Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr

brainwashing from your mind, you will neither want nor need cigarettes.
    Cigarettes do not improve meals. They ruin them. They destroy your sense of smell and taste. As a smoker, all you can think about is why everyone else is eating so slowly and when it will end, so that you can smoke. Like I said, it’s not so much that we enjoy smoking; it’s that we get miserable and anxious when we can’t. It doesn’t seem to occur to us that non-smokers don’t experience this misery and stress.
    Because many of us start smoking on social occasions when we are young and a little shy, we acquire the belief that we cannot enjoy social occasions without a cigarette. This is nonsense. Cigarettes systematically attack your nervous system, robbing you of your confidence. The best example of the fear that cigarettes instil in smokers is their effect on women. Many women are fastidious about their personal appearance. They wouldn’t dream of going out to a big social function not looking their best and smelling beautiful. Yet knowing that their breath smells like a stale ashtray and their clothes stink appears not to deter them in the least. I know that it
bothers
them greatly—many hate the smell of their own hair and clothes—yet it doesn’t
deter
them. Such is the fear that this awful drug instills in the smoker.
    Cigarettes do not help social occasions; they destroy them. Excusing ourselves every half-an-hour to go and stand outside alone in the freezing cold, smoking half a cigarette, wondering what on earth we are doing and why, stubbing it out in frustration, trying to hide the evidence with a quick spray of breath freshener, going back inside—only to go through the exact same ritual half-an-hour later. Being constantly self-conscious wondering whether other guests can smell the smoke on you and see the nicotine stains on your teeth and fingers.
    Not only is there nothing to give up, there are wonderful positive gains to be had from breaking free from the slavery of smoking. When smokers think about quitting smoking they tend to concentrate on health, money and the social stigma associated with smoking in 21st Century USA. These are obviously valid and important issues, but I personally believe that the greatest gains from stopping are psychological, and they include:
    1. The return of your confidence and courage
    2. Freedom from the slavery of drug addiction
    3. Not having to go through life knowing you are being despised by half of the population and, worst of all, despising yourself
    Not only is life better as a non-smoker, it is infinitely more enjoyable. I do not only mean you will be healthier and wealthier. I mean you will be happier and enjoy life far more.
    The incredible gains you achieve when you become a non-smoker are discussed in the next few chapters.
    Some smokers find it difficult to understand the concept of the ‘void’ I mention, and the following analogy may assist you.
    Imagine you have a cold sore on your face. I’ve got this marvelous ointment. I say to you ‘Try this stuff’. You rub theointment on, and the sore disappears immediately. A week later it reappears. You ask, ‘Do you have any more of that ointment?’ I say, ‘Keep the tube. You might need it again.’ You apply the ointment. Hey presto! The sore disappears again. Every time the sore returns, it gets larger and more painful and the period of remission gets shorter and shorter. Eventually the sore covers your whole face and is excruciatingly painful. It is now returning every half hour. You know that the ointment will remove it temporarily, but you are very worried. Will the sore eventually spread over your whole body? Will the periods of remission disappear completely? You go to your doctor. He can’t cure it.
    By now you are completely dependent on the ointment. You never go out without ensuring that you have a tube with you. If you go abroad you make sure that you take