Allen Carr's easy way to quit smoking: what are its essence, advantages and disadvantages? How many years did Allen Carr smoke? What disease did Allen Carr die of and at what age? How to quit smoking using the Allen Carr method?
The name Allen Carr is not only known to smokers. Battling addiction and fear, the British guru started out as an ordinary accountant, but his hectic work led him to smoke 100 (! ) cigarettes every day.
After 30 years of regular and unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, Allen finally found an effective way., with his help he finally quit smoking.
Since then, Allen Carr's method has helped another 50 million people around the world. Interestingly, there are not only smokers among them.
Allen Carr
The future anti-smoking fighter was born on September 2, 1934 in London.
Almost nothing is known about his childhood. Carr often began his memoirs at an early age as a smoker. This happened when he was drafted into the army at the age of 18.
During his service, Allen Carr started smoking. After his discharge, he graduated from college with a degree in accounting, and because of his busy schedule, he started smoking more and more every day.
A heavy smoker, Carr often smoked several packs a day. His personal record (with a minus sign, of course) is 100 cigarettes a day.
Carr made several desperate attempts to quit smoking but was unsuccessful. Thus, thirty years of smoking slavery passed.
July 15, 1983 was the day that changed the life of Allen Carr, and later of millions of his followers. Today, a chronic smoker who passionately wants to overcome his addiction came to a session of a psychotherapist.
The treatment did not help. As soon as he left the clinic, Allen Carr immediately lit a cigarette. True, after a while I found the strength to overcome the bad habit by inventing and testing myselfthe easy way to quit smoking.
Carr's years of smoking and attending smokers' seminars in smoke-filled classrooms took a toll on his health. The anti-smoking activist died in the summer of 2006. The cause of death was lung cancer. Carr was 71 years old.
In an interview with "Izvestia" a few months before his death, Allen Carr said that he was sure he would have lived another twenty years if he had quit smoking sooner.
Allen Carr's last work was the book "The Nicotine Conspiracy". In it, he talked about how the media and government organizations, under the influence of cigarette manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, support myths about smoking. They make money from both smokers and those who decide to quit smoking.
Allen Carr said:
"Smoking is the biggest shame of our society, even bigger than nuclear weapons. "
The easy way to quit smoking and more
Interestingly, Allen Carr adapted his method to treat other addictions:
- addiction to electronic cigarettes;
- alcoholism;
- drug addiction;
- obesity;
- passion for gambling;
- addiction to caffeine and sugar.
Carr's method has also been tested in combating debt and fear of flying.
Over the years, Allen Carr has published books:
- "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" (1985);
- "The easy way to lose weight" (1995);
- "How to help our children quit smoking" (1999);
- "The Easy Way to Enjoy Air Travel" (2000);
- "The easy way to quit smoking, especially for women" (2003);
- "The Easy Way to Stop Drinking" (2005);
- "The easy way to live without hunger" (2005).
The Allen Carr Center is recognized as the world's leading authority on drug addiction.
The Allen Carr method
Allen Carr claimed that it helps to get rid of addiction painlessly, without limiting yourself with willpower. Carr did not frighten his patients and did not use shocking images of internal organs and diseases caused by smoking (which smokers know very well).
Instead, Carr explored and helped dispel the misconceptions that shaped addiction. Analyzing the reasons that made him smoke, he came to the conclusion that addiction is 1% physical and 99% mental.
The first step Allen Carr recommends to those who want to quit smoking is to set a time and date to quit smoking.
Carr's method is to break the nicotine addiction by realizing that smoking does not help you enjoy life.. Approaching "time X" increases the cost of cigarettes, so it is not recommended to reduce their number.
Smokers believe that smoking gives them special pleasure. It helps you cope with stress, live a full life, collect yourself, relax, concentrate, find a common language and keep yourself in shape. They feel that quitting smoking will deprive them of a part of themselves, an important part of their life, and they will feel this void for the rest of their lives.
Allen Carr wrote:
"Smoking doesn't fill a void, it creates it! "
At the same time, smokers continue to worry about how smoking affects their health, experience constant social pressures, and need to find time and space for smoking between tasks.
"Last cigarette"- the last exercise, when a smoker, a smoker, vows never to smoke again and remembers what made him do it.
Of course, thoughts of smoking will come back from time to time, but Carr suggests a few exercises to do when the urge to smoke hits.
A 2014 study found that smokers who quit using the Allen Carr method were six times more likely to be nicotine-free 13 months after their last cigarette.
The Carr method has been clinically proven in two randomized controlled trials. It does not require the use of any drugs or nicotine products, and even in severe addiction there is virtually no nicotine withdrawal.
Smokers report that after using Carr's method, they feel as if they never smoked. Even when smoking, they can communicate with smokers and do not crave for smoking.
Despite millions of positive responses, there areAllen Carr's method did not help: some did not feel the effect, some broke after a few months, some decided "nothing will happen from one". . . There are many other methods for them - local, foreign and even artistic.