Allen Carr - The Easy Way to Stop Smoking?
Allen Carr (not to be confused with the comedian Alan Carr) is famous for the method for stopping smoking set out in his best selling book: "Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking". I was prompted to write this short review of the book after a client told me how they had attended an initial session at one of his stop smoking clinics and stopped smoking for several days but then started again, which had left them feeling useless and a failure. Whilst Mr Carr's books and clinics probably do help many to quit smoking, this does highlight one of the risks from his approach: the suggestion, as in the book's title, that it can be 'easy' to give up smoking can have the drawback that for those who don't find it quite so easy, their motivation and self esteem suffers if they falter in their progress.
Nicotine Addiction
The first few chapters of Allen Carr's book read rather like a novel. He describes how he himself was a chain smoker until he discovered his simple method for giving up smoking and the suspense is built up as he repeats this in several different ways and casts aspersions on more traditional approaches to giving up smoking. Then at the end of Chapter 5 he sets out what he considers to be the two main reasons why people smoke:
1. Nicotine Addiction
2. Brainwashing.
One could alternatively make a slightly less dramatic distinction between two aspects of 'addictions':
- Physical addiction - i.e. which is demonstrated by the fact that you experience physical withdrawal symptoms when you stup using an addictive drug - for example, sickness or headaches or the shakes.
- Psychological addiction - some nicotine withdrawal symptoms can include coughing, a dry mouth or hunger as your metabolism adjusts to being nicotine free.
As Allen Carr indicates, cigarettes and nicotine are not strongly physically addictive. The physical symptoms that you might experience as a heavy smoker if you suddenly stop smoking are usually not very great, as compared to say the symptoms that a heavy drinker or a heroin addict might experience from giving up (indeed in the case of alcohol use there is a risk that you could suffer a fit or even die if you drink heavily and suddenly stop altogether - you should seek medical advice if intending to do this).
The main difficulties that smokers experience in giving up are in dealing with the psychological dependency that they may have developed on smoking. Allen Carr does highlight the fact that cigarettes are not particularly physically addictive and that withdrawal pangs are mainly around your thoughts, feelings and cravings. Carr seeks to persuade the reader that their belief that smoking is going to be very difficult is largely an illusion. He does this by appealing to his own experience in giving up smoking permanently after being a chain smoker. He also suggests that the belief that smoking helps you to relax is an illusion, arguing that smoking just temporarily satisfies a craving and that someone who does not smoke (or who has given up smoking for several weeks) is likely to be more relaxed because they don't have the craving in the first place.
Allen Carr's positive message for those who want to give up smoking can be a powerful motivational tool - particularly since it comes from someone who has himself given up after being a very heavy smoker. However, for those who do not manage to sustain the progress they might initially make in giving up smoking, the consequence could be a feeling of failure which may make it harder to resume progress.
Smoking and Brainwashing?
As indicated above, Allen Carr's second suggestion as to why people smoke is 'brainwashing'. He elaborates on this to indicate that he thinks that all the benefits that people might think they get from smoking are in fact an illusion. Thus he devotes pages in the book to arguing that people are mistaken when they think that smoking helps them to:
- Deal with stress
- Cope with boredom
- Concentrate
- Relax
My view would be again that this depends in part on the psychological associations that people have developed in smoking - if you believe that smoking helps you to concentrate, for example, then you may well find it difficult to concentrate when you are not smoking and you develop a level of psychological dependency on smoking in relevant situations which is difficult to break.
The Easy Way To Stop Smoking
Allen Carr suggests that there are certain aspects to making giving up smoking easy, including:
1. Realizing that you can achieve it (I would agree)
2. Recognizing that there is nothing to give up (because the supposed benefits of smoking are in his view an illusion), just enormous gains in prospect - As indicated above, I think this may be an over simplification.
3. Seeing smoking not as a sociable habit but as drug addiction. I would by contrast see it as being both a habit and an addiction, although I might be wary of using the word 'addiction' because of its moralistic overtones - which can make people feel at fault or guilty - and because the concept of 'addiction' can be defined in different ways.
Does Allen Carr's Method for Giving Up Smoking Work?
In conclusion, it may be that Allen Carr's method will work for some people because it can help you to believe that giving up smoking is possible and can help you to realise that your state of mind and confidence may also improve as well as getting undeniable health and financial benefits. However, if you try the method and it doesn't work, then this may lead you to feel a personal failure - if that happens to you, just be aware that it may be because the method does not work for everyone.
Allen Carr is keen on contrasting his method with approaches to giving up smoking which emphasise willpower. However there are other pragmatic approaches which do not rely on willpower but also avoid the extreme claims of Allen Carr's method. To view an alternative approach to giving up smoking and making other significant changes in lifestyle patterns or styles of thinking, please click on the link below:
Willpower, Smoking and Significant Change
To purchase a copy of The Easy Way to Quit Smoking by Allen Carr, click on the image below:
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