Has anyone successfully used Allen Carr's book?

[guitarosauras]

I've just ordered it but wondered if anyone on here had successfully used his books?

yes yes yes, he's my saviour. go straight for the big permanently book rather than the first one. 7 years in march for me. good luck I totally believe in this book.

We've had many people on earlier threads who have used Allen Carr's method very successfully. It doesn't work for everyone, but is very much worth you giving it every chance. Sadly I'm one it didn't work on, but I've heard such good things & can see how it will work with plenty of people that I do suggest it to people.

Good luck - and remember you can always come on here for any support you want

It was a good book, but I failed to finish it!

Ooh, I did! 10 years ago. I didn't even want to quit. I was only reading it to demonstrate to my then DH that it was nonsense.

I stopped smoking before I even finished it, and I've never picked up another fag. I'm still a bit miffed, to be honest.

lessthanBeau can you link to the one you mean , I think I have got the first one (gathering dust )

Really good. He tells you to wait 3 weeks to quit after finishing it though - that was my downfall. I'm going to give it a go again and quit on the day I finish it

I did it! It only bloody worked!

Well done!

Hooray! That's excellent news

Well done!

I am evangelical about this book! I know so many people who have given up with it including me. I had a little help from Zyban BUT it was the book that changed my entire mindset, from "I don't really want to but I ought to" to "Why one earth am I doing this it is literally worse than pointless".

I used zyban and Allen Carr 10 yrs ago. That and the smoking ban in pubs did it.
The book itself is repetitive and badly written but the core principle really resonated with me.
If you're ready to quit, it certainly can't hurt. It took me at least 3 proper tries before I finally took my last drag.
Good luck!

Oh dear . I missed the posy where you said you'd done it.
Bloody well done!!! Keep it up.

My strategy was to always have a pack of cigs with me so I felt 'safe'. Every time I wanted one I just told myself "I'm ok just now, I'll have one later." This tricked my brain to stop craving a smoke and 3 months later I finally threw my last pack away.
I'm going to be 40 this year and I'm so proud that neither my dh or ds ever saw me smoke even though I did it for almost 20 years. (god, I was 12 when I took my first drag, I was a baby!)

posy = post

I read it 10 years ago and gave up straight away, I found it really easy to give up after understanding why I smoked. It really makes you feel like you're being a complete fool to carry on smoking, being brainwashed by the tobacco companies. It also made me question more how I'm being manipulated by other companies. I recommend it to everyone. If you fully take on board everything that the book says you will quit.

At the same time I also found a computer game I loved to give my hands something to do, and to give myself a break when I needed one.

I think that's what has made it almost 'easy' happy is that it makes you understand why you smoked and makes you question yourself!

It's magic but I don't know how.

I really think the NHS should prescribe this book to patients instead of sending them to smoking cessation classes.

I think it should be recommended as a method among other methods rather than instead of.

Allen Carr does appear to get very good success rates. The best data available suggests a success rate higher than Stop Smoking Services. For NICE to be able to recommend it there would have to be proper RCTs. That shouldn't be impossible.

It doesn't work for everybody though. No method does, so we need all the different methods that work for some people. There are many people for whom Allen Carr has not worked but SSS has, or vaping has or champix has. People are different and smoke for different reasons so we need lots of different methods of quitting.