Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking

by Allen Carr

The main reason that smokers find it difficult to quit is that they believe that they are giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch. It is absolutely essential to understand that there is nothing to ‘give up’. The best way to understand the subtleties of the nicotine trap is to compare it with eating. If we are in the habit of eating at set times during the day, we don’t get hungry between meals. Only if the meal is delayed are we aware of being hungry, and even then, there is no physical pain, just an empty, slightly insecure feeling which we know as: ‘I need to eat.’ And the process of satisfying our hunger can be very enjoyable indeed. Smoking appears on the surface to be almost identical. The empty, insecure feeling we know as wanting or ‘needing’ a cigarette is almost identical to a hunger for food. Like hunger, there is no physical pain and the sensation is so slight that we are not even aware of it for much of the day. It’s only when we want to smoke but aren’t allowed to do so—the equivalent of the meal being delayed—that we become aware of any discomfort. When we do light up the discomfort ends and we once again feel normal. Incidentally, this is also why some smokers believe that the cigarette works as an appetite suppressant. Smoking doesn’t suppress the appetite; it’s just that withdrawal feels like hunger (I discuss this in more detail in Chapter 30 ‘Will I Put On Weight?’).