Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [82]
If you do light a cigarette at some time in the future, what would it do for you? You would lose all of the wonderful gifts of health, happiness and freedom you have earned, and for what? So you can return to a life of fear, misery and slavery? By making the decision to break free from smoking, you have just won life’s lottery. The prize is life, happiness, health and freedom. Money cannot buy these gifts. Protect them with your life.
CHAPTER42
OVER TWENTY YEARS OF FEEDBACK
Since the original publication of this book over twenty years ago, I have been lucky to receive an enormous amount of feedback.
Originally it was a struggle: in the early days the majority of the major players in the tobacco control establishment were critical of my method (most of them without taking the trouble to look at it in detail, I’m sad to say). Over the years, as they have seen the success of the method with their own eyes, this attitude is beginning to change and today some of our most enthusiastic supporters are frontline medical professionals who themselves work with smokers. Throughout Europe, where both the book and the seminars enjoy great success and a wonderful reputation, EASYWAY is considered by many in the field to be the most effective quitting technique available.
As I write this, we are in the process of reaching out to the tobacco control community and building and expanding our network of centers in the US so that smokers across North America can also have access to the EASYWAY method.
The EASYWAY program is also now available over the internet so that smokers who do not have access to a seminar center can attend a seminar in webcast form.
I’m no do-gooder. My war—which, I emphasize, is not against smokers but against the nicotine trap—I wage for the purely selfish reason that I enjoy it. Every time I hear of a smoker escaping from the prison I get a feeling of great pleasure, even when it has nothing to do with me. You can imagine the immense pleasure I obtain from the tens of thousands of grateful letters and emails that I have received over the years.
There has also been considerable frustration. The frustration is caused mainly by two categories of smoker. First, in spite of the warning contained in the previous chapter, I am disturbed by the number of smokers who find it easy to stop, yet get hooked again and find they can’t succeed the next time. This applies not only to readers of the book but also to a few attendees at our seminars.
A man phoned me a few years ago. He was distraught; in fact, he was crying. He said, ‘I’ll pay you $2,500 if you can help me stop for a week. I know if I can just survive for a week, I’ll be able to do it.’ I told him that I charged a fixed fee and that was all he need pay. He attended a group session and, much to his surprise, found it easy to stop. He sent me a very nice thank-you letter.
The very last thing we say to ex-smokers leaving our seminars is: ‘Remember, you must never smoke another cigarette.’ This particular man said, ‘Have no fear, Allen. I’ll definitely never smoke again.’
I could tell that the warning hadn’t really registered. I said, ‘I know you feel like that at the moment, but how will you feel six months on?’
He said, ‘Allen, I will never smoke again.’
About a year later there was another phone call. ‘Allen, I had a small cigar at Christmas, and now I’m back on forty cigarettes a day.’
I said, ‘Do you remember when you first phoned? You hated it so much you were going to pay me $2,500 if you could stop for a week. Do you remember you promised you would never smoke again?’
‘I know. I’m a fool.’
It’s like finding someone up to his neck in quicksand and about to go under. You pull him out. He is grateful to you then, six months later, dives straight back in.
I admit to feeling sad, angry and frustrated at such smokers, but this quickly turns to sympathy when I realize that they are feeling ten times worse than I. If you find yourself in this situation you need