Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [58]
In addition to his other troubles, this poor man had burns all over his lips caused by smoking the cigarette too low. Reading this, you probably have visions of a weak-willed jellyfish of a man. Not so. This man was over six feet tall and a decorated ex-Marine. He was a former athlete and didn’t want to become a smoker. However, in World War II, cigarettes were provided free of charge as part of every soldier’s rations. This man was virtually ordered to become a smoker and he has spent the rest of his life paying. By the time he contacted me, he was a mental, physical and nervous wreck, all due to smoking and the stranglehold the cigarette had on this tragic hero’s life. Had he been an animal, our society would have had him put down as a mercy killing.
You may think the above case is exaggerated. It is extreme but not unique. That man poured his heart out to me, but you can be sure that many of his friends and acquaintances envied him for being a five-a-day man.
Isn’t it strange that, as smokers, we equate smoking less with being happier, yet we perceive not smoking at all as terrifying? It doesn’t seem to occur to us that the obvious conclusion is that the cigarette creates the misery in the first place. It also eludes us that using this rationale the happiest people would be non-smokers. These points are very obvious to non-smokers but fear prevents smokers from accepting them.
The truth is that casual smokers are no happier than heavy smokers, and many of them are extremely unhappy indeed. The manifestation of their addiction is a little different to that of the regular smoker, but they are addicted nonetheless. As casual smokers they suffer from two additional burdens that make their lives even more miserable. Firstly, they are only servicing their addiction on a limited basis. This means that they have to use willpower and go through extended periods of enduring the torture of wanting to smoke but not allowing themselves to do so. Second, because they are abstaining on a prolonged basis, they suffer from the illusion that they enjoy smoking where in fact they are enjoying an end to the dissatisfied state of needing to smoke.
In any case, drug addicts are notorious liars and this includes many ‘casual’ smokers. Most ‘casual’ smokers smoke far more and far more frequently than they care to admit. I have lost count of the number of conversations I have had with so-called five-a-day smokers who have smoked more than five during the course of the conversation! Observe ‘casual’ smokers at social occasions such as weddings and parties. They’ll be chain-smoking along with the best of them.
You don’t need to envy casual smokers. The truth is that they, along with all of the other smokers in your life, will be envying you when you break free. Life is so much sweeter without dragging this ball and chain with you wherever you go.
Teenagers can be more of a challenge to cure because they don’t believe that they are hooked and they think they could quit anytime they wanted to. By the time they work it all out; it’s too late. I’d like to warn the parents of children who loathe smoking not to have a false sense of security. All children hate smoking right up until the time they become hooked.
It saddens and frustrates me that, despite investing tens of millions of dollars, society has still not found an effective way to prevent children from starting to smoke. Health warnings don’t deter young people because teenagers think the warnings are only applicable to older smokers. They treat the anti-smoking education programs like DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) as a joke. Attempts by the establishment to deter kids from smoking only serve to make it appear more desirable. The reason for this is that the children are receiving mixed messages. On the one hand, very un-cool people (teachers, doctors, health educators) are telling them that it is not cool to smoke. But on the other hand, very cool people (peers, older kids, movie stars, rock stars) are telling them that it is very cool