Allen Carr's easy way to quit smoking: what is its essence, pros and cons? How many years did Allen Carr smoke? From what disease and at what age did Allen Carr die? How to quit smoking using the Allen Carr method?
The name Allen Carr is not only known to smokers. The British teacher in the fight against addiction and fear started as an ordinary accountant, but his stressful work caused him to smoke 100 (! ) cigarettes a day every day.
After 30 years of frequent and unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, Allen finally found a way that worked, with the help of which he finally quit smoking.
Since then, Allen Carr's method has helped another 50 million people around the world. It is strange 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 an age when he himself became addicted to smoking. This happened at the age of 18, when he was drafted into the army.
During his service, Allen Carr started smoking. After demobilization, he graduated from college with a degree in accounting, and day by day, because of his hard work, he became more involved in smoking.
A heavy smoker, Carr often smoked several packs a day. His personal record (with a minus sign, of course) is 100 cigarettes per day.
More than once Carr made desperate attempts to quit smoking, but they were unsuccessful. Thus passed thirty years of cigarette slavery.
An important day that changed the life of Allen Carr, and then millions of his followers, was July 15, 1983. On this day, a chronic smoker, eager to overcome his addiction, came to a session with a psychotherapist.
The treatment did not seem to help. As soon as he left the clinic, Allen Carr immediately lit a cigarette. True, after a while I still found the strength to overcome bad habits by creating and testing myselfeasy way to quit smoking.
Carr's years of smoking and the years he spent attending smoking 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 is 71 years old.
In an interview with Izvestia, which he gave a few months before his death, Allen Carr expressed confidence that he would have lived another twenty years if he had stopped smoking earlier.
Allen Carr's latest work is the book "The Nicotine Conspiracy. "In it, he talks about 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 from people who smoke and from those who have decided to quit smoking.
Allen Carr stated:
"Smoking is the greatest shame of our society, even greater than nuclear weapons. "
Easy ways to quit smoking and more
Interestingly, Allen Carr adapted his method to treat other addictions:
- addiction to electronic cigarettes;
- alcoholism;
- drug addiction;
- obesity;
- desire to gamble;
- caffeine and sugar addiction.
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:
- "Easy Ways to Quit Smoking" (1985);
- "Easy Ways to Lose Weight" (1995);
- "How to Help Our Children Quit Smoking" (1999);
- "Easy Ways to Enjoy Air Travel" (2000);
- "An easy way to quit smoking especially for women" (2003);
- "Easy way to stop drinking" (2005);
- "The easy way to live without a hangover" (2005).
The Allen Carr Center is recognized as the world's leading authority on the fight against addiction.
The Allen Carr method
Allen Carr claims that he helps get rid of addiction without pain, without restraining himself with willpower. Carr does not scare his patients and does not use shocking pictures of internal organs and diseases caused by smoking (smokers know this well).
Instead, Carr explores and helps overcome the misconceptions that make up addiction. He analyzed the reasons that led him to smoke and concluded that addiction is 1% physical and 99% mental.
The first step Allen Carr advises those who want to quit smoking is to set a time and date to quit smoking.
Carr's method is to break the addiction to nicotine by realizing that cigarettes do not help you enjoy life. The "time X" approach increases the value of cigarettes, so he does not recommend reducing the number.
Smokers believe that a cigarette gives them a special pleasure. That it helps to cope with stress, live a full life, collect yourself, relax, concentrate, find a common language and keep your body in shape. They feel that quitting smoking will take away a part of themselves, 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 voids, they create them! "
At the same time, smokers continue to worry about how smoking affects their health, experience constant social pressure, and the need to find time and place for a cigarette between tasks.
"Last cigarette"- the last exercise, when a smoker, smoking a cigarette, promises not to smoke again and remembers what exactly made him do it.
Of course, thoughts about cigarettes will return from time to time, but for this Carr offers some exercises to do when the desire to smoke appears.
A 2014 study found that smokers who quit using the Allen Carr method were six times more likely to be abstinent from nicotine 13 months after their last cigarette.
Carr's method has been clinically proven in two randomized controlled trials. It does not require the use of any drugs or nicotine products, and there is almost no nicotine withdrawal even with severe addiction.
Smokers note that after using Carr's method they feel as if they never smoked. They can interact with smokers even if they smoke and do not crave cigarettes.
Despite millions of positive responses, there are those whoAllen Carr's method did not help: some do not feel the effect, others break down a few months later, others decide that "nothing will happen from one". . . For them there are many other methods - domestic, foreign and even artistic.