Chapter 18

TAKING CONTROL

IN THIS CHAPTER

• One Simple Step • Addiction • Lame Excuses • All Smokers Want To Quit • Back To Health • Get Out Now! • Get Your Retaliation In First

All smokers have their own powerful reasons for wanting to quit, but they are afraid of what they’re going to miss if they become a non-smoker. When you quit, and realize you’re not missing anything, you appreciate the greatest gain of all: escape from the slavery.

ONE SIMPLE STEP

Smokers start out with the belief that they are in control. Even after years in the trap, they still convince themselves that they smoke because they enjoy it. Deep down, they know this isn’t true, but they can’t understand the real reason they continue to light up. It feels like an unseen force keeps compelling them to smoke, even though they wish they didn’t have to. That unseen force is fear created by addiction.

As I’ve explained, it is not a genuine fear: i.e., it is not based in reality and so it is not logical, but to the smoker it feels genuine enough. It is the fear of life being unbearable without the cigarette.

Smokers go through their entire smoking lives controlled by this fear, slaves to addiction. And because they don’t understand it, they close their minds to it and make up flimsy excuses for smoking – excuses like ‘I like the taste’ and ‘It helps me relax’ or ‘It helps me concentrate.

’

This is the Big Con that keeps all smokers in that miserable prison. It’s an ingenious prison. It has no walls, no gates, no guards, nothing, yet the prisoners are kept captive by their own beliefs and fears, which are instilled in their minds by a tyrant called…

ADDICTION

Not only does each prisoner act as their own jailer, they work together to keep everyone else imprisoned too, by spreading the fears instilled in them by the tyrant. Nobody knows exactly what would happen if they tried to escape, but they are sufficiently afraid of it to choose to stay in the camp, even though the tyrant has made it quite clear he intends to kill them! They’re so afraid of how bad things might get that they don’t address how bad things already are.

Get this clear in your mind: nothing bad is happening here. You’ll be missing out on nothing other than a lifetime of misery. If you harbour slight doubts about cigarettes helping you to be happy, helping you to cope or helping you to relax, concentrate, handle stress, enjoy a drink, enjoy a meal or a break from work, then see it the way it really is.

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do when they’re happy?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do when they’re sad?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do when they want to relax?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do when they need to concentrate?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do if they need to handle stress?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do if they want to enjoy a drink

?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do if they want to enjoy a meal?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do if they want to enjoy a break from work?

• What does a smoker or vaper have to do after they make love?

Smokers have to smoke! And vapers have to vape. The same goes for JUULers, chewers and snusers. They don’t do it through choice on any of these occasions. They have no choice.

They have to smoke or vape or JUUL or chew or snus day in, day out, every single day for the rest of their lives – never being allowed to stop.

They’re incapable of doing anything without nicotine before, during or after.

The addiction makes it impossible for them to even grieve properly without nicotine. Can you think of anything more pathetic than that? These aren’t arguments for smoking and nicotine; these are the biggest arguments against it.

That’s the way it is. And the way it always will be. Nothing will ever change the life of a smoker or vaper. Except two things: Stop living or GET FREE!

There are evil regimes that have preyed on human fear throughout history. The tyrant of nicotine addiction is no less evil. But there is one key difference: if you had tried to escape the clutches of one of the tyrants the human race has thrown up so often, the consequences could have been dire.

Attempt to escape the clutches of nicotine addiction, and nothing bad will happen to you at all. On the contrary, you will make many wonderful gains. You don’t need to plot any daring escapes. There are no walls or fences to overcome, no guards training their guns on you. All you have to do is stop being

controlled by the Big Con and step out of the prison.

It’s that easy.

If you can imagine being in that prison, crammed in with all the other smokers, all suffering, sick, enslaved and lying to yourselves and one another – and then imagine taking that one simple step to the outside, where the air is clean, your head is light and your vision is clear, that is the sense of freedom and happiness you can look forward to as a non-smoker. That is freedom from slavery and it is the most wonderful of all the wonderful gains you stand to make by stopping smoking.

I stopped smoking… I read this book by Allen Carr. Everyone who reads this book stops smoking!

Ellen DeGeneres

LAME EXCUSES

We all have our pride. Feeling controlled, like a slave, is a terrible blight on a person’s self-esteem. All smokers suffer the indignity of having to see themselves as slaves and turn to a variety of phoney excuses in an attempt to promote an alternative explanation for their smoking. After a short time in the trap the excuses change from deluded lies like ‘I enjoy the taste’ to defensive and negative arguments:

‘I can afford it.’

You can probably afford heroin too; why don’t you take that? The average smoker spends £100,000 to £120,000 on cigarettes in their lifetime. But how much of their salary does that equate to? Remember: you earn your gross salary, pay your taxes and then, with whatever is left, you spend £100,000–£120,000 on smokes. The thought of that money won’t help you to quit smoking, but

it certainly provides a great reason to be cheerful when you do.

Smokers don’t avoid taking heroin because they can’t afford it; they avoid it because they regard it as a filthy drug that enslaves its victims and leaves them as pathetic, sick addicts.

So what’s the difference?

‘I haven’t noticed any deterioration in my health.’

So you’re going to wait until you get ill before you consider quitting? Or are you denying that smoking is bad for you? As a vaper, you instinctively know that you’re doing yourself harm.

‘I haven’t got any other vices.’

So you’re only smoking or vaping because you think you need a vice? That suggests you know it’s bad for you and you’re only doing it for that reason and that you genuinely choose to do it. Where’s the logic in that?

Drinking stagnant pond water is bad for you too. Why not ‘choose’ to do that instead? Or are you suggesting that smoking is more pleasant than drinking stagnant pond water? Really? How? Both taste and smell foul. At least pond water is free and it’s not addictive. The same goes for vaping. Would you drink pond water as a vice if it was flavoured with caramel? Of course not.

Aside from the lack of basis to these excuses, they aren’t so much reasons for smoking as reasons for not stopping smoking. A double negative.

Compare that to the sort of reasons someone might give for taking part in a genuine pleasure, like playing a sport, going to the films, or dancing:

‘I enjoy the camaraderie.’

‘I love the way it captures my imagination.’

‘It transports me out of the present moment.’

‘It makes me feel amazing.

’

These are powerful, positive reasons for pursuing genuine pleasures, not lame excuses for not stopping doing them.

This highlights the difference between life as a smoker and life as a non-smoker. As a non-smoker you don’t need lame excuses. There is no sense that you’re doing something stupid that you need to justify somehow. You can hold your head up high and speak the truth with enthusiasm and joy.

I’m a happy non-smoker. I’m free!

The Big Con keeps smokers trapped in prison by closing their minds to the truth. Easyway helps smokers take the easy step to freedom by opening their minds to the truth. And the most simple truth of all is this:

You don’t need to be a slave

Non-smokers who have never smoked find it hard to understand why smokers need to have this simple truth pointed out to them. They have never been in the prison, so they don’t know what it’s like in there. There are plenty of truths in life that are kept from us by industries that make gains from our ignorance: the junk food industry, for example. Plenty of non-smokers become obese by eating junk food. They too have missed a simple truth. They are no more or less stupid than smokers; if you’re not told the truth, how are you supposed to know?

I was lucky enough to discover the simple truth that I smoked because I was addicted to nicotine, not because I enjoyed it or derived some sort of crutch from smoking. Until that moment I had found it impossible to quit. That simple truth enabled me to walk free with one simple step

.

Quitting smoking means taking control, and control comes with the realization that you do have a choice. You don’t need to remain a slave, you can walk free, you won’t miss smoking, you will enjoy life more, you will cope better with stress, you won’t have to go through some terrible trauma to escape. This is the truth.

ALL SMOKERS WANT TO QUIT

This is another truth concealed by the Big Con. All those poor souls in the prison secretly wish they could escape, but they don’t admit it for fear of the consequences. If they admitted it, then they would have to go ahead and try to escape, and that prospect frightens them. They’ve been told that escape is painful and miserable at best, impossible at worst. So they keep their secret desire for freedom to themselves and carry on doing the tyrant’s work, spreading the myth that they smoke because they want to.

But there is plenty of evidence that all smokers want to quit. Take the enormous industry for nicotine substitutes. Who’s buying all the patches, gum, pills, snus, vaping kits, etc., if it’s not smokers who don’t want to smoke? It’s a fact that more and more vapers are now attending our seminars. They’re either smoking and vaping or, in the case of a few, just vaping. If life as a vaper was that great, why would they pay us to seek our help? If you’re a vaper and resistant to this argument, ask yourself why on earth you’re reading this book. It’s because you’re fed up with the control and slavery of being an addict and simply want to be free.

Since the appearance of JUUL in the nicotine addiction market, there is now a new generation of nicotine addicts who haven’t ever smoked and have exclusively JUULed. Sadly, many of them will fall into the smoking trap; they’re already halfway to being a smoker and it takes only a little nudge or peer pressure to push

them over the edge. Those who remain trapped on JUUL alone – well, freedom from nicotine addiction is within your grasp right now. Take it. If you smoke and JUUL, the same goes for you:

FREEDOM AWAITS

There are smoking parents who implore their children not to smoke. If you genuinely believe there’s some benefit in smoking, why discourage your children? The truth is that all those smoking parents wish they didn’t smoke and the last thing they want is to drag their children into the same trap.

Surveys show that 70 per cent of smokers want to quit. I can add that the other 30 per cent just won’t admit it. They’d rather perpetuate the impression that they’re in control by saying, ‘I smoke because I choose to and I have no desire to stop’, rather than admitting, ‘I smoke because I’m a miserable addict and I would give anything to quit but I don‘t have the willpower.’

Easyway has grown into a worldwide phenomenon because of the universal demand among smokers and other nicotine addicts for a cure that will help to quit nicotine. The vast majority of the people who attend our seminars around the world or read our book or use our Online Video Programmes do so not as a result of advertising and marketing but because they know a smoker for whom the method worked. More often than not, they know many smokers for whom the method worked.

ALLEN CARR’S CASEBOOK: FREE CIGARETTES FOR ALL!

In my first book, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking , I told a story about offering so-called confirmed smokers – those who have no intention of stopping – free cigarettes for the rest of their life if

they gave me the money they would spend on cigarettes in just one year. The book has sold over 14 million copies, yet no one has ever taken up the offer. Why not? Because it would be a life sentence. All smokers and vapers think short term. They all plan to stop… soon.

Have you noticed how all the smoking paraphernalia has changed? There was a time when we used to buy each other expensive lighters, cigarette cases or ashtrays as special gifts, such as a 40th birthday or a wedding gift. These days you rarely see such things. Smokers prefer disposable lighters. They don’t want to see their smoking in the long term.

Every smoker and vaper or addict of any other nicotine product, either openly or secretly, would love to be in the position you’ll be in when you finish this book. Most smokers are strong-willed and it frustrates them immensely that they can’t gain control over their smoking. You are about to discover how wonderful it feels to be free from that frustration, that constant feeling of being controlled. It’s a terrific feeling, just to stand on the outside of that prison and look back at those poor smokers, not with envy or a sense of deprivation but with genuine compassion and pity, as you might look at any other drug addict. The greatest gain from quitting smoking is not so much the health benefit or the money but the end of the self-loathing, no longer despising yourself for being a slave to something you detest.

BACK TO HEALTH

No smoker or vaper in their right mind could possibly deny that it is bad for your health. They can push the thought to the back of their mind, bury their head in the sand, but every single one of

them knows the proven health risks that come with smoking and the obvious health risks of vaping or snus or dip. Smokers will know first hand how smoking robs you of energy, and leaves you coughing and choking, unable to run more than a few yards without wheezing and gasping for breath.

It also destroys your sex drive, which is ironic given that so many people start smoking because they think it will make them more sexually attractive.

These are among the more minor effects. Hanging over all smokers and vapers, and those who love them, is the terrifying dark cloud of critical illnesses like lung cancer, heart disease, arteriosclerosis, emphysema, angina and thrombosis. It’s no secret that all these diseases have been closely linked to smoking and smokers know it better than anyone.

Every packet carries a stark health warning and a photograph of some repulsive condition caused by smoking. Every smoker, even the most foolish, knows that they’re putting their health in terrible danger.

The tobacco companies are obliged to put warnings on cigarette packaging. It’s supposed to shock smokers into reconsidering their decision to smoke. It doesn’t work. If shock tactics did work, I would have no hesitation in using them on you. But you don’t need to be told about the vile things that smoking can do to your body. Smokers are aware of the health risks, and the more they are forced to think about them, the more they retreat into their prison and seek comfort in their little crutch. Such is the cunning nature of addiction:

Smokers seek comfort in the very thing that’s killing the

m

The reason I am focusing now on the health impact of smoking or vaping is not to shock you but to highlight another burden you’ll be shedding when you quit – the burden of fear. The tug-of-war of fear that all smokers suffer is like being trapped in a burning building. You have two frightening options: stay inside the burning building or jump. Most smokers opt to stay inside, hoping to be rescued.

Smokers are afraid to jump because they believe that life as a non-smoker will be lacking some vital ingredient. But they are afraid to continue smoking too because they know it’s likely to kill them. If you don’t stop, the chances of you dying as a direct result of smoking are greater than 50 per cent. Most smokers put off what they see as ‘the dreadful day’ of quitting, hoping that some other miracle will come along and save them.

But the nicotine trap is a far more subtle danger than a burning building, and so the smoker has an additional problem over the person in the burning building. In a burning building, you cannot close your mind to the danger. It’s clear and present and you know that if you stay put, the fire will get you eventually.

For the smoker, the danger is not immediately apparent and until they are diagnosed with some terrible disease, smokers will delude themselves into thinking: ‘It won’t happen to me’ or ‘I’ll stop before it gets to that stage.’

There seems to be no pressing need to solve the problem today, and so smokers typically choose to put it off.

Non-smokers find it difficult to understand why smokers and vapers are prepared to take these risks for the dubious pleasure of breathing poisonous fumes into their lungs. But non-smokers aren’t caught up in the tug-of-war of fear. They know how easy it is to live without cigarettes and they have no desire to smoke, so all their attention is focused on the fear of remaining in the burning building

.

To the non-smoker the solution is obvious…

GET OUT NOW!

The great thing is that you’re not having to leap from a burning building. You’re taking one easy step to freedom. It’s not a case of a soft landing. There isn’t any ‘landing’ at all. Turn the key and you’re free.

But smokers can be very strong-willed and this, combined with the delusion that it won’t happen to them, drives them to carry on. Smokers twist the odds to suit their excuses. They’re told they could win the Euromillions Lottery at odds of 1 in 140 million and they believe, ‘It could be me.’ Then they’re told they have a 1 in 2 chance of dying from smoking 10, 20 or 30 years before their time and they convince themselves, ‘It won’t be me.’

When tragedy does strike and they succumb to disease, they turn the logic around: ‘There’s no point in stopping now. I’ve left it too late.’

But even though smokers are mostly in denial about the dire consequences of smoking, they still sense they’re being stupid. If they had to face up to the fact that it was going to cost them £100,000 to £120,000 and the next cigarette could be the one to trigger cancer in their lungs, even the illusion of pleasure would disappear and the whole process would become intolerable.

ALLEN CARR’S CASEBOOK: THE LEGLESS STAR

If you were warned that you were going to lose your legs if you didn’t stop smoking, would you stop? Most smokers respond to this question with a quick, ‘Yes, of course I would!’ Yet, remarkably, many

smokers don’t heed the warning and end up having to have their legs amputated. All smokers need to understand that they could make the same mistake – nicotine addiction can close your mind to even the starkest of warnings.

A large proportion of smokers are not even aware that smoking can result in the loss of limbs. Buerger’s disease is a form of thrombosis caused by smoking, where the blood vessels in the legs become damaged, preventing the flow of blood. Clots form and the tissues begin to die from a lack of oxygen. If the tissue damage is not halted, the legs have to be amputated.

I remember this happening to a lovely old English music hall comedian, Arthur Askey. He had to have his legs amputated as a direct result of his smoking and still he didn’t quit. You can imagine him thinking, ‘I’ve lost my legs – what else have I got to lose?’ When I heard this news I was still a smoker and I remember thinking, ‘At his age, are legs really essential?’ Like him, I was making my own warped evaluation of the situation. ‘You can live without legs, but cigarettes are essential.’ I honestly regarded cigarettes as more important than my own legs! Such is the effect of addiction on the brain. If you ever question just how evil a tyrant nicotine addiction is, this case should leave you in no doubt.

The more miserable and afraid a smoker becomes as they slide further into the trap, the more they turn to their ‘little crutch’ for comfort. Each cigarette drags you further down. You suffer the triple low of nicotine withdrawal, the debilitating effects of smoking and the fear of knowing you’ve lost all control. Eventually you fall so low you become resigned to your fate. The addiction takes away your instinct for survival. The Big Monster has become your master and it will be finished with you only when you die

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GET YOUR RETALIATION IN FIRST

Non-smokers don’t suffer any of the lows that smokers do. All this misery, all this fear, can be ended quickly, easily, painlessly and permanently by killing the Big Monster and stopping smoking or vaping. No longer will you have to block your mind to your failing health. Quite the opposite, in fact; you will rejoice in the feeling of your health being restored.

You could be one of those smokers or vapers who hasn’t noticed any deterioration in their health yet, or you could be a smoker who has already suffered health problems as a result of their smoking. It doesn’t matter. All smokers are walking through a minefield, and disaster could strike at any time.

Perhaps you take the philosophical approach that we all have to die some time, so what’s the point of worrying about it? The problem is that, as a smoker, you’re not going through life free of such worries. As a smoker you have more to worry about than a non-smoker. You chose to read this book because you’re worried about it.

You worry about dying enough to look both ways before you cross the road, don’t you? Your attitude isn’t one of ignoring the bus hurtling towards you as you step off the pavement because ‘Well, we all have to go some time!’, is it?

It’s time to say goodbye to the worries of life as a smoker once and for all. Let me turn that philosophical approach on its head: If you never know how much life you have left, why spend that life burdened with unnecessary worries or even just the inconvenience of being addicted? Wouldn’t it be better to enjoy every moment, free from worrying about your health, and free from feeling like a slave?