Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking

by Allen Carr

Some people are just born to be smokers.” (This one kept me smoking for thirty-three years.) At this stage, the smoker usually admits defeat and caves in. When he lights up a kind of schizophrenia takes over. On the one hand there is the illusion of relief at being able to do something that he has been ‘depriving himself’ of. On the other hand, the cigarette tastes awful. The smoker profoundly resents having to smoke it and can’t understand why he is doing it. This is why the smoker thinks that he lacks Willpower. In fact, it isn’t a lack of willpower that is the problem, but a conflict of wills. It is this conflict that is at the root of the smoker’s dilemma: every smoker wants to quit, but every smoker wants to keep smoking. The smoker fails to quit not because he doesn’t have enough willpower but because he has failed to resolve the conflict of wills. As a result of this failure to resolve the conflict he is forced to revert to the status quo. Given the information he has at his disposal, this is a fairly rational decision. What’s the point of being healthy if you’re miserable? What’s the point of being rich if you’re miserable? Surely it is far better to have a shorter, sweeter life than a longer, more miserable one? Fortunately this is not true—just the reverse. Life as a non-smoker is not only longer but is infinitely more enjoyable. If this weren’t true, I can assure you, I’d still be smoking and so would the 60,000,000 Americans who have already successfully quit. ...