Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [76]
Using the EASYWAY, you don’t need an anti-depressant, because there is nothing to be depressed about. On the contrary, this can and should be one of the most enjoyable experiences of your life.
The latest quit smoking ‘wonder drug’ is Chantix. The varenicline molecule contained in Chantix sits on receptor cells in the brain, blocking nicotine from acting on those cells and in theory preventing smoking from removing the slightly anxious, edgy feeling of withdrawal. Pfizer’s five initial trials of Chantix showed an average twelve month success rate of 22%, but it should be noted that these rates were achieved under highly artificial clinic study conditions. How much of that 22% success rate was due to the 26 one-on-one counseling sessions provided to study participants? How many real-world Chantix quitters would have such a luxury? In addition, ever since it was launched, Chantix has been associated with brutal side-effects including suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety. The smokers we see in our seminars instinctively back away from taking such heavy medication, and rightly so, in my view.
But the chief downside of substitutes is that they prolong the real problem, which is the brainwashing. When you recover from a bad dose of the ‘flu’, do you look for a replacement disease? Of course you don’t. By saying ‘I need a substitute for smoking’ you are really saying ‘I am making a sacrifice by quitting’. This is the cause of the depression and misery experienced by both smokers (throughout their smoking lives whenever they are in a situation when they can’t smoke) and people quitting using Willpower. All substitutes do is substitute one problem for another. There is no pleasure in stuffing candy down your throat. You will just get fat and miserable, and in no time at all, you’ll find yourself back on the weed, but this time twenty pounds heavier.
Casual smokers find it difficult to dismiss the belief that they are being deprived of their little reward or crutch: the cigarette during the coffee break at work or the smoke break while working in a dull or high-pressure job. Some say, ‘I wouldn’t even take the break if I didn’t smoke.’ This proves my point. Often, the break is taken not because we want or need it, but so we can feed the ‘little monster’. Those smokers aren’t enjoying the cigarette though; just the ending to the feeling of needing it. By removing that feeling, they get to feel temporarily like a non-smoker. These cigarettes are the equivalent of wearing tight shoes to get the pleasure of taking them off.
So if you absolutely feel that you must have your little reward then wear a pair of tight shoes and don’t take them off until you go on a break. Then you can experience the reward of relaxation and satisfaction of taking them off. Perhaps you would feel rather stupid doing this. You would be right to. However, this is pretty much what smokers do all day every day. Soon you will see this whole aspect of the ‘reward’ for what it really is—just another occasion when smokers have to go on feeding the ‘little monster’.
If you are in a profession where you really need a break—homemakers, doctors, teachers etc., then you’ll soon be enjoying that break ten times more because you can use it to really relax, not to have to ingest a battery of poisons and other harmful chemicals. More importantly you can choose to take the break when you really want it rather than when your addiction obliges you to.
Remember, you don’t need a substitute. Every pang, however minor, is a symptom of recovery and you will be fully recovered before you know it. Let that knowledge be your reward. Enjoy ridding your body of this poison, and your mind of the slavery and dependence.
I have covered the topic of weight gain in Chapter 30, but weight and substitutes are so closely linked that I feel the need to reiterate the points that I have already