To boast but also to let smokers know how EASY it was to give up!

[pippala]

Please Please Please read Alan Carrs easy Way to stop smoking!
I had smoked for 35 years! off and on.
My mother in law and mother have both died from lung cancer but the ONLY time I have ever not smoked was when I was pregnant or breastfeeding.
I didnt EVEN like the taste of cigarettes and used to smoke with an extra strong mint in my mouth! I thought I enjoyed smoking but how could I when I didn't like the taste and only smoked half a fag before putting it out only to smoke the other half later?
In November last year I developed a cough that lasted three months. I had an xray in Febuary and was told I may have COPD!!!
Isn't that what horses have?
I was told in no uncertain terms that if I carried on I would probably die in five years. My daughter is a doctor. She confirmed this to me by showing me graphes/statistics of other sufferers!
Well I was P...ed of!
I didn't want to give up did I? I enjoyed smoking didn't I? etc etc etc
So I bought THE book off Amazon for about 4 quid.
4 quid? Well thats nearly a packet of fags
4 quid? That has probably saved my life!
So it took me a week to read this book when I can actually read a book in a day if I get stuck in to it.
50 shades og grey was read in just over 17 hours!

Truth be told I read the first two chapters and throught what a load of tosh! Whilst sipping my wine and enjoying a fag!
It was the same old crap over and over again- you smell! smoking is disgusting! blah blah blah!
I thought something very profound must be read in the final chapter for so many thousands of smokers to finish the book and close the book as a non- smoker!
It won't work for me - I don't want to give up - do I?
I even thought let's skip all this same old, same old crap and read the final chapter.
But I didn't. I read all through the book hating it, smoking and sipping that wine thinking what a load of tosh!
FINAL CHAPTER- so here it is.
SMOKE YOUR LAST CIGERETTE AND REJOICE!
So I did what the book told me to do and enjoyed my last cigerette EVER, on my patio sipping a glass of wine, watching the sun set over my horses paddock.
My husband who is my ever supporting rod took a photograph of me with my last ever fag!
I savoured that last cigerette even burning my finger tips because I was so reluctant to stub it out.

And GUESS WHAT?
I felt so euphoric!!!

The next morning when it would have been the that first fag of the day moment came and went. No pangs, no cravings! What the hell?
This is so easy!
Well I NEVER had cravings.
All I ever have, even now six months on is the realisation that at certain times of the day or after certain acts or things that coincided with a cigerette such as mid morning coffee, after mucking out the stables, driving the car, after an arguement or after enjoyable dinner my brain TELLS me it's time for a fag.
NOT that I fancy or need one - just that it's fag time.

That book did something to my brain- hypnotised me or something! I don't know what but I am a non-smoker. A non- smoker who is shocked to be a non- smoker but hey I may not develope full blown COPD now thanks to spending 4 quid on a BOOK!

I couldn't get on with Alan Carr.
He just said what I know already and then repeated it over and over and over again
I know that's sort of the point, but I found it extremely annoying. I also through the book across the room.
I did stop for a while with nicotine patches but I made the fatal mistake of 'just having the one', but I didn't find it particularly hard at the time.

I've smoked since I was 11 - so that's 30 years now. I started smoking because I liked the smell and taste, and I quit just over 3 weeks ago, during a nasty bout of bronchitis/laryngitis.

The book did nothing for me; no enthusiastic reviews could ever persuade me to pick it up again (and I read the whole thing twice). It's like everything - what works for some, won't for others.

Hackmum I don't think that smokers walk around in a haze of denial about being addicted - I know that I am, and even though I've quit smoking, I can't ever have just one, because I will start smoking again.

I hate phrases like 'given up' or 'quit' in relation to smoking. It is one day at a time, and for some people, it will ALWAYS be one day at a time.

I have 'given up' smoking between 10 and 15 times. Sometimes for well over a year, sometimes for months or weeks.

You can't ever really say 'I have given up for good' until you're on your death-bed. All you can say is, 'I'm not smoking' or 'I haven't smoked since...'

OP, I sincerely hope you won't have the same experiences at me with regards to 'giving up' and failing repeatedly.

And you are right to be very proud that you haven't smoked for 6 months. All the best to you for your continued abstinence.

I really don't think the 'its so easy' helps anyone. I found labour (even though it was short or straight forward) very easy both time. I thought it was pretty easy.
I don't go round telling people it was easy so they should find easy. Everyone is different and for people struggling it makes them feel shit. I would also beware smugness. I quit for 4 years once. I have stopped about 8 weeks ago but don't and will never consider myself a ex-smoker. Its an addiction and I could always slip.

But well done, op.
Sorry forgot to say that.

Hi well done op! Worked for me as well, it will have been 2 years next month since I stopped (smoked 20 a day) and can honestly say it was easy with the book and wished that I had read it years before.

Well done OP giving up smoking is a real achievement.

However, I don't think coming on here and crowing about how EASY it is will win you any friends

P.S. The reason people are saying well done and congratulations is beause it's not an easy thing to do and deserves recongnition!

Well done op!
I quit 6 years ago after smoking over 20 years by will power alone. Terrible cravings, but did it by willpower alone

Hubby smoked over 25 years, listened to Alan Carr audio, gave up at last chapter and has had no cravings whatsoever, and no will power required!

Its a good message to get out there. There may be people lurking who haven't even heard of Allen Carr (infact I saw someone on a smoking in pregnancy thread say as much the other day) and if they can be encouraged to give it a try ... and then give up, then that's all good.

Some extreme examples of pissing on other people's chips on this thread, you grumpy people!

Well done.

But I found Allen Carr to be absolutely shit the first time I tried to give up. I attended a course that cost me £150 about 17yrs ago.

There was a helpline number to ring when you couldn't handle the withdrawals. I rang it and was told to "Rejoice and enjoy the cravings" and apparently the fact I didn't enjoy them and was ready to kill, meant I didn't 'understand' how wonderful it was

Allen Carr was very anti nicotine replacement therapy and would tell successful quitters that they gave up in spite of the nicotine replacement and not because of it

Anyway, eventually the E.Cig worked for me and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

It was the only method that worked for me (apart for giving up when pregnant) do I agree with you and totally recommend it. However I think you still need to want to quit + lots of will power. So it's not a miracle cure like the author makes out but it gets you there.
Well done by the way!

Read it, it didn't work. Next

waterlego I do say I'm an exsmoker, because I have made that commitment to myself and my children. I will never ever smoke another cigarette, or even one drag. They are inaminate objects, they can't find their way into my mouth unless I put one in there, and that's not going to happen, no matter how bad I feel.
It is actually easier to stay non smoking nowadays. It is no longer seen as being 'normal', we aren't surrounded by people smoking.

Agree 100% fatlazymum
I'm not taking my chances with even one drag ever again. Like Alan Carr says, that one cigarette would end up costing £ thousands.
Also agree that smoking is so anti social nowadays that it's much easier to stay off

Well I bought Allan Carr's book about 12 years ago. It didn't work - but then I had been smoking since I was 11.

It very much depends on why you smoke, and what age you became addicted.

It's a good book, and explains a lot about the slavery of addiction. But it wasn't enough for me. I think it works if you started smoking as an adult and started for purely social reasons.

I haven't smoked now for 18 months but I still puff on ecigs. After 3 months of feeling almost suicidal and having terrible dreams and heart palpitations thanks to nicotine patches, I started a course of antidepressants which helped enormously.

If it works for you, great - but it's not a miracle cure, especially for those with decades-long addictions.

Also why would you boast about something that is so easy?

That's fantastic news OP. I think some people are giving you an unnecessarily hard time here. You were simply recommending a way to quit smoking that worked so well for you, and people are criticising you for it? I don't quite get that.

I quit 4 months ago, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, though still tough. The cravings are virtually gone now. I quit cold turkey, decided to smoke my last fag and that was it. I quit because the fear of dying through smoking was starting to outweigh the enjoyment of smoking (and I really did enjoy it).

I intend to start again when I'm 75 (hopefully I'll get there!), my boys will be adults and it won't matter as much then!!

Congratulations again OP, great news.

Pregnancy made me quit 10 years ago

Well done OP

Unfortunately it didn't work for me, no idea why as I really thought I 'got it' but I only lasted a day after my supposed final cigarette. I have got a copy of The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently which I have been reading on and off for about a year, I think it will work if only I can manage to actually finish the book!

Well done OP.
I stopped buying cigarettes in april. I have the book but never read it.

I think there's a part of me that'll always need a cigarette I just choose not to have one anymore.