Allen Carr's simple way to quit smoking: what is its essence, advantages and disadvantages? How many years did Allen Carr smoke? From what disease and at what age did Allen Carr die? How to stop smoking with the Allen Carr method?
The name Allen Carr is not only known to smokers. The British guru in the fight against addictions and fears started out as a simple accountant, but his stressful job led him to smoke 100 (! ) cigarettes a day.
After 30 years of regular and failed attempts to quit smoking, Allen finally discovered an effective way, thanks to which he finally quit smoking.
Since then, Allen Carr's method has helped an additional 50 million people around the world. It is curious that among them are not only smokers.
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 the age when he himself became addicted to tobacco. This happened at the age of 18, when he was drafted into the army.
While on duty, Allen Carr began smoking. After his demobilization, he obtained a university degree in accounting and, day after day, due to his intense work, he started smoking more and more.
A heavy smoker, Carr often smoked several packs a day. His personal best (with a minus sign of course) is 100 cigarettes a day.
More than once, Carr tried desperately to quit smoking, but without success. Thus passed thirty years of slavery to cigarettes.
The important day that changed the life of Allen Carr, and then millions of his followers, was July 15, 1983. On that day, a chronic smoker, passionately wanting to overcome his addiction, came to a session with apsychotherapist.
The treatment doesn't seem to help. Upon leaving the clinic, Allen Carr immediately lit a cigarette. True, after a while I still found the strength to overcome a bad habit by inventing and testing my own.easy way to quit smoking.
Carr's years of smoking and the years he spent 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 he was convinced that he would have lived another twenty years if he had stopped smoking earlier.
Allen Carr's last work was the book "The Nicotine Conspiracy". He explains how, under the influence of cigarette manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, the media and government organizations support myths about smoking. This is how they make money both from smokers and from those who have decided to quit smoking.
Allen Carr said:
"Smoking is the greatest shame of our society, even greater than nuclear weapons. "
An 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;
- desires for play;
- addiction to caffeine and sugar.
Carr's method has also been tested in the fight against debt and the fear of flying.
Over the years, Allen Carr has published books:
- "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" (1985);
- "An Easy Way to Lose Weight" (1995);
- "How to help our children stop smoking" (1999);
- "The Easy Way to Enjoy Air Travel" (2000);
- "An easy way to quit smoking, especially for women" (2003);
- "An Easy Way to Stop Drinking" (2005);
- "An Easy Way to Live Without a Hangover" (2005).
The Allen Carr Center is recognized as the world's leading authority on drug abuse.
Allen Carr Method
Allen Carr claimed to help get rid of addiction painlessly, without holding back by willpower. Carr did not intimidate his patients or use shocking images of internal organs and diseases caused by smoking (smokers know this very well).
Instead, Carr explored and helped overcome the misconceptions that shape addiction. He analyzed the reasons that push him to smoke and came to the conclusion that the addiction is 1% physical and 99% mental.
The first step that Allen Carr advises those who want to quit smoking is to set a time and date to quit smoking.
Carr's method involves breaking nicotine addiction by realizing that cigarettes don't help you enjoy life.. The "X time" approach increases the value of cigarettes, so he does not recommend reducing their number.
Smokers believe that a cigarette gives them a special pleasure. It helps to cope with stress, live a full life, pull yourself together, relax, concentrate, find a common language and keep fit. They feel that quitting smoking will deprive them of a part of themselves, of an important part of their life, and they will feel this emptiness for the rest of their lives.
Allen Carr wrote:
"Cigarettes don’t fill a void, they create it! "»
At the same time, smokers continue to worry about the effects of smoking on their health, experience constant social pressure, and need to find time and place to smoke a cigarette between tasks.
"Last cigarette"- the final exercise, when a smoker, smoking a cigarette, makes a promise never to smoke again and remembers exactly what made him do it.
Of course, thoughts about cigarettes will return from time to time, but for this Carr offers several exercises that should be performed when the urge to smoke appears.
A 2014 study found that smokers who quit using the Allen Carr method were six times more likely to abstain from nicotine 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 medications or nicotine products, and there is virtually no nicotine withdrawal, even in cases of severe addiction.
Smokers notice that after using Carr's method, they feel as if they have never smoked. They can interact with smokers even when they smoke and don't want to smoke.
Despite millions of positive responses, someAllen Carr's method did not help: some did not feel the effect, others broke down a few months later, still others decided that "nothing will happen by itself". . . For them there are many other methods - domestic, foreign and even artistic.