Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [42]
I had liver spots on my hands by the age of forty. In case you don’t know, liver spots are those rather unsightly brown or white spots that some older people have on their face and hands. I tried to ignore them. Five years after I quit I was conducting a seminar when an attendee mentioned that when he had quit previously, his liver spots had disappeared. I had completely forgotten about mine and, to my amazement, they too had disappeared.
For as long as I could remember I would see stars if I sneezed, or stood up too quickly. If I was in a hot bath and stood up I would get dizzy, as if I was about to black out. I never related this to smoking. In fact I was convinced that everyone felt this way and that I was normal. About ten years ago an ex-smoker told me about this and it dawned on me that I no longer experienced any of these conditions related to circulation. When I was a smoker I could never get my fingers or toes warm in winter. No matter how long I spent indoors by the fire, my extremities would remain stone cold. I quit in July 1983, and have never been cold since, as my circulation bounced back remarkably after thirty-three years of abuse.
You might conclude that I am somewhat of a hypochondriac. I think I probably was when I was a smoker. One of the great scams of smoking is that we are led to believe that the cigarette gives us courage when in fact it leaves your courage, your nerve and your self-confidence shot to pieces. I was shocked when I heard my father say that he had no wish to live to be fifty. Little did I realize twenty years later I’d be saying the same. I had completely lost my joie de vivre. You might conclude that this chapter has been one of necessary (or unnecessary) doom and gloom. I promise you that it is the exact opposite.
When I was a child I used to fear death. I used to think that smoking removed that fear (I know now that it doesn’t, just that as a smoker you have to learn to ignore it). Smoking also gave me a new fear though: A FEAR OF LIVING!
Now my fear of dying has returned. It doesn’t bother me. I realize that it only exists because I have rediscovered my love of life. I don’t brood over my fear of dying any more than I did when I was a child. I’m far too busy having fun and living life to the full to dwell on it. The odds of me living until I’m a hundred are slim to none, but I’ll try, and I’ll enjoy every precious moment.
There were two other advantages on the health side that never occurred to me until I had stopped smoking. One was that I used to have persistent nightmares that I was being chased. I can only assume that this was triggered by the slightly empty, insecure feeling of withdrawal and then exaggerated by my sub-conscious. Now the only nightmare I ever have is that very occasionally I dream that I am smoking. This is quite a common dream among ex-smokers. Some worry that it shows a deep seated sub-conscious desire to smoke, but I think the fact that it’s a nightmare shows that you are happy not to have to smoke any more.
When I described being ‘chased’ every night in a dream, I originally mistakenly typed ‘chaste’. Perhaps this was just a Freudian slip, but it does lead me conveniently into the second advantage. At my seminars, when discussing the effect that smoking has on concentration, I will sometimes ask: ‘Which organ in the body has the greatest need of a good supply of blood?’ The stupid grins, usually on the faces of the men in the group, would indicate that they had missed the point. However, they were absolutely right. Being a somewhat reserved Englishman, I find the subject of sex rather embarrassing, and I