Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [73]
Homemakers are sometimes in a similar situation. No one works harder than a homemaker in my experience, but although much of the work can be stressful, it can also be boring. Long periods of monotonous housework are ‘rewarded’ by a cigarette, and the homemaker’s day can be mapped out by limited, and therefore precious, opportunities to smoke.
The challenge for these types of smoker is to see through the brainwashing of the cigarette as an all-purpose stress reliever / stimulant / relaxant / reward / comforter / friend and to see it for what it really is: a drug delivery device, much like the heroin addicts hypodermic syringe. This is easy with the right frame of mind. Believe it or not, it is not compulsory to mope around craving cigarettes when these triggers come. Instead, why not use that opportunity to celebrate your freedom and congratulate yourself that you have got rid of this evil monster?
Remember, any smoker, regardless of age, sex, intelligence or profession, can find it easy and enjoyable to stop provided YOU FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS.
CHAPTER 36
THE MAIN REASONS FOR FAILURE
Based on the enormous amount of feedback we have received over the past twenty-five years, there are two main reasons for failure with the Easyway method.
The first is the influence of other smokers. At a weak moment or during a social occasion (most likely involving alcohol) somebody will light up. I have already dealt with this topic at length. Use that moment to remind yourself that there is no such thing as just one cigarette and that the smoker has to go on smoking all day, every day, for the rest of his life, never being allowed to stop. Remember that the smoker envies you, and feel sorry for him. Believe me, he needs your pity. I wouldn’t wish the life of a smoker on my worst enemy.
The other main reason for failure is having a bad day. You need to get it clear in your mind before you start that everyone has good and bad days, whether they smoke or not.
The problem with the Willpower quitter is that he tends to blame a bad day on the absence of the cigarette. He mopes around feeling deprived and makes a bad day worse. On the other hand the Easyway Method quitter celebrates the fact that, even though today isn’t good, he doesn’t have the additional stress and misery of being a smoker on top of it.
When you are a smoker you have to block your mind to the many, many downsides of smoking. Smokers never have smoker’s coughs, just permanent colds. They never have to freeze outside in the depths of a Midwestern winter; they just ‘go for a bit of fresh air’. As a smoker, if your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, you light a cigarette. But does this really help deal with the problem? In such a situation, a willpower quitter would mope for a cigarette, as if the cigarette would solve the problem, but why? Smoking a cigarette does precisely nothing to fix your car or improve your predicament, so why do we attribute these magical properties to it?
This moping creates an impossible situation. You are miserable because you can’t smoke, and you’ll be even more miserable if you do. You know that you have made the right decision, and you have made that decision based on irrefutable facts. Every smoker on the planet would rather be a non-smoker and every non-smoker is glad they don’t have to smoke. Never punish yourself by doubting this decision. It is one of the best, if not the very best decision that you have ever made.
You can be happy, not because Allen Carr tells you to be, but because there is so much to be happy about. This is a fact. As with every other area in our lives, a positive mental approach is essential—always.
CHAPTER 37
SUBSTITUTES
Substitutes include gum, candy, pills, patches and chocolate. DO NOT USE ANY OF THEM. They make it harder to quit, not easier because they perpetuate