Millions Used This Method to PAINLESSLY Quit Smoking (And Other Addictions) Overnight— Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr (BOOK NOTES)

You need to read this if you have an addiction of any kind, even if it’s not smoking.

About Easy Way to Stop Smoking

The key concept of this book is that people DO NOT smoke for the reasons we all think they smoke. Once you fully grasp this concept, Carr assures you, quitting smoking is easy. His concepts, moreover, are applicable to other addictions, not just smoking. If you have a problem with caffeine, overwork, shopping, chocolate, cell phone overuse, etc., this book just may help you too.

To be honest, it’s hard to describe this book in words. Written by Allen Carr, a man who quit smoking, and hoped to help others find the freedom he has, Easy Way to Stop Smoking is based on the premise that quitting smoking is possible for anyone. But it will require a radical mindset change.

This is, of course, not a new idea, and neither are some of the ideas in this book — however, the value of this book is that you may be someone who has NOT been exposed to such ideas before, and they may help you considerably. In any case, the best advice I can give is, reserve judgment until you have wisely read and considered the points. Whether or not quitting smoking (or any other addiction) ends up being easy or not is largely up to you.

Preface

This book is designed to help you quit smoking immediately, permanently, without willpower, or suffering withdrawal symptoms, or feeling an initial period of misery

Sounds hard to believe, but it works.

the EASYWAY method doesn’t work by telling smokers it is a disgusting habit with health hazards.

“In order to quit, it is necessary to remove the reasons that we smoke.”

Warning

The thought of stopping fills most smokers with panic.

All smokers wish they never started. Yet they all wish to continue.

The only thing that prevents us from quitting is: FEAR!

Fear of what? An indeterminate period of misery, deprivation, and unsatisfied craving, inability to concentrate or handle stress, but most of all, fear of “once a smoker, always a smoker,” that you will NEVER be completely free and will still crave the occasional cigarette for the rest of your life.

Fear is not relieved by cigarettes, but created by them. You don’t decide to fall into a trap, but traps are designed to ensure you remain in them.

When you first started smoking, did you decide to become a lifelong smoker? Probably not, so when are you going to quit? Tomorrow? If you keep kidding yourself like that, you’ll be trapped for life.

You didn’t decide to fall into the trap, but be clear about this: you won’t escape unless you make a positive decision to. Remember, you have nothing to lose.

Introduction

The author once used willpower to quit cigarettes for six months of “sheer purgatory” before he caved. It was so miserable he didn’t want to do it again.

“It seems that my whole existence has been a preparation for solving the smoking problem…even accounting”

So Carr decided to write a book to help others.

ILLUSIONS ABOUT THE SMOKING TRAP:

Smokers enjoy smoking Smokers choose to smoke Smoking relieves boredom/stress, aids concentration/relaxation Smoking is a habit It takes willpower to quit Once a smoker always a smoker Telling smokers that it kills helps them quit Nicotine substitutes help smokers quit

The story of Sister Kenny: a nurse who figured out that polio patients could walk again through muscle re-education, instead of the then-standard treatment of putting the limbs in irons which causes permanent paralysis.

Because she was a nurse, the medical establishment not only ignored her advice, but tried to prevent her from practising.

Carr has also experienced similar resistance.

At the EASYWAY clinics, “surprisingly, more of our clients come from the medical profession than any other single profession.”

The nicotine patch doesn’t work: smokers have realized that you don’t get cured from addiction to a drug by prescribing the same drug.

Telling a smoker that smoking is disgusting and dangerous is futile: Smokers don’t smoke for the reasons that they shouldn’t smoke. The real problem is to remove the reasons that they do.

Smokers don’t like being told what to do, particularly by people who dismiss smokers as idiots and don’t understand why they smoke.

Chapter 1: The Worst Nicotine Addict I Have Yet to Meet

Carr smoked for 33 years, 60–100 cigarettes per day. He made dozens of attempts to stop.

He developed severe coughing problems, but still didn’t stop.

“I knew that I wasn’t a weak-willed person. I was in control of all other aspects of my life but cigarettes controlled me.”

Carr saw a hypnotherapist, went home and kept smoking. Later, he quit easily.

“Hypnotherapy is the power of suggestion and a powerful force that can be used for good or evil. Don’t ever consult a hypnotherapist unless they’ve been personally recommended by someone you respect and trust.”

“I have still not met anybody who was as badly hooked (or rather, thought he was as badly hooked) as myself. Anybody can not only stop smoking but also find it easy.

It is basically fear that keeps us smoking: the fear that life will never be quite as enjoyable without cigarettes and the fear of feeling deprived.

There are only two reasons for failure with the Carr method: 1) failure to carry out instructions, and 2) failure to understand.

Question your views and society’s views on smoking. Ask questions like, if you think you ‘enjoy’ a cigarette, why are you not addicted to other things you find much more enjoyable?”

Chapter 2: The Easy Method

Cigarettes do absolutely nothing for you at all.

When going through the Carr method, do not try to quit until you have read the entire book. The more you read, the lesser your desire to smoke.

Quitting before it is time/ “going off half-cocked” could be fatal. Follow the instructions.

Carr: don’t overlook the dreadful fear that slavery to the weed instills in the smoker. It can transcend friendship. Carr himself would have divorced his wife if she tried to force him to stop smoking.

But remember: you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

Stopping smoking is not the real problem. Every time you put a cigarette out you stop smoking.

You have powerful reasons to quit, and they are more powerful than you can imagine.

Health scares around smoking make smokers smoke more — because threats make smokers nervous, and smokers try to relieve their nerves by smoking.

Reasons for smoking make it harder to quit: they create a sense of sacrifice. And they blind people to the real reasons they smoke in the first place.

What is the Easy Method? Ans: Initially, forget the reasons we’d LIKE to stop and ask:

What is this doing for me? Do I actually enjoy it? Do I really need to go through life paying through the nose just to stick these things in my mouth and suffocate myself?

Beautiful truth about smoking: It does nothing for you at all. There are not ANY advantages from smoking. There is really nothing to give up.

First step: remove fallacies and illusions around smoking.

Chapter 3: Why is it Difficult to Stop?

The problem is not explaining why it is easy to stop, but explaining why it is difficult.

The real problem is explaining why people smoke in the first place.

Smoking is an enigma. The only reason people do it is because other people do. But every one wishes they never started — it wastes time and money. Smokers despise themselves.

In reality, nicotine withdrawal is milder than people think.

No one truly enjoys cigarettes: With other things you enjoy (say, eating a particular food), you don’t feel deprived when you are not doing them.

Carr’s reason for smoking — that it relaxed him — was not a real reason. It was an excuse. Otherwise he could’ve asked his doctor for something else to help him relax. But deep down, he didn’t actually want an alternative.

Every day of our lives we change habits, and some of them are very enjoyable. We’ve been brainwashed to believe smoking is a habit and habits are difficult to break.

Chapter 4: The Sinister Trap

Smoking is one of the most subtle sinister traps. What gets us into it in the first place?

Thousands or pre-existing smokers warn nonsmoking children not to do it.

A pathetic aspect of smoking: how hard one must work to become hooked.

It’s the only trap in nature with no lure.

Because the first cigarette tastes awful, people beleive they will never become hooked.

The trap: smokers tend to try to quit when they are facing stress in their lives, then when they stop they are more stressed and no longer have a crutch (smoking), then they decide the picked the wrong time and must wait for a stress-free period to really quit…except that period will never arrive.

The truth: the most stressful periods for any creature is early childhood and adolescence.

We tend to confuse responsibility with stress.

Like all complicated puzzles, if you know the solution, it is easy!

Chapter 5: Why Do We Carry on Smoking?

No regular smokers know why they smoke. If they did, they’d quit.

The true reason is the same for all smokers, but the variety of replies is infinite.

There are two reasons smokers smoke:

nicotine addiction brainwashing

Chapter 6: Nicotine Addiction

Nicotine is a quick-acting drug, and blood levels fall in 30 minutes of finishing a cigarette, which is why most smokers average 20/day

Smokers believe withdrawal pains = trauma suffered when they are forced to stop. But actually, they are mainly mental (smoker deprived of his pleasure/prop)

There’s no physical pain in nicotine withdrawal. It’s just an empty, restless feeling like something is missing.

Lighting up ends the restlessness and gives an appearance of relaxation/confidence.

When smokers first start, withdrawal pains and their relief are so slight you’re not aware of them. When you start smoking regularly, you’re hooked.

All smokers start for stupid reasons. No one has to.

Then smokers continue smoking in order to feed the little monster.

The enjoyment smokers get from a cigarette is the pleasure of trying to get back to the state of peace their body had before they got hooked in the first place.

It’s not real peace, but the ending of aggravation. Like the feeling you get when a burglar alarm that’s been going off all day finally stops.

Like the feeling you get when a burglar alarm that’s been going off all day finally stops. Withdrawal pains aren’t physical pains, just an empty feeling.

The whole business of smoking is like wearing tight shoes just to obtain the pleasure you feel when you take them off.

3 reasons smokers don’t see it that way:

We’ve all been brainwashed to think smokers get immense pleasure/a crutch from smoking. Nicotine withdrawal is not pain, but an empty/insecure feeling, inseparable from hunger or normal stress. So you think that nicotine withdrawal-caused stressful feeling is an everyday normal stress feeling, [rather than identifying it as what it is — nicotine withdrawal. Which means you try to combat it with a cigarette, which is exactly the wrong coping mechanism that will create more nicotine-withdrawal stress, continuing the vicious cycle.] Main reason smokers fail to see smoking as it really is: it works backward. It is when smokers are NOT SMOKING that they feel empty, but smokers don’t learn to blame that feeling on the previous cigarette and instead think that it is a normal everyday feeling. Yet when you LIGHT UP, they get an immediate boost, so they attribute the “nice feeling” to the cigarette, giving it the credit for feeling better.

Think about heroin addicts who don’t have heroin. They feel a sense of panic. Remember, non-heroin addicts don’t feel the emotion of panic when they don’t have heroin. Which means that heroin doesn’t relieve panic at all — it CAUSES it.

When people talk about smoking giving satisfaction they forget you can’t be “satisfied” unless you were “dissatisfied” in the first place. And nonsmokers don’t suffer from a “dissatisfied state.”

The main reason smokers find it difficult to quit is that they believe they’re giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch. It is absolutely essential to understand that you are giving up NOTHING WHATSOEVER (emphasis added)

The emptiness from nicotine withdrawal is similar to hunger. This similarity fools smokers into thinking they are receiving a genuine pleasure. But there is no real pleasure or crutch to smoking.

But eating and smoking are opposites:

Eating helps you live; smoking kills you Food does really taste good; smoking hurts your lungs Eating doesn’t create hunger — it relieves it; the first cigarette starts the craving for nicotine and each subsequent cigarette does not relieve the craving, but makes it worse so that you are trapped for life.

Smoking isn’t a habit. It’s no more or less than a DRUG ADDICTION.

When you smoke, you feel better than you did a moment before, but overall you’re still less relaxed than a non-smoker.

The human body is the most sophisticated object on the planet.

All humans are averse to the smell/taste of tobacco until they’re hooked.

You have to WORK to get hooked to cigarettes, and this causes you to think you can stop whenever you want to.

No one enjoys the taste/smell of tobacco — they just teach their bodies to be immune to the bad taste in order to get the fix.

Heroin addicts don’t enjoy injecting themselves — they are just enjoying the relief of not having to deal with withdrawal pangs.

Most people keep smoking because though they know disadvantages outweigh advantages, they still believe there are SOME advantages — something they really enjoy about smoking, and that if they quit there will be a void. This is an illusion.

Cigarettes give nothing. They just take away and partly restore the illusion over and over.

Nicotine is a quick-hooking drug, but you are never badly hooked. It takes 3 weeks for 99% of the nicotine to leave your body, and actual withdrawal pangs are mild.

Chemical addiction is easy to deal with. Brainwashing is more serious.

Smokers go all night without smoking. Withdrawal pangs don’t even wake them up.

The real demon is not nicotine addiction but brainwashing.

Our bodies have enormous powers of recovery.

Chapter 7: Brainwashing and the Sleeping Partner

The subconscious mind = the sleeping partner.

We are largely a product of the society we’re brought up in.

Advertisers know the power of suggestion over the subconscious mind.

So many films have characters smoking, or people requesting a cigarette before execution. This is not accidental. Cigarette advertising is openly banned, [but they’ve only gotten more clever] — they portray smoking as normal.

The conscious mind doesn’t realize this is an ad, but the subconscious digests the obvious implications.

Ironically, the most powerful force in this brainwashing is the smoker himself. It is a fallacy that smokers are weak-willed and physically weak specimens. You have to be physically strong in order to cope with the poison.

Most smokers are strong-willed people. They tend to be self-employed, business executives, or in specialized professions like doctor, lawyer, housewives with kids, etc. AKA: anyone leading a stressful life.

The main delusion of smokers is that smoking relieves stress.

Another group that gets hooked: people in monotonous jobs — the other main reason for smoking is boredom.

Brainwashing: Societies get uptight about crack/heroin addiction, but more people actually die from smoking than those drugs.

You need to build up resistance to this brainwashing.

For most smokers, smoking triggers come from normal stresses of life like answering the phone…even changing a light bulb.

The worst aspect of smoking isn’t the injury to your health or finances, but the warping of the mind: you search for any plausible excuse to go on smoking.

Your subconscious mind knows the little monster of nicotine addiction must be fed, so you block everything else from your mind.

Even the phrase “giving up smoking” is a classic brainwashing tactic. The truth is, there is NOTHING TO GIVE UP! You are not “giving up” smoking — you are ESCAPING.

You are not “giving up” smoking — you are ESCAPING. Non-smokers aren’t deprived. Smokers are deprived. Of health, energy, wealth, peace, confidence, courage, self-respect, happiness, freedom.

Chapter 8: Relieving Withdrawal Pangs

Smokers think they smoke for enjoyment, relaxation, or some kind of boost. But there is no boost. There’s only the relief of withdrawal pangs.

The subconscious begins to learn that a cigarette taken at certain times appears pleasurable.

The more hooked you are, the greater the need to relieve withdrawal pangs.

Smokers tend to relieve withdrawal pangs during times of: stress, boredom, concentration, relaxation, or a combination of those. See below:

Chapter 9: Stress

Stress = not just great stresses, but minor stresses like socializing, answering phone calls, housewife duties, etc.

When facing a normal life stressor, the smoker is already aggravated by withdrawal pangs. By relieving that withdrawal-type stress, the overall feeling of stress is reduced and the smoker gets a boost. [Ergo, you think that the cigarette helped you relieve the normal stress along with the withdrawal stress]

Cigarettes systematically take away your nerve and courage. The more it takes your courage away, the more you believe it is doing the opposite.

Non-addicts don’t suffer from the panic that overtakes smokers when they fear running out of cigarettes.

Chapter 10: Boredom

When not smoking, you feel like something’s missing. If you have something non-stressful to occupy your mind, you can go for long stretches without missing the drug.

But when bored, there’s nothing to take your mind off feeding the monster.

Cigarettes tend to increase boredom indirectly because they make you feel lethargic.

Observe smokers who are smoking because they are bored. They still look bored. The cigarette does not relieve boredom.

Chapter 11: Concentration

When you are trying to concentrate you want to avoid distractions…like the distraction of nicotine withdrawal. So you light up without thinking about it to end the craving.

Cigarettes don’t help you concentrate. They help ruin it because in time even while smoking, the smoker’s nicotine pangs are too strong to be relieved. [So they will keep distracting you]

When you are a smoker nothing gets blamed on the cigarette. Smokers never have smoking coughs; they just have permanent colds. The moment you stop smoking, everything that goes wrong in your life is blamed on the fact that you’ve stopped smoking.

When Carr quit smoking, he went from 100 cigarettes/day to 0/day without losing concentration.

Chapter 12: Relaxation

Most smokers think cigarettes relax them. In truth, nicotine addicts are NEVER completely relaxed, and it gets worse as life goes on.

Nicotine addicts are more likely to lose their patience and get angry out of proportion.

Smokers are unrelaxed when not smoking. But smoking doesn’t relax them. They’re still stressed. They’ve just forgotten how it feels to be truly relaxed.

One of the joys to look forward to as a non-smoker: true relaxation.

Chapter 13: Combination cigarettes

The terrible frustration of chain smokers: even when you are smoking you feel like something is missing. This is why heavy smokers often turn to drink, other drugs.

A combination cigarette: one that a smoker smokes because they are promted by 2 or more of the usual reasons for smoking (see above)

Ex: parties. They are both relaxing and stressful (all social situations can be stressful, even with friends). Another ex: driving home from the dentist (you are relieved the dental visit is over, but driving requires stressful alertness)

These are the times when smokers are most likely to think the cigarette is “special” and will help them make life enjoyable. Which means they are afraid to quit.

Remember that it is not the cigarette that is special, but the situation. Once you remove the need for the cigarette, the situation will be even more enjoyable and less stressful.

Chapter 14: What am I Giving Up?

CIGARETTES DO NOT FILL A VOID. THEY CREATE IT!

You give up absolutely NOTHING when you quit. The thing that makes quitting difficult is fear of deprivation of pleasure/crutch. Fear of not being able to cope.

We are brainwashed to think there is a weakness in us that needs a cigarette to fill, and if we stop smoking there will be a void.

Our bodies tell us the truth: they were not designed to smoke. We get dizzy, sick, we cough if we smoke, and ignore those signs at our peril.

The greatest gains from quitting smoking are psychological, including:

Return of confidence/courage Freedom from slavery Not despising yourself or feeling despised by others

Imagine you had a facial sore. Someone sold you an ointment and the sore disappeared. Then it came back a week later, bigger than before. You buy more ointment. The sore goes away then comes back a few days later, bigger than before. The cycle continues until someone tells you that the ointment doesn’t cure the sore, it just makes the sore dormant for a while, but it actually causes the sore to grow. All you have to do to get rid of the sore is stop using the ointment. Would you continue using the ointment? Would it take willpower to stop using?

You might be anxious the first few days of quitting, but once you realize the sore really is getting better, your desire to use the ointment will go away. You won’t be miserable about it at all.

That is the magic that Carr understood when he quit.

The ointment = cigarette. The sore = the thing that makes us close our minds to all the harmful effects of smoking, the “I want a cigarette” panic feeling.

The worst thing we ever suffer from is fear, and the greatest gain you will receive is to be rid of that fear.

The panic feeling of wanting a cigarette is not a weakness in you or a magical quality in the cigarette. It was caused by the first cigarette, and each one thereafter was exacerbating the panic feeling.

Chapter 15: Self-Imposed Slavery

Smoking is self-imposed slavery.

The only time the cigarette becomes precious is when we are trying to cut down or abstain or when society tries to force us to stop.

We are not designed to go through life systematically poisoning our bodies.

Pathetically, even while smoking, smokers don’t have the peace and confidence nonsmokers regularly enjoy.

Chapter 16: I’ll Save $X a Week

Brainwashing makes it hard to quit, and the more brainwashing you can dispel before starting, the easier it will be to achieve your goal.

Many smokers haven’t considered that smoking is a lifetime expense, costing tens of thousands in a lifetime. They think they can afford it because it is “only $X a week” They act like salesman to themselves.

Smokers don’t think logically about smoking.

When Carr offers confirmed smokers 2000 pounds in exchange for free cigarettes for life, no one takes him up, even though 2000 pounds is cheaper than the 75000 pounds they will pay as a lifetime smoker.

All smokers smoke not because they want to or have decided to but because they think they can’t stop. They brainwash themselves.

Smoking is a chain reaction for life. If you don’t break it, you’ll smoke for life.

Or calculate how much money you’ve spent ALREADY on cigarettes.

How would you feel if someone sent you tens of thousands of dollars in the mail? You’d celebrate!

Quitting smoking means you get to keep those thousands that you would’ve wasted on cigarettes — so celebrate!

Chapter 17: Health

This is where brainwashing is the greatest.

Smokers think they are aware of health risks. But they aren’t.

That’s why shock treatment ads don’t work

Smokers tend to avoid exercise and breathe shallowly to avoid coughing, but coughing is your body’s way of expelling toxins.

Smoking destroys the vehicle you need to go through life.

If you knew for certain the next cigarette w ould trigger cancer, would you smoke it?

Smokers never think it will happen to them. The worst part is not the disease but the knowledge they brought it on themselves.

Smokers think health hazards are hit-or-miss, like stepping on a mine. But actually, it is happening now. You kill yourself slowly with each cigarette. It’s not j ust cancer.

Excuses and counters:

Everyone dies of something — yeah but that’s not a good reason to deliberately shorten your life. Quality of life is more important than longevity — but smoking does not increase quality My lungs suffer more from car exhaust than smoking — is that a reason to punish your lungs more? No one deliberately inhales exhaust pipe fumes!

Carr: smoking did not remove fear of death. Or if it did, it replaced it with something WORSE: fear of living!

Smokers think the ill-effects of smoking are overstated. It’s actually the other way around. Cigarettes are the #1 killer in society. But stats don’t often blame cigarettes.

Smokers are like the man falling off a 100-story building who says “so far, so good!” as he passes the 50th floor.

You don’t know how long the fuse is. How will you know whether or not the bomb will explode on the next one?

Chapter 18: Energy

The subtle smoking trap: its physical and mental effects are so gradual we aren’t aware, and think it’s normal.

Just like bad eating habits.

The problem is, when you stop smoking, the return of your health is also gradual.

Use your imagination to see how good you’ll feel in 3 weeks without cigarettes.

Chapter 19: It Relaxes Me and Gives Me Confidence

This is the worst fallacy of smoking.

Smokers have a hard time believing cigarettes CAUSE the insecure fear-of-not-having-enough-cigarettes feeling.

Chapter 20: Those Sinister Black Shadows

When you quit, you’ll be free of the black shadowsat the back of your mind

Free of feeling despised by society and self.

Chapter 21: The Advantages of Being a Smoker

[none]

Chapter 22: The Willpower Method of Stopping

Stopping smoking is easy. Just don’t smoke anymore. No one but you forces you to smoke, and you don’t need it to survive.

Using the Willpower Method makes it more difficult.

Willpower Method: any method that forces the smoker to think he’s making a sacrifice.

It takes a long time for p eople to realize they’re hooked because they suffer from the illusion that smokers smoke because they enjoy it, not because they have to have it. They think they can quit whenever they want.

When they actually try to stop, they realize there’s a problem.

Smokers usually wait for a stressful situation to stop (not enough money, feeling health effects). Here the little monster kicks in, and he wants a smoke, but because he can’t, he gets more stressed.

Then he compromises by saying he’ll try later, or cut down, or wait for stress to end.

But once the stress ends, he has no need to stop and doesn’t try again until the next stressful time.

And life never gets less stressful, only more. Especially with smokers, since cigarettes increase stress.

Then smokers hope they’ll wake up without wanting to smoke anymore.

These hopes are triggered by hearing stories of people who “had a bout of flu and then didn’t want to smoke anymore.”

But these stories are misleading, oftentimes the person already was preparing to stop and used the flu as a final springboard.

Why willpower methods fail:

For most of your life, you’re using the head-in-the-sand “I’ll stop tomorrow” approach. Then something triggers an attempt to stop (social stigma, dwindling finances, health concerns). Then you weigh the pros and cons and realize you should stop. But you think it’s a sacrifice. Thinking that quitting smoking = sacrifice is a POWERFUL illusion. Before even starting the attempt to quit, you’ve brainwashed yourself into thinking “how difficult this is to give up.” Because you’ve heard stories about smokers who still crave cigarettes. So instead of starting off happy (“Yay! I don’t need to smoke anymore!”) you start off feeling doom and gloom, feeling like you have to climb Mt. Everest. Most attempts are doomed before they start. During the period of nonsmoking, your health improves, your finances get better, etc., so the reasons for stopping in the first place are dwindling from your thoughts. But on the other side of the seesaw, the nicotine addiction is still there. Now you start reasoning with yourself, trying to think of an excuse to start again. You start smoking again. At this point, if you quit long enough, the cigarette tastes awful and you don’t know why you’re smoking it, so you think you lack willpower.

The misery that the smoker is suffering has nothing to do with withdrawal pangs. True, they trigger the off, BUT THE ACTUAL AGONY IS IN THE MIND and IT IS CAUSED BY DOUBT AND UNCERTAINTY.

Smokers who think quitting is a sacrifice feel deprived = causes stress. Stress is a cue for the brain to crave a cigarette. But now the smoker can’t have one, making him more depressed = sets off trigger again.

Another problem: waiting for something to happen. With the Willpower Method, you think going without a cigarette long enough will make the urge to smoke disappear. But how do you know when is “long enough?”

You don’t, because you’re waiting for something to happen, and nothing will happen…you’re really just waiting to see how long it is until you give in again.

Now your mind is obsessed with smoking, becasue of your insecurity. You’re thinking “how long will cravings last? Will I be happy again? How do I cope with stress in the future?”

Actually, something DOES happen: in 3 weeks without smoking, nicotine cravings disappear. But because the cravings are mild, you don’t notice them.

Many smokers feel they’ve “kicked it” after 3 weeks, and they light a cigarette to prove it — the cigarette tastes awful, but as soon as you give your body more nicotine, you started the chain again.

You usually wait another few hours, days, even weeks, and think “Well I didn’t get hooked, so I can have another.” [And now you’re back where you started]

Problem with willpower method: Long after the physical addiction is gone, the smoker is still moping about cigarettes.

No one enjoys cigarettes. If they smoked because of enjoyment, no one would smoke more than one cigarette. Rather, smokers ASSUME they enjoy it because they can’t believe they’d smoke something they don’t enjoy.

Most of smoking is subconscious.

Once you purge the little monster from your body and the big monster from your brain, you will have no need or desire to smoke.

Chapter 23: Beware of Cutting Down

As a stepping stone to quitting, cutting down is fatal.

Attempts to cut down keeps you trapped. It often follows failed attempts to stop.

Cutting down is the worst of all worlds: you spend life waiting for the next cigarette, not relieving withdrawal pangs for extended periods makes you extra miserable. You start imagining you enjoy all your cigarettes now because before you smoked mindlessly but now you’re focused on the next “rare” cigarette.

The main difficulty of smoking is not the chemical addiction, but the brainwashing. Smokers can go long stretches without smoking (on a plane, while sleeping, etc)

This is a delusion: the less you smoke the less you will want to smoke. The REVERSE is true.

No one likes the taste of cigarettes. It isn’t taste that makes you smoke.

Chapter 24: Just One Cigarette

“Just one cigarette” is a myth. 1 cigarette gets you started in the first place.

There is no ONE cigarette, it is always a CHAIN REACTION that will last for life unless you actively break it.

There is nothing that you can use for an occasional boost or pleasure in good or bad times. The cigarette definitely isn’t it.

Cigarettes cause loss of life or a lifetime of misery.

Smokers would never start if they could go back in time and re-make the choice to take that first cigarette. Yet, every smoker has that choice every day of his life.

Only fear keeps you from quitting — fear that you cannot stop or that life won’t be the same without it.

But don’t kid yourself — anyone can quit, it’s easy with the right mindset.

Teach yourself to see the cigarette as it really is. Not a special little friend whose loss you mourn, but an enemy whose death you celebrate!

All drugs make you feel powerless and helpless. Which makes us want the drug more to make us feel normal again.

It is the drug that addicts us, not our personalities.

And feelings of frailty and flaws are promoted by advertisers who use fear to sell products.

REMOVE the belief that you are helplessly addicted to drugs. Because:

If we believe it, it becomes our reality. It is essential to remove all the brainwashing.

Remove brainwashing: replace fear with facts, see the cigarette for what it purely is (nicotine delivery device) and remove the belief that you need or want to smoke.

Chapter 25: Casual Smokers, Teenagers, Non-smokers

There is no such thing as a happy smoker, casual or otherwise.

Some smokers find it hard to admit they’ve fallen for a trap because they don’t want to admit to a flaw or weakness. They are in denial.

Many casual smokers are more firmly hooked than heavy smokers because they’re under the illusion they like smoking, while heavy smokers do it because they think they can’t stop.

When you smoke enough, nicotine withdrawal creates a permanent itch and that’s why most smokers become regular smokers/chain smokers.

Why people become “casual smokers”: Fear of health consequences, lack of money, lack of opportunity, fear of loss of control/being hooked (but they already are)

Think of it this way: 5-a-day smokers, if they liked smoking, why don’t they do it more? If they don’t like it, why do it at all?

If you don’t deal with the brainwashing, you feel like you’re depriving yourself or missing out on something.

It’s not a life; it’s a nightmare.

All any smoker ever “enjoys” in a cigarette is the ending of the state of “needing” it.

And the longer you experience the empty feeling, the greater the sense of relief when it stops, hence the illusion of enjoyment after a period of abstinence.

It’s strange that smokers perceive smoking less with being happier, but not smoking as terrifying.

These points are obvious to non-smokers, but fear prevents smokers from accepting them.

Also, drug addicts are notorious liars and that includes casual smokers who probably smoke more than they admit to.

Hollywood is a key promoter of the smoking message. And teens get mixed messages about smoking — parents and teachers and uncool people tell them it’s bad, but the media makes it look cool.

Chapter 26: The Secret Smoker

Carr talks about how he once subconsciously triggered an argument on purpose so that he would have an excuse to “need” a cigarette and start smoking again.

As smokers and non-smokers grow more anti-social, smoking causes more isolation.

Chapter 27: A Social Habit?

Smoking used to be considered a social lubricant, but no longer.

Society is changing the way it looks at smokers, and the way smokers see themselves.

Chapter 28: Timing

I believe timing to be one of the most important aspects of quitting.

Identify times when smoking appears most important to you.

Then choose a relatively slack period or a busy period, or whenever smoking doesn’t seem important, to quit.

Try to anticipate whether there might be an event that might cause you to fail — weddings? holidays? — as long as you anticipate them in advance and don’t feel deprived, those things will not deter you.

When smoking your last cigarettes, be aware of the disgusting smell and taste and think how wonderful it’ll be when you allow yourself to stop it.

Finalize your timetable and look forward to quitting! Remember you aren’t giving anything up.

It is not the nicotine that hooks the smoker, but the brainwashing that results from the addiction.

Every smoker has his or her own version of brainwashing.

Keep smoking while you go through the process of stopping. Get rid of all your doubts and fear first so that when it’s time to extinguish that final cigarette, you’re already a non-smoker and enjoying it.

The easiest way is to pick the most difficult time to quit, so you prove to yourself right from the start that you can handle even the toughest situations as a non-smoker, and the rest is easy.

The most subtle aspect of the smoking trap: when you have genuine stress it’s not time to stop, and if you have no stress, you have no desire to stop.

We don’t actually live stressful lives. We don’t have genuine stress — we have food and shelter and no predators.

When you are physically fit, you can enjoy the highs more and cope with the lows better.

We confuse responsibility with stress. Responsibility becomes stressful only if you aren’t strong enough to handle it.

Chapter 29: Will I Miss the Cigarette?

There is only one danger: the influence of people who are still smoking.

Don’t envy smokers — pity them. They’re only really happy when they’re not aware they are smoking.

The only thing preventing smokers from enjoying a feeling of peace permanently is the cigarette.

You wouldn’t envy a heroin addict — don’t envy a smoker.

Chapter 30: Will I Put on Weight?

Smokers are left with permanent “hunger” he can’t satisfy once the body builds immunity to the drug and it can’t relieve the symptoms the previous dose created.

When the little monster leaves your body, so will your feeling of insecurity.

You’ll have the confidence and self-respect to control your life and eating habits and other things too.

Chapter 31: Avoid False Incentives

Using an incentive like “I’ll have a vacation on the money I save” is a false inentive because smokers would rather smoke than go on vacation — it heightens the sense of deprivation.

Once the novelty wears off these types of incentives, you’ll feel deprived and you’ll fall for the smoking trap again.

Rather, focus on: What am I getting out of the cigarette? Why do I need to smoke?

Family or office bets/pacts also usually fail because:

The incentive is false (why should you want to stop just because others are?) This creates extra pressure that makes it hard to ask for help if you’re struggling = creates secret smokers Creates inter-dependence: If one person fails, everyone else gives up. Sharing credit: Stopping smoking is a major event and it’s proper and right for you to get all the credit for this achievement and not share it with others.

Bribes also fail.

False incentives make quitting harder, not easier, because they force us to focus on the illusion that quitting is a sacrifice.

Look on the other side of the tug-of-war, the side based on facts, not fear:

What does smoking do for you? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Why do you need to do it? YOU DON’T! STOP PUNISHING YOURSELF.

Chapter 32: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

This chapter contains instructions on how to quit smoking easily. There are two steps:

Make the decision that you are never going to smoke again. Don’t mope about it. Rejoice.

Why need the rest of the book? Because you would have moped about it and doubted your decision, using the willpower method, and you would’ve failed.

Understand your enemy. Know his tactics, and you will easily defeat him.

Carr: “I even enjoyed the withdrawal period because I saw it for what it really was — a barely noticeable feeling int he pit of my stomach, which was a signal that the ‘little monster’ was dying. The truth of the matter is that stopping smoking is the most wonderful thing that has happened in my life.

“Instead of lighting up subconsciously, I became more aware of my smoking and began to analyze my thoughts and feelings as I was doing it.”

IT’S EASY TO QUIT SMOKING. Only the indecision and moping makes it hard.

You only feel deprived if you WANT something you can’t have. [So don’t WANT the cigarette in the first place.]

The key to making it easy is to make your decision final and certain. Never doubt or question the decision. Celebrate it!

You can do it. Millions already have. The only person who can make you smoke the next cigarette is you.

Smoking is a confidence trick on a grand scale.

Quitting is not losing a friend, it’s killing an enemy!

If you start by saying “I am never going to smoke again. Isn’t it wonderful?” all temptation will go.

Chapter 33: The Withdrawal Period

You are 100% nicotine free in 3 days of abstinence, but it may take up to 3 weeks for the mind/body to be fully accustomed to the absence of nicotine

During this time, you may experience smoking thoughts triggered by:

physical nicotine withdrawal pangs. Psychological triggers of events like phone conversations or coffee breaks.

Pangs aren’t painful, but they’re extremely influential if you approach the task with the wrong mental attitude.

You still have conditioned reflexes to certain situations to want to say “I want a cigarette.” (Ex: after a meal)

It’s essential to counter-condition your response in these situations or you’ll interpret your “I want a cigarette” conditioning as fact, and feel deprived.

Responding correctly to these triggers is the most challenging part.

Replace fear and confusion caused by brainwashing with HARD FACTS.

Once you realize NOTHING about smoking is pleasurable, you won’t want one. Just accept the pang, whether it’s caused by physical withdrawal or psychological triggers. With the right attitude, you can brush it off like fluff.

Tell yourself: “I know what this is, the ‘little monster’ dying!”

Don’t focus on the pang but what it represents: the death of a terrible enemy.

DON’T try to NOT THINK about smoking. That’s a willpower tactic. You WILL think of smoking. But it’s WHAT you are thinking that’s important.

Whenever you think of smoking, think about how wonderful it is to have broken free. Remind yourself how good it is to be free from slavery!

This is not a psych trick or mindless optimism. This is using rational thought to drown out fear and confusion.

You do not need to smoke. It’s the last thing you need to do; make sure it isn’t the last thing you do.

Chapter 34: Just One Drag

“Just one drag” has two damaging effects:

It keeps the ‘little monster’ (nicotine craving) alive in your body It keeps the ‘big monster’ (brainwashing) alive in your brain

Don’t play games with yourself over something this important. One drag = smoking the rest of your life.

Chapter 35: Will it be Harder for Me?

People from certain professions tend to find it harder than others, because it’s harder for them to let go of the brainwashing:

Professions that combine short bursts of intense stress with extended periods of inactivity (both stressful + boring). Eg: car salesmen, homemakers.

The challenge is to see through the brainwashing that cigarettes are an all-purpose stress reliever/stimulant/relaxant/comforter/friend, and see the truth: it’s a drug delivery device, like a heroin syringe.

Use triggers to celebrate your freedom and congratulate yourself for getting rid of the evil monster.

Any smoker can find it easy and enjoyable to stop if you follow all the instructions.

Chapter 36: The Main Reasons for Failure

2 reasons for failure:

Other smokers’ influence Having a bad day

Get this clear: 1) There’s no such thing as just one cigarette. Smokers have to smoke every day for the rest of their life. Feel sorry for them. 2) Everyone has good and bad days, smoker or no.

Willpower quitters tend to blame bad day on the absence of the cigarette.

Moping creates an impossible situation: you’re miserable ’cause you can’t smoke, but you will be more miserable if you do.

A positive mental approach is essential — always.

Chapter 37: Substitutes

Smoking doesn’t leave a hole in your life. It WAS the hole in your life.

You don’t need a substitute disease when you quit smoking.

You don’t need nicotine or nicotine subs — it is poison.

Smokers don’t just go through withdrawal when they’re trying to quit — they go through withdrawal throughout their smoking lives, and it’s the desire to relieve these withdrawal feelings that creates the feeling that you need to smoke.

Nicotine replacement therapy negative impacts:

convinces the smoker that the physical withdrawal is so bad you need a patch to handle it = self-fulfilling prophecy. Use of NRT products perpetuates the idea that you’re giving something up.

Chapter 38: Should I Avoid Temptation?

Every smoker is afraid that when they stop smoking they also have to stop living. The opposite is true.

Fear of the unknown.

Don’t ask “How will I survive without the cigarette?” but “how did I survive being a smoker all these years?”

Remove all smoking paraphernalia from your house

Don’t be afraid of stressful situations — you will be able to handle them much better as a nonsmoker.

Chapter 39: The Moment of Revelation

Usually takes place 3 weeks after quitting: the sky looks brighter as the last of the poison is gone.

Willpower users rarely experience this because they don’t realize there was nothing to give up, and they still feel deprived.

These timelines aren’t set in stone, just based on average feedback.

Don’t wait for your moment of revelation, just know you have total control over this process.

Chapter 40: The Final Cigarette

Once you decide on your timing, check 2 essentials:

Do you feel certain of success? Do you feel doom and gloom or excitement and anticipation that you’re about to achieve something wonderful?

If you have doubts, read the book or contact an Easyway center.

Dont be afraid. Remember you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Now:

Make your solemn vow and mean it Smoke your final cigarette consciously, inhale deeply and ask where the pleasure is. When you put it out, do it with a feeling of “Isn’t this great? I’m free! I don’t have to put those filthy things in my mouth again!” Be aware the ‘little monster’ will bother you for a few days.

The body cannot crave nicotine. Only the brain can crave. Physical withdrawal creates a slighty physical feeling like hunger which your BRAIN interprets as “I want a cigarette.”

Now replace this conditioned response with a new one based on facts. Tell yourself when you feel that slight feeling: “Yippee, I’m a non smoker!” and focus on all the gifts you are giving yourself.

Willpower smokers don’t recondition their “I want a cigarette” response and keep craving cigarettes.

Doubt and waiting for something to happen [which won’t happpen] is what makes it difficult to quit. So don’t doubt your decision you know it’s the right one.

You are already a happy non-smoker! And you will stay one as long as you:

Ddon’t doubt your decision Don’t wait to be a non-smoker. You already have won! Don’t try to not think about smoking. Think as much as you want and celebrate your new freedom. Don’t use substitutes. See other smokers as they are: pity them, don’t envy them. Don’t change your life whether good or bad days. Start really living! The highs will seem higher, the lows less low. Remember: YIPPEE! I’M A NON-SMOKER!

Chapter 41: A Final Warning

DO NOT fall into the trap of thinking it’s easy to quit again. Just because it was easy this time, you will still get hooked as soon as you smoke again.

Make a commitment to never touch smoking again.

Chapter 42: Over Twenty Years of Feedback

The Easyway program is available online now.

One frustrating category of smoker: Those who get free, then go back to smoking on purpose because they think they can handle it now.

Ironically, one problem with the method is that people find it too easy, and they lose their fear of smoking and think they can find it easy to quit again.

It’s easy to stop smoking, but impossible to control it.

1 cigarette led to years of slavery/addiction. 1 cigarette will do it again. Don’t be a smoker for life.

Another frustrating category of smoker: Those who are too frightened to try and sabotage themselves at every turn.

Some people don’t follow the instructions.

Remember nicotine leaves your body quickly, but you may still have little pangs, and some legitimate hunger pains or nervousness — DON’T interpret those as a nicotine pang.

Don’t wait for the moment of revelation. “A watched pot never boils.” Just go and enjoy your life and it will come.

THE CHECKLIST:

Make a solemn vow you will never consume anything that contains nicotine and stick to it. Get this clear: there is absolutely nothing to give up. There’s no such thing as a confirmed smoker. Don’t doubt your decision and make yourself miserable. You know this way is right. Don’t try not to think about smoking. Think about it, and think: “Yippee! I’m a non-smoker!” DON’T use any substitute, carry or keep any smoking materials, avoid other smokers, change your lifestyle purely because you’ve stopped smoking. Don’t wait for the moment of revelation. Just get on with your life.

Chapter 43: Help the Smoker Left on the Sinking Ship

There has been a huge change in society: people used to smoke anywhere, now they can’t.

Smokers lie to themselves about their habit in order to retain some self respect. “Putting lipstick on a pig.”

Smokers don’t understand it’s easy and fun to be a non-smoker.

Don’t belittle the smoker.

Willpower quitters still feel vulnerable so they attack smokers.

Belittling causes stress. Stressed out smokers keep smoking.

Societal smoking restrictions cause smokers to have to plan when to have their next cigarette = creates illusion that cigarettes are precious and pleasurable.

Smokers smoke because they think they can’t stop. Treat them with sensitivity, respect, and dignity. And pity.

Chapter 44: Advice to Non-Smokers

Study this book and put yourself in the smoker’s place.

Don’t force him to read the book or tell him he’s ruining his health.

Smokers don’t enjoy smoking or want to do it. They just say they do to retain some self-respect.

Get a smoker into the company of ex-smokers so he will realize there are millions who have gone through this.

Suggest that it seems obvious non-smokers aren’t missing out on anything…smokers don’t see this observation as obvious.

Now he might be ready to read the book.

Help during the early days of quitting. Don’t minimize suffering by telling him how easy it is to quit, he will just be irritated. Tell him you’re proud of him, that he looks and smells good, etc.

Praise and support!

Relieve him of additional stresses, make his life interesting and fun.

Chapter 45: Finale: Help End This Scandal

Smoking is the biggest scandal in society. We get uptight about heroin, but smoking is the biggest killer.

The government makes money off tobacco sales.

Tobacco is the only product which, used as the manufacturer intended, kills you.

Final instructions

Keep this book where you can easily refer to it. It’ll keep you “in the zone” and in the right frame of mind about smoking.

Don’t envy a smoker — they’re the deprived ones, not you.

Remember you didn’t enjoy being a smoker. That’s why you stopped. You enjoy being a non smoker.

There’s no such thing as just one cigarette.

Never doubt your decision never to smoke again.

Contact your nearest Allen Carr Easyway center if you have any trouble.

About the author

The common thread in Carr’s work is the removal of fear, eliminating phobias and anxieties which prevent people from being able to enjoy life.

Carr centers guarantee you will find it easy to quit or your money back.

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