انگیز ترین کاری که میکردم وقتایی بود که سیگارم تموم میشد و توی خاکسترا دنبال سیگارایی میکشتم که یکم مونده باشن و بتونم حداقل یکی دو پک بزنم .این کار خجالت آور رو برای خودمم مرور نمیکردم . توی سالهایی که سیگاری بودم شدیدا احساس پیری میکردم . نه درست نفس میکشیدم نه خوب راه میرفتم نمیتونستم ورزش کنم دندونام زرد شده بود وهمیشه بوی نفرت انگیز سیگار میدادم بعد از دوبار یا سه بار ترک ناموفق تصمیم گرفتم دیگه هیچوقت به ترک فکر نکنم تا اینکه این کتابو یکی از دوستانم بهم معرفی کرد . کتاب رو خریدم و حسابی به خودم خندیدم . مادرم وقتی کتاب رو از پست تحویل گرفت با تعجب گفت با کتاب میخوای ترک کنی ؟؟؟؟ خنده دار بود با کتاب ؟ با یه سری دستور و روش ؟ فک میکردم این کتاب مثل کتاب راز یا قدرت یا جزب و ازین چرتو پرتاس و با نیروی درون کمکت میکنه که ترک کنی . وقتی کتاب رو شروع کردم حسی بهم میگفت دیوونه نشو این آشغال چیه اخه میخوای بخونی ولی کتاب فوقالعاده بود نویسنده خواسته بود کتا ب رو حتما تا آخر بخونیم و من جرات نداشتم تمومش کنم . یک سال کامل طول کشید تا کتاب رو خوندم و باتمام وجودم قبول کردم که آزاد شدن از سیگار فقط چند روز مشکل جسمی داره و بقیه اش مشکل روانیه توی کتاب از دو تا هیولا حرف میزنه هیولای کوچیک نیکوتین و هیولای بزرگ که ذهن و روانو درگیر میکنه نیکوتین 5 6 روزه از بدن دفع میشه اما هیولای بزرگ رو باید چند بار زمین زد . هر بار که زمین میخوره ضعیف تر میشه . راه آسان ترک سیگار : این راه آسان هست واقعا . من الان بسیار سالم هستم و هر روز پر انرژی از خواب بیدار میشم و بدن درد ندارم و ریه هان مثل روز اول سالمممه سالم شده من ورزش میکنم و حتی قلیون هم نمیکشم اعتیاد به سیگار سخت هست ولی بهتون قول میدم این کتاب آزادتون میکنه .
This book is badly written in the way that only a self-help book can be, and I wanted to dislike it based purely on that principle.
I also wanted to dislike it because of the author's horrifying habit, throughout most of the book, of classifying smokers as poor pathetic creatures to be pitied, only to throw in a very brief chapter at the end begging readers not to become those condescending, self-righteous ex-smokers. (Perhaps he doesn't feel that pity is, by definition, condescending?)
I wanted to dislike this book because Carr absolutely insists that certain smoker experiences are universal. He says multiple times that everyone's first cigarette is unpleasant and results in coughing, which was simply not true for me — and no, I'm not lying to myself about this to "justify" starting, as Mr. Freud — ahem, Mr. Carr — smugly asserts. This is a very minor detail, but for me it erodes the author's credibility.
I further wanted to dislike this book because of Carr's zealous adherence to the status quo — just for an example, his explicitly stated assumption that smokers were able to cope with life before they started smoking, which ignores the high incidence of smoking among oppressed minorities and those with anxiety disorders.
For these reasons, I'd like to give this book a 1-star review.
However, I began reading it several weeks after I quit smoking, and can now safely say that reading it has definitely helped me to stay quit, to brush off a relapse with very little drama, and to stop feeling so anxious about the "forever-ness" of quitting. This book helped me not to care about cigarettes anymore, not to be afraid of living without them. Despite itself, it did what it set out to do.
For this reason, I'd like to give it a 5-star review.
Understanding why you smoke and know what you have to do to quit just made sense to me. My husband (who I thought was a lifer) have been smoke free for 3 years, best thing I ever did was read this book.
This book opened my eyes to the reality why I smoked and the reasons why I should stop making excuses and just quit.
Thank you Allen Carr for saving mine and my husbands life :)
Standard work of smoking cessation, including ruthless billing with established withdrawal concept
Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.
The first few dozen pages, brimming with self-promotion and self-adulation, must not appear to the willing-to-give, prospective ex-smoker as an arrogant posture, nor serve as a potential justification for premature termination of the reading. As confident as Carr looks, his concept is so well thought out and meaningful that the theatrical staging certainly has its justification. Moreover, good marketing even more useful, against a perfidious addiction of liberating and the health system helping concepts harms the idea certainly not. Beginning with the symptoms of nicotine addiction and the main lever to be applied in the head, already failed smokers are unfortunately too familiar topics, such as the diabolical power of habit, subconscious and conditioning, self-enslavement on the panicky escape from cold withdrawal, stressful situations and personal Crises and the danger of the method willpower represented. Under the latter Carr smoker, who with self-restraint and iron discipline survive the critical, first three weeks, the withdrawal from the smoking career, however, not voluntarily motivated, but have heralded health-related or without real faith in a happy, smoke-free life. The inherent danger associated with a smoke-free exit that does not amount to a hundred percent conviction is to mourn the alleged lucky donors for years, well beyond the actual withdrawal, instead of being able to enjoy the healthier way of life and the money saved. Precisely for this reason, there is an increased focus on the motivation to make the tobacco addict come to the senses, such as pointless, stupid, dangerous, restrictive, detrimental, and in no way enjoyable, aromatic, relaxing, individual, or promoting the creativity of igniting oblong paper pods in actually designed for food intake body openings. As long as this knowledge and willingness to give up cigarettes happily and voluntarily for a lifetime is not a fixed point of one's thought pattern, the probability of relapse and the suffering is much more pronounced. A smoker who is only physically, but not mentally weaned, will continue to experience the smell of tobacco, smoking people, and all thoughts and images associated with the inhalation process as positive, the need for cigarettes will be more pronounced in both exceptional situations and daily life, and thus pointless Quality of life is wasted and torment generated. Precisely for this reason, Carr also does not believe in nicotine replacement supplements, as these only artificially prolong the withdrawal and thus the most painful phase. While a full-smoker, 1 to 2 packs of cigarettes daily destroying consumer must feel at least no unpleasant, nervous emptiness, so is a painstaking months for only 5 to 10 cigarettes a day reduced smoker quasi in permanent withdrawal state, which only stress and malaise leads with it and the fear of the total smoke stop still strengthened. Also, that most of the traditional weaning concepts are associated with the prescription of substitute preparations, which gives the manufacturers outstanding profits, but the consumer in return, nothing good, is denounced. In the case of substitution programs for more stringent drugs, in which withdrawal can sometimes be fatal, the use of methadone and co-formulas is useful and appropriate. In the fact of nicotine, however, it is pointless and counterproductive due to the purely physically weak and in no way dangerous weaning phase. In addition to the unobjectionable points of criticism, which are not even creeping but offensive advertising, the author's references to his other, diverse products can be asserted that one can calmly expose himself to social events in a nicotine-tempered air. This is blatantly contradictory to the often cited, correct argument that a single cigarette, if not even a few puffs, can lead to withdrawal and relapse. In this respect (and my own experience and the stories of others) both a smoker suffering from withdrawal symptoms, as well as long-term weaning smokers should not work or stay in not often smoke-free restaurants too often and for a long time, or be in a living relationship with active tobacco killers. Since passive smoking can be used to inhale the equivalent of up to several cigarettes, one would have a similar amount of work as a lighter, active smoker and would thus suffer from a permanent nicotine emergency. So does the notion that a partner continues to indulge his vice, while the weaned phlegmatically watching, in the realm of extreme, exceptional situations. In contrast to alcoholism, pills and other addictions, both the withdrawal and the direct sequelae of nicotine addiction are less pronounced and even partially reversible. However, beer, wine, Valium, and painkillers cannot be inadvertently passively consumed and thus far more self-determined than with nicotine. However, the possibility of achieving permanent abstinence from one's own will without sacrificing social life remains a utopia until the establishment of a general, strict smoking ban. Unless you stop breathing for the duration of visits to nightclubs, bars, folk festivals and private parties. I quit smoking a few years ago and after a ten-year smoking career (between 15 and 30 cigarettes a day), along with several unsuccessful attempts at withdrawal, can only give an unqualified recommendation to read this great work. It takes considerable courage and willingness to suffer, but the lofty goal of a longer life should make the initial pain bearable and burn as a motivating beacon in the future, instead of orange-red smoldering coffin nails. Finally, my favorites among the mantras on the subject. I am no longer sure if they are themselves conceived or stolen: at each tobacco inhalation mentally "cancer," while exhaling "death." Or, alternatively, "lung cancer", "smoker's leg", "barren binge" "stroke attack", "leg amputation", "heart infarct", "impotence", etc. Creativity knows no bounds!
Standardwerk der Raucherentwöhnung samt schonungsloser Abrechnung mit etabliertem Entzugskonzept
Die ersten paar Dutzend, vor Eigenwerbung und Selbstbeweihräucherung strotzenden Seiten, dürfen dem entsagungswilligen, angehenden Exraucher weder als arrogantes Gehabe erscheinen noch als potentielle Rechtfertigung für vorzeitige Beendigung der Lektüre dienen. So selbstsicher wie Carr auftritt, so durchdacht und sinnvoll ist sein Konzept auch wahrhaftig, womit die pompöse Inszenierung durchaus ihre Berechtigung hat. Und gute Vermarktung noch dazu sinnvoller, vor einer perfiden Sucht befreiender und das Gesundheitssystem entlastender Konzepte schadet der Idee gewiss nicht. Beginnend mit der Symptomatik der Nikotinsucht und dem wichtigsten, im Kopf anzusetzenden Hebel werden, bereits gescheiterten Rauchern leider allzu bekannte Themenfelder, wie die diabolische Macht der Gewohnheit, des Unterbewussten und der Konditionierung, Selbstversklavung auf der panischen Flucht vor dem kalten Entzug, Stresssituationen und persönliche Krisen und die Gefahr der Methode Willenskraft dargestellt. Unter letzterem versteht Carr Raucher, die mit Selbstbeherrschung und eiserner Disziplin die kritischen, ersten 3 Wochen überstehen, den Ausstieg aus der Raucherkarriere allerdings nicht freiwillig motiviert, sondern gesundheitlich bedingt oder ohne rechten Glauben an ein glückliches, rauchfreies Leben eingeläutet haben. Die latente Gefahr bei einem nicht mit hundert prozentiger Überzeugung einhergehenden Rauchausstieg besteht darin, weit über den eigentlichen Entzug noch jahrelang den vermeintlichen Glücksspendern nachzutrauern, anstatt sich an der gesünderen Lebensweise und dem gesparten Geld erfreuen zu können. Genau aus diesem Grund liegt ein verstärktes Augenmerk auf der Motivation, den Tabakabhängigen zu der Einsicht gelangen zu lassen, wie sinnlos, dumm, gefährlich, einschränkend, negativ und in keinster Weise genussvoll, aromatisch, entspannend, individuell oder die Kreativität fördernd das Entzünden länglicher Papierhülsen in eigentlich für die Nahrungsaufnahme konzipierten Körperöffnungen ist. Solange diese Erkenntnis und die Bereitschaft, ein Leben lang gerne und freiwillig auf Zigaretten verzichten zu können, nicht einen Fixpunkt des eigenen Denkmusters darstellt, ist die Rückfallwahrscheinlichkeit und generell das Leiden wesentlich ausgeprägter. Ein nur physisch, aber nicht mental entwöhnter Raucher, wird den Geruch von Tabak, rauchende Menschen und alle mit dem Inhalationsprozess assoziierten Gedanken und Bilder weiterhin als positiv erleben, das Bedürfnis nach Zigaretten wird sowohl in Ausnahmensituationen als auch im täglichen Leben ausgeprägter sein und somit sinnlos Lebensqualität verschwendet und Qual erzeugt. Genau aus diesem Grund hält Carr auch nichts von Nikotinersatzpräparaten, da diese den Entzug und somit die schmerzhafteste Phase nur künstlich verlängern. Während ein auf Vollbetrieb rauchender, 1 bis 2 Päckchen Zigaretten täglich vernichtender Konsument zumindest keine unangenehme, nervöse Leere verspüren muss, so ist ein mühsam über Monate hinweg auf nur 5 bis 10 Zigaretten am Tag reduzierter Raucher quasi im permanenten Entzugszustand, was nur Stress und Unwohlsein mit sich führt und die Angst vor dem totalen Rauchstopp noch verstärkt. Auch dass die meisten etablierten Entwöhnungskonzepte mit der Verschreibung von Ersatzpräparaten einhergehen, was den Herstellern sehr gute Gewinne, den Konsumenten aber im Gegenzug nichts Gutes bringt, wird angeprangert. Bei den Substitutionsprogrammen für härtere Drogen, bei denen ein Entzug mitunter tödlich verlaufen kann, ist die Gabe von Methadon und Konsorten sinnvoll und angebracht. Bei Nikotin aufgrund der rein körperlich nur gering ausgeprägten und in keinster Weise gefährlichen Entwöhnungsphase hingegen sinnlos und kontraproduktiv. Zu den kaum vorhandenen Kritikpunkten kann man neben der unverhohlenen, nicht einmal mehr als Schleich- sondern Offensivwerbung zu betrachtenden Hinweisen des Autors auf seine anderen, vielfältigen Produkte die Behauptung stellen, man könne sich ruhig gesellschaftlichen Ereignissen in nikotingeschwängerter Luft aussetzen. Dies steht in eklatantem Widerspruch mit dem häufig zitierten, richtigen Argument, dass eine einzige Zigarette, wenn nicht sogar schon ein paar Züge zu Entzug und Rückfall führen können. Insofern (und aufgrund eigener Erfahrung und den Erzählungen Anderer) sollten sowohl ein akut an Entzugssymptomen leidender, als auch langjährig entwöhnte Raucher weder allzu oft und lange in noch nicht rauchbefreiter Gastronomie arbeiten oder verweilen, noch in einem Wohnverhältnis mit aktiven Tabakvernichtern stehen. Da beim Passivrauchen der Gegenwert von bis zu mehreren Zigaretten inhaliert werden kann, käme man auf ein ähnliches Pensum wie ein leichter, aktiver Raucher und würde somit unter permanenten Nikotinnotstand leiden. So gehört auch die Vorstellung, dass ein Partner weiter seinem Laster frönt, während der Entwöhnte phlegmatisch zusieht, in das Reich der extremen Ausnahmesituationen. Im Gegensatz zu Alkoholismus, Tabletten- und anderen Süchten sind zwar sowohl der Entzug als auch die direkten Folgeschäden der Nikotinabhängigkeit weniger stark ausgeprägt und sogar teilweise reversibel. Aber Bier, Wein, Valium und Schmerzmittel kann man nicht unbeabsichtigt passiv konsumieren und ist insofern wesentlich selbstbestimmter als bei Nikotin. Die Möglichkeit, dauerhafte Abstinenz aufgrund eigenen Willens ohne Abstriche im gesellschaftlichen Leben zu erreichen, bleibt jedoch bis zur Etablierung eines generellen, strengen Rauchverbots eine Utopie. Außer, man hört für die Dauer der Besuche von Nachtclubs, Bars, Volksfesten und Privatfeiern auf zu atmen. Ich habe das Rauchen vor einigen Jahren aufgegeben und kann nach einer zehnjährigen Raucherkarriere (zwischen 15 bis 30 Zigaretten täglich) samt mehreren erfolglosen Entzugsversuchen nur die uneingeschränkte Empfehlung zur Lektüre dieses großartigen Werkes geben. Es bedarf beträchtlichen Muts und der Bereitschaft zu leiden, aber das hehre Ziel eines längeren Lebens sollte den anfänglichen Schmerz erträglich machen und als motivierendes Leuchtfeuer in der Zukunft anstelle orangerot glimmender Sargnägel lodern. Abschließend meine Favoriten unter den Mantras zu dem Thema. Ich bin nicht mehr ganz sicher ob sie selbst erdacht oder gestohlen sind: Bei jedem Tabakinhalieren mental „Krebs-“, beim Ausatmen „Tod“ mitsprechen. Oder alternativ „Lungen- Krebs“, „Raucher- Bein“, „Unfrucht- Barkeit“ „Schlag- Anfall“, „Bein-Amputation“, „Herz- Infarkt“, „Im- Potenz“ usw. Der Kreativität sind keine Grenzen gesetzt!
Day 1: Well, that wasn't so hard: 0 cigarettes/day
Day 2: Still smoke free, this is going to work!!! A guarded 5 star rating for now.
Day 3: Well I'm a weak willed sucker (not that I needed further proof). It was 2am on Day 3/4, and it ended like all my previous attempts with a delicious Gauloises. Not the books fault though and there is still hope.
After a week, I think it's time for a mini résumé on Allan Carr's quitting method.
As I wrote in the comments, after my lapse on Day 3 I rage quit again (why do I have to make everything so hard?).
Anyway the good news for every smoker is: Allan Carr's quitting method works. I was skeptical at first, but believe the hype, quitting can be easy! The withdrawal symptoms hardly matter, you will feel better immediately.
There is also bad news however, at least for me: Staying clean is the hard part. There still is craving, not as bad as with my previous attempts, and there are still some depressive phases. But now I can glimpse a light somewhere out there; maybe the end of the tunnel isn't so far away?
بعد از 9 سال سیگار کشیدن حس میکنم که دیگه علاقه ای به ادامه این عمل ندارم. روش آلن کار روی من جواب داد! آلن کار که بیش از 30 سال سیگاری قهاری بوده در این کتاب تلاش کرده است ضمن بررسی و نشان دادن عقاید آگاهانه و ناآگاهانه ی افراد سیگاری در مورد سیگار کشیدن، این تصورات و عقاید را به چالش بکشد. یک فرد سیگاری به خوبی میتواند این عقاید را در خود شناسایی کند.
This may be the only book that I have read 4 times, but for times the charm. My sister spoke wonders of this book and how it helped her quit. A few years back I borrowed it from her, read it, and was able to quit for about a month and a half. Then, in stupidity, on a drinking night out I bummed one,and then was quickly about a pack a day. Earlier this year I felt ready to try again. In April I checked it out of the library, read it, and quit for about four days. I night out did me in a agian. I renewed the book the maximum number of times, read it once more, but it did not work. In Septemeber I read Malcolm X and thought in general that a lot of things are possible for me if I focus and get read of the partying and distractions. This time, in early October I bought the book. I read it quickly, finishind it on October 15th. Today is November 20th, and I'm still a non-smoker. Also I'm confident this time has worked and I'll never smoked again. This book works I believe because he systematically breaks down the reasons smokers say they smoke, and states why these reasons are invalid and the opposite is true, that smoking actually harms these perceptions. These are the four believes he concentrates on: BOREDOM, STRESS, RELAXATION, CONCENTRATION. His instruction tells the reader not to quit smoking until the end of the book. This way the reader reads a chapter, thinks about it, and when he or she smokes, is really aware of the points the author makes in the book. He states things like a cigarette is no different after a meal, or with coffee, that it's a mind trick or trap that the smoker fell into. Another thing he states is that there is no such thing as enjoying a cigarette, that every smoker wishes he or she never started. If you said that to someone smoking in a verbal exchange, they wouldn't listen. But somehow the solitary act of reading, the reader really does mull it over, and it does sink in. This is a great book, because it puts people in the right frame of mind to quit. The must important suggestion by the author is for people to think they are not giving anything up by quitting but must think of the positive change that will result from quitting. He explains that with the well power method people feel like something they enjoy is being taken away from them. He also says that with boredom or stress, that those things would be the same without cigarettes, the cigarette doesn't change your situation or life. This is great for the shortterm, but for the long term, I suggeest people buy a copy. It has some invaluable chapters like if you want just one cigarette that may help the ex-smoker maybe even years later. I'm exited about not smoking and making life changes including cutting back on drinking so I can focus on reading and writing.
I wanted to wait until a decent amount of time had passed before I wrote a review of this book, just to prove that it does work! And it does. Yep, that’s right, I’ve been cigarette free for 6 whole months now and feel great!
I stopped smoking for 5 years once, then I went back to smoking the thin cigars every now and then at a party. Over the months, my addiction went up to the level it was before when I was smoking, and pretty soon I was on about 20 a day! In the past when I stopped smoking I used the Nicorette nicotine inhaler, and that did work for me then, but this time I tried everything – inhaler, patches, willpower, electric cigarette – and I still couldn’t break the addiction. So for 2 years I was trying to stop and not getting anywhere, until a friend told me to read this book. She said several people she knew had stopped smokinh using it, and the book reported to have a really high success rate. I was sceptical. I mean, how could a book help you stop smoking? But I’m so glad I read it, and if you want to give up, I’d recommend it to anyone.
I’ve been telling everyone I meet about the book and how high the success rate is, and they all ask the same thing. “Does it talk about all the really disgusting things smoking does to you?”; “Does it bombard you with horrible facts and figures and pictures?” Well, no. Anyone who knows a smoker’s mind (and Allen Carr obviously does), will know that would be like encouraging them to smoke more. Any smoker can recognize the mind-set of being bombarded with adverts for smoking and them justifying it by saying, “Well, you have to die of something,” or “I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, I might as well enjoy myself”, and then reaching for a cigarette and lighting up! The interesting thing about the book is that it doesn’t preach most of those things to you. Smokers already know the risks. What it does do is makes you think differently about smoking and cigarettes. It makes you change the way you feel about them and your relationship with them. Instead of looking at cigarettes as something you have to “give up” (which implies it’s something good), it makes you look at them in a totally new light. In a way, it’s like self-hypnosis. And because of the way it’s done, it makes the process of stopping smoking so much less painful than any other method I’ve ever tried. OK, yes, I did get a bit grumpy for the first couple of weeks (hubby will probably say more than a bit!), but it wasn’t painful like it had been in the past.
One of the things that struck me while reading was the way smokers are manipulated. We’re bombarded with adverts for products to help us “GIVE UP” smoking, but the term giving up implies that it’s something pleasurable – something that is good for us. Not something that’s slowly poisoning us to death. I mean, drug addicts aren’t told by healthcare professionals that they’re “GIVING UP CRACK”, are they? The governments pay lip service to getting people to stop smoking by adding health warnings to cigarette packets, however, if they really wanted to do something, they could force the tobacco companies to produce cigarettes without nicotine in them. Nicotine is the only reason smokers are addicted to cigarettes, without it, it would be easy for all the millions of smokers around the world to quit. But, of course, they won’t because there are millions of pounds to be made from people’s ill-health and suffering resulting from smoking. In the 60s, apparently, a tobacco company did produce a cigarette without nicotine and it was buried so deep it would never see the light of day. Shocking that this is going on in the 21st Century, isn’t it? I mean, could you imagine if chocolate producers added an addictive substance to chocolate, or dairy farmers added an addictive substance to milk. Imagine the outcry!
It says you can still smoke while reading this book, but when you get to the end you won’t want to smoke any longer. People who aren’t ready to give up will put the book down then, but hopefully they’ll come back to it later when they are ready. I read it during a four hour flight so I couldn’t smoke, anyway, which was good for me. When I closed the book, I said to hubby, “Right, that’s it. I’m not smoking anymore.” He said, “Oh, yeah!” as he’d heard it too many times to count! But it’s been over six months and I haven’t smoked at all.
So if you want to stop smoking the easy way, you have to read this book. It does exactly what it says on the tin!
Focuses on removing the reasons you smoke (which is the same for all smokers- to alleviate that slightly panicky feeling you experience created by the nicotine from your previous cigarette leaving your body.)
Carr does not use scare tactics. The REASONS that people smoke are not the same as the reasons they ought not to smoke.
In fact, I say reasons, but ultimately, all smokers smoke for the same one reason: to relieve the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, which really are not that intense at all.
Quitting has nothing to do with willpower; It's all about understanding nicotine addiction, nicotine withdrawal, and the thousands of lies about smoking perpetrated by our society and tobacco companies.
The brainwashing aspect of why people start smoking and why they can't quit is an amazing aspect of the book.
Highly recommend this book for smokers who want to quit.
You are allowed to smoke right through to the end.
If you've ever tried to use willpower to quick, you most likely failed. Read this book.
As my friend mentioned in the comments I assume I would be the only non-smoker reader of this book! I picked this book to utilize its method to quit other bad habits since there are lots of books on how to form a new habit yet no book on how to quit the old ones (if you know one plz let me know). Did it work? no, cuz smoking is an addiction and not a habit. However, I find this book smartly written and persuasive. One might think it is too repetitive, yet that is a way to pierce the words into the reader's mind (I do a parallel read "make it stick" and this book has been written to stick in one's mind!). Carr offers a new mindset towards smoking and no specific method or magic, he also reveals the reason beyond all the dysfunctional methods to quit smoking. As 5 of my GR friends have quit smoking by reading this book I suppose it might be helpful, so give it a go.
You don't get five stars, no matter how convincing you are, when the first three chapters are an ode to your own awesome nature before you even said anything...
I had been a smoker for over fifty years. I smoked two packs a day. I tried to quit many times, paying for hypnosis sessions, using Nicorette gum, using nicotine patches of various dosages, and even being active in exercise and recovery programs. Nothing worked. I would quit for a few days, once even for a month or two but then would start up again smoking more than ever.
Four years ago my wife gave me this book. She said, "Don't start reading it until you are ready to quit. It really works!" Needless to say, I was skeptical, but she had not picked up a cigarette for a couple of weeks, so I decided to give it a try. I read the book over the next two days (while smoking). When I finished the last chapter, I also threw away my cigarettes. I have not found it necessary to pick up a cigarette again.
I am not sure exactly how it works. Part of it is psychological: convincing the reader that most of the fear of withdrawal is caused by propaganda, fed by those who would get rich off of the various "quit smoking" schemes. Also, a reminder that gum and patches and other system use nicotine so they just prolong withdrawal. Part of it, I'm sure is a but of auto-hypnosis because many of the ideas and suggestions are repeated in different ways throughout the text. But the fact it that it works and it worked for me after years and years of trying every other method. It also had no cost beyond the price of the book. Perhaps that's why none of the smoking clinics and not even the American Cancer Society has spoken of it. It undermines the corporate system of making the most money possible from addictions. Shame on them. This book should be promoted by every health professional.
با سلام خدمت همه دوستان من این کتاب رو با اسم "آسانترین روش ترک سیگار" از همین نویسنده "آقای آلن کار" خوندم که فکر کنم چاپ قدیمی اش باشه. در کل این کتاب عالیه و خیلی توصیه می شه. ببینید اگر شما سالها سیگار رو ترک کرده باشید و در این مدت لب به سیگار نزده باشید، اگر دچار وسوسه کشیدن دوباره اون بشید یا مثلا با خودتون بگید "کاش می شد فقط یک پک زد" ، این یعنی شما سیگار رو ترک نکردین و در واقع در تمام این سال ها فقط با نفستون در جهت نکشیدن سیگار مبارزه کردین. یعنی هنوز لذت سیگار کشیدن رو حس می کنید و همنیشه با این لذت در مقاوت هستین. آلن خیلی حرفه ای دست می زاره دقیقا روی همین موضوع و از اینجا شروع می کنه تا در نهایت به شما کمک کنه که این لذت رو از بین ببرین نه ترک سیگار ... سیگار خودش ترک می شه... به زبان ساده تر باید همون حسی رو نسبت به سیگار داشته باشید که یک فرد غیر سیگاری داره ... ببینید موضوع یه کم پیچیده است ولی درکش که کنید دریچه ای جدید به رویتون باز می شه. یه فرد غیر سیگاری ممکنه حتی در جمع سیگاری ها به شوخی یه پکی هم بزنه ولی چه حسی به سیگار خواهد داشت؟ شما باید به اون حس برسین تا برای همیشه از سیگار دور بشین ... به نظرم غیر سیگاری ها هم بخوننش. می شه الگو برداری کرد و با همین روش عادت های بد زیادی رو ترک کرد. فقط باید عمق مطلب و منظور نویسنده رو درک کرده باشین ... یادتون باشه به درخواست نویسنده، یک جلد از این کتاب رو همیشه برای خودتون داشته باشید و به کسی امانت جهت خوندنش ندید. کتاب قیمت زیادی نداره واگر دوست داشتین هدیه بدین حتما یکی بخرین.
I do not enjoy smoking. I hate smoking and the cigarette itself is what's making me miserable. I'm tired of feeding the monster. If I were a non-smoker I wouldn't feel cravings and would enjoy moments in life more. These are the things I've learned so far. I can understand why this book makes people want to quit smoking. It's not shock therapy which scares you into quitting. It explains all the good things that will happen to you when you quit, and while you think you like smoking or that it helps you in some way you find out that you don't and it doesn't. It really makes stressful situations more stressful, and so on. It's not hard to quit, it's easy. The book makes you realize that smoking is very unenjoyable. And makes me wonder why I ever thought it was. I am so looking forward to finishing this book and quitting smoking and being freed from the monster. I am also excited to make other people I know who smoke read it. I'm shocked they haven't already.