Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [31]
The most uptight, tense people on the planet aren’t non-smokers but chain-smokers who are permanently coughing and spluttering, have high blood pressure and are constantly irritable. By this stage cigarettes cease to relieve even partially the symptoms that they have created.
I can remember when I was a young accountant, bringing up a family. One of my children would do something wrong and I would lose my temper to a degree that was out of all proportion to what he had done. I really believed that I had an evil, uncontrollable side to my character. I now know that I did, however it wasn’t some inherent flaw in me, but the nicotine ‘monster’ that was rearing its ugly head. During those times I thought I had all the problems in the world, and I wondered what I had done to deserve this miserable, stressful life. Today, I can see the problem so clearly. I was in control of all aspects of my life, bar one. The one thing that controlled me was the cigarette and it was this that was the source of so much unhappiness. The sad thing is that even today I can’t convince my children that it was the smoking that caused me to be so irritable.
Some years ago the UK adoption authorities threatened to prevent smokers from adopting children. A man called a radio chat show I was listening to on the subject, irate. He said, ‘This is completely wrong. I can remember when I was a child, if I had a contentious matter to raise with my mother, I would wait until she lit a cigarette because she was more relaxed then.’ A smoker views this as proof that cigarettes aid relaxation but the truth is that it just demonstrates that smokers are tense when they aren’t smoking.
Nicotine withdrawal creates feelings of slight tension and anxiety. When the smoker lights up he removes these feelings and can relax, like a non-smoker. But as soon as he puts the cigarette out, withdrawal begins and the feeling of tension and anxiety returns. So he needs to light up again and again…
This is the saddest thing about smoking. We smoke so that we can remove the feelings of withdrawal and feel like a non-smoker.
Smoking is full of inconsistencies and inaccuracies and one of the biggest is the myth that cigarettes relax us. If they did, smokers would be more relaxed than non-smokers. This is clearly not true. In fact, even most smokers will admit that the opposite is true.
The next time you are in a supermarket and you see a young mother or father screaming at a child, just watch them leave. Nine times out of ten, the first thing they will do is light a cigarette. Start watching smokers, particularly in situations where they are not allowed to smoke. You’ll find that they have their hands near their mouths, or they are twiddling their thumbs, or tapping their feet, or fiddling with their hair, or clenching their jaw and grinding their teeth. Smokers aren’t relaxed. They’ve forgotten what it feels like to be completely relaxed. This is one of the many joys you have to look forward to—to once again know what it feels like to be totally relaxed.
The whole business of smoking can be likened to a fly being caught in a pitcher plant. To begin with, the fly is eating the nectar. But at some stage the plant begins to eat the fly. Isn’t it time you escaped from the nicotine trap?
CHAPTER 13
COMBINATION CIGARETTES
No, a combination cigarette is not when you are smoking two or more at the same time. When that happens, you begin to wonder why you were smoking the first one. I once burned the back of my hand trying to put a cigarette in my mouth when I already had a lit one there. Actually, it is not quite as stupid as it sounds. As I have already said, eventually the cigarette ceases to relieve the withdrawal pangs, and even when you are smoking, you