Kicking the habit

Allen Carr's easy way to stop smoking
Penguin Books
Reviewed by Eric Earley

For the 71 years of my life I have been an active and passive drug addict, an indoctrinated, brainwashed and willing nicotine victim.

Times without count I had tried to give up. I attended seminars, used self-hypnosis, chewed nicorettes, drank gallons of water, coughed my guts up and bludged smokes every time I refused to buy tobacco. Then I read Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking and saw the light. It sounds like a hot gospel confession, but it is true not only for me but also for many of my friends.

Carr's book simply and clearly explains why I began smoking and continued even though I was aware of the ill effects on my health, pocket and family. It explains that will power is the last thing one should use in trying to stop, that every failed attempt is another humiliating defeat. When we understand the massive brainwashing pressure that we have been subjected to since birth, we can begin the detoxification process.

We don't smoke while sleeping, watching a movie, in many public or workplaces. We can stop smoking once we realise that life is pleasant without nicotine; that one hit lays the basis for the next in 30 minutes; that rather than relaxing us, nicotine adds yet another major problem to our existing tensions.

Carr teaches us to love ourselves and to use our intelligence to kick the habit. It is suggested that you smoke as you read and, by the end of the book, intelligent readers will have smoked their last cigarette. This book should be in all libraries and be compulsory reading in school and college health programs.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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