Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [29]
Such stories are not cranky. That is what this awful drug does to you. As you go through life it systematically robs you of your courage and your nerve. The more it ruins your courage, the more you come to rely on the cigarette to restore it. We all know of the panic that smokers experience when they are out late at night and running low on cigarettes. Non-smokers do not experience this fear and panic: the cigarette creates it.
Cigarettes not only destroy your nerves but also contain many toxins that attack the central nervous system and other key organs and systems, progressively destroying your physical health. By the time the smoker reaches the stage at which it is killing him, he depends totally on the cigarette. He sees it as his courage and cannot face life without it.
Get it clear in your mind: Cigarettes don’t relieve stress; they create it. Cigarettes don’t help you to calm down and relax; they cause you to be panicky and agitated. One of the most wonderful things about breaking free from this awful drug is the return of your courage, confidence and self-esteem.
CHAPTER 10
BOREDOM
If you are already smoking at this moment, you will probably have already forgotten about it until I reminded you.
Another fallacy about smoking is that it relieves boredom. Are smokers who make this claim really saying that cigarettes contain a biologically active ingredient that is a medical cure for boredom? Boredom is a frame of mind, not a medical condition. Anyway, it’s not as if the dull, gray fog of boredom is replaced by the brilliant, shining, multi-colored thrill of excitement when a smoker lights up. Initially, you were bored. Now you are bored and smoking.
Just because smokers smoke when they’re bored, it doesn’t mean that smoking relieves boredom. The fact is that if smoking relieved boredom, smokers would never be bored. At the very least they would be significantly less bored than non-smokers, something that is obviously untrue.
What smokers are really saying here is that going for a cigarette provides a momentary distraction if we are bored, in much the same way as any other activity would. The truth is that if you have something to occupy your mind that is not stressful, you can go for long periods without smoking, and it is doesn’t bother you in the slightest. It is only when there is no distraction that the smoker will look to smoke. But think about it: if a cigarette relieved boredom, then why would we need to smoke more than one?
As with so much about smoking, the truth is the opposite of the brainwashing we have been subjected to. I believe that smokers have more boredom in their lives than non-smokers because cigarettes rob them of energy and they are more lethargic. Instead of getting up and doing something when they are bored, as a non-smoker does, the smoker tends to want to lounge around, bored, relieving their withdrawal pangs.
Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself. Observe smokers who are smoking because they are bored. They still look bored. Anyway, if smokers smoked to relieve boredom, then why do they also smoke when they are not bored?
As an ex-chain smoker I can assure you that there are no more boring activities in life than lighting up one filthy cigarette after another, day in day out, year in year out.
CHAPTER 11
CONCENTRATION
Cigarettes do not aid concentration. That is yet another illusion.
When you need to concentrate, you automatically try to remove distractions. But the smoker is already distracted: that ‘little monster’ wants his fix, and until he gets is, the smoker will find it difficult to concentrate. So when he wants to concentrate he doesn’t even have to think about it. He automatically lights up, removes the distraction caused by needing to smoke and can concentrate properly, like a non-smoker.
Looking at it this way it is obvious that cigarettes do not help concentration, rather that experiencing withdrawal makes it harder to concentrate. Of course non-smokers are not distracted by withdrawal