I am honestly not sure that I read the same damn book as everyone else has. Everyone is high fiving this book but I am just not seeing it the same way

It worked! I stopped smoking in December last year because of this book and I have not smoked since. And the best thing about it is that I have not once since then had the desire to smoke.

That's what I always wanted and what I never got in my previous attempts to quit. I felt as though I'd tried everything, so the only solution was to give up on giving up! I didn't want to quit smoking if it meant spending the rest of my life "wanting a cigarette". That would be a torture I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Believe it or not, this book truly works to eliminate that desire to smoke.

I thought I was a die-hard smoker who would never be able to break free. I thought I could never eradicate that "enjoyment" factor and the persistent belief that never doing it again would be intolerable. I was wrong. I am so happy I was finally able to stop. Every time I'm reminded of how I used to smoke I get a genuine thrill of satisfaction that I am not trapped anymore.

I highly recommend persisting with this book, even if you do not believe you will be able to stop.

What the author says is true. If you do not follow the instructions to the letter you will not succeed. To illustrate this point, let me tell you something. I originally started reading this book more than four years ago. I got almost 3/4 of the way through, and I chickened out. Alan Carr tells you in the book that this often happens when people first try to stop by reading this book.

While there are some people who will read the book in a day and stop immediately, some people will read it one page per day, even one paragraph per day, just to put off the inevitable point when they know they will have to have that last cigarette. Please believe me though, it is nowhere near as difficult as you think it will be! In fact it is easy! Just like he says.

If you properly complete the entire book and follow its directions you will finally be able to shake smoking off for good. And how wonderful you will feel!

GO FOR IT!

Sigarayı bırakalı aslında 2 yıl kadar oluyor. Ama bu kitap sayesinde o kadar kolay bırakmıştım ki kendime fazla güvenmiştim. Bıraktıktan 6 ay kadar sonra canımın istememesine rağmen arkadaş baskısından dolayı "Ne olacak lan, zaten bıraktım ben canım istemiyor" diyerek bir tane içmiştim alkollüyken ve zinciri o gün başlatmıştım -kitapta aslında bunun bir yanılgı olduğundan bahsetmesine rağmen. O zamandan beri dönem dönem hiç içmedim, dönem dönem alkol yanında eşlik ettim ve asla sigaraya tam anlamıyla başlamama rağmen her defasında pişman olarak içtim. Son dönemlerde mesleğimin getirdiği stres ve yine mesleğimin sosyal çevresinde neredeyse herkesin sigara içiyor olmasından dolayı (en azından ben böyle düşünüyor-dum) bu sigara tüketimim o kadar çoğaldı ki bazen alkolü bile sigara için içtiğimi düşünmeye başladım.

Bu sabah "Bu böyle olmayacak" diyerek gidip bir tütün, kağıt ve filtre aldım. Ama öyle de olmayacağını bilerek, "bırakacağım" diyerek aldım. İlk iki sigaramı içtikten sonra bunun ne kadar saçma bir şey olduğunu, aslında bana hiçbir şey katmadığını, zevkli de olmadığını düşünmeye başladım. Ama işin enteresan kısmı, bunu düşünürken bile içimdeki o saçma yaratığın bir sigara daha sarmayı telkin etmesiydi. O an gerçekten başlamadan, tekrardan bırakmak zorunda olduğumu hissettim. Yoksa bunun ucu kaçacak ve o iki yıl önceki bağımlılığıma tam olarak geri dönecektim. İki saatlik videosunun bana yeterli gelmeyeceğini düşünerek, annem de bıraksın diye aldığım basılı kitabını elime aldım.

Okumaya başladığımda tekrardan içimdeki o bırakma şevki kabarmıştı ama bu kitabı bugün bitirip, hemen bırakmam gerektiğini de hissettim ve elimdeki işleri bir kenara bırakarak sadece kitabı okudum. Ve okudukça fark ettim ki aslında ben de bağımlı olmuşum bile. Her ne kadar günde 20 tane içen biri kadar olmasa da ben de bir çeşit bağımlıydım.

İkinci kez, fakat bu sefer daha da bilinçli bir şekilde sigarayı hayatımdan tamamen çıkartıyorum. Hayatım boyunca sigara içmeyecek olmanın, özgür olmanın verdiği heyecanı yaşıyorum bunları yazarken. Darısı hala sigaradan kurtulamamış olanların başına.

This may be the only book that I have read 4 times, but for times the charm.
My sister spoke wonders of this book and how it helped her quit. A few years back I borrowed it from her, read it, and was able to quit for about a month and a half. Then, in stupidity, on a drinking night out I bummed one,and then was quickly about a pack a day. Earlier this year I felt ready to try again. In April I checked it out of the library, read it, and quit for about four days. I night out did me in a agian. I renewed the book the maximum number of times, read it once more, but it did not work. In Septemeber I read Malcolm X and thought in general that a lot of things are possible for me if I focus and get read of the partying and distractions. This time, in early October I bought the book. I read it quickly, finishind it on October 15th. Today is November 20th, and I'm still a non-smoker. Also I'm confident this time has worked and I'll never smoked again.
This book works I believe because he systematically breaks down the reasons smokers say they smoke, and states why these reasons are invalid and the opposite is true, that smoking actually harms these perceptions. These are the four believes he concentrates on: BOREDOM, STRESS, RELAXATION, CONCENTRATION. His instruction tells the reader not to quit smoking until the end of the book. This way the reader reads a chapter, thinks about it, and when he or she smokes, is really aware of the points the author makes in the book. He states things like a cigarette is no different after a meal, or with coffee, that it's a mind trick or trap that the smoker fell into. Another thing he states is that there is no such thing as enjoying a cigarette, that every smoker wishes he or she never started. If you said that to someone smoking in a verbal exchange, they wouldn't listen. But somehow the solitary act of reading, the reader really does mull it over, and it does sink in.
This is a great book, because it puts people in the right frame of mind to quit. The must important suggestion by the author is for people to think they are not giving anything up by quitting but must think of the positive change that will result from quitting. He explains that with the well power method people feel like something they enjoy is being taken away from them. He also says that with boredom or stress, that those things would be the same without cigarettes, the cigarette doesn't change your situation or life.
This is great for the shortterm, but for the long term, I suggeest people buy a copy. It has some invaluable chapters like if you want just one cigarette that may help the ex-smoker maybe even years later.
I'm exited about not smoking and making life changes including cutting back on drinking so I can focus on reading and writing.

Yeah, it works.

Standard work of smoking cessation, including ruthless billing with established withdrawal concept

Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.

The first few dozen pages, brimming with self-promotion and self-adulation, must not appear to the willing-to-give, prospective ex-smoker as an arrogant posture, nor serve as a potential justification for premature termination of the reading. As confident as Carr looks, his concept is so well thought out and meaningful that the theatrical staging certainly has its justification.
Moreover, good marketing even more useful, against a perfidious addiction of liberating and the health system helping concepts harms the idea certainly not. Beginning with the symptoms of nicotine addiction and the main lever to be applied in the head, already failed smokers are unfortunately too familiar topics, such as the diabolical power of habit, subconscious and conditioning, self-enslavement on the panicky escape from cold withdrawal, stressful situations and personal Crises and the danger of the method willpower represented.
Under the latter Carr smoker, who with self-restraint and iron discipline survive the critical, first three weeks, the withdrawal from the smoking career, however, not voluntarily motivated, but have heralded health-related or without real faith in a happy, smoke-free life.
The inherent danger associated with a smoke-free exit that does not amount to a hundred percent conviction is to mourn the alleged lucky donors for years, well beyond the actual withdrawal, instead of being able to enjoy the healthier way of life and the money saved. Precisely for this reason, there is an increased focus on the motivation to make the tobacco addict come to the senses, such as pointless, stupid, dangerous, restrictive, detrimental, and in no way enjoyable, aromatic, relaxing, individual, or promoting the creativity of igniting oblong paper pods in actually designed for food intake body openings.
As long as this knowledge and willingness to give up cigarettes happily and voluntarily for a lifetime is not a fixed point of one's thought pattern, the probability of relapse and the suffering is much more pronounced. A smoker who is only physically, but not mentally weaned, will continue to experience the smell of tobacco, smoking people, and all thoughts and images associated with the inhalation process as positive, the need for cigarettes will be more pronounced in both exceptional situations and daily life, and thus pointless Quality of life is wasted and torment generated.
Precisely for this reason, Carr also does not believe in nicotine replacement supplements, as these only artificially prolong the withdrawal and thus the most painful phase. While a full-smoker, 1 to 2 packs of cigarettes daily destroying consumer must feel at least no unpleasant, nervous emptiness, so is a painstaking months for only 5 to 10 cigarettes a day reduced smoker quasi in permanent withdrawal state, which only stress and malaise leads with it and the fear of the total smoke stop still strengthened.
Also, that most of the traditional weaning concepts are associated with the prescription of substitute preparations, which gives the manufacturers outstanding profits, but the consumer in return, nothing good, is denounced. In the case of substitution programs for more stringent drugs, in which withdrawal can sometimes be fatal, the use of methadone and co-formulas is useful and appropriate. In the fact of nicotine, however, it is pointless and counterproductive due to the purely physically weak and in no way dangerous weaning phase.
In addition to the unobjectionable points of criticism, which are not even creeping but offensive advertising, the author's references to his other, diverse products can be asserted that one can calmly expose himself to social events in a nicotine-tempered air. This is blatantly contradictory to the often cited, correct argument that a single cigarette, if not even a few puffs, can lead to withdrawal and relapse. In this respect (and my own experience and the stories of others) both a smoker suffering from withdrawal symptoms, as well as long-term weaning smokers should not work or stay in not often smoke-free restaurants too often and for a long time, or be in a living relationship with active tobacco killers.
Since passive smoking can be used to inhale the equivalent of up to several cigarettes, one would have a similar amount of work as a lighter, active smoker and would thus suffer from a permanent nicotine emergency. So does the notion that a partner continues to indulge his vice, while the weaned phlegmatically watching, in the realm of extreme, exceptional situations.
In contrast to alcoholism, pills and other addictions, both the withdrawal and the direct sequelae of nicotine addiction are less pronounced and even partially reversible.
However, beer, wine, Valium, and painkillers cannot be inadvertently passively consumed and thus far more self-determined than with nicotine. However, the possibility of achieving permanent abstinence from one's own will without sacrificing social life remains a utopia until the establishment of a general, strict smoking ban. Unless you stop breathing for the duration of visits to nightclubs, bars, folk festivals and private parties.
I quit smoking a few years ago and after a ten-year smoking career (between 15 and 30 cigarettes a day), along with several unsuccessful attempts at withdrawal, can only give an unqualified recommendation to read this great work. It takes considerable courage and willingness to suffer, but the lofty goal of a longer life should make the initial pain bearable and burn as a motivating beacon in the future, instead of orange-red smoldering coffin nails. Finally, my favorites among the mantras on the subject. I am no longer sure if they are themselves conceived or stolen: at each tobacco inhalation mentally "cancer," while exhaling "death." Or, alternatively, "lung cancer", "smoker's leg", "barren binge" "stroke attack", "leg amputation", "heart infarct", "impotence", etc. Creativity knows no bounds!

Standardwerk der Raucherentwöhnung samt schonungsloser Abrechnung mit etabliertem Entzugskonzept

Die ersten paar Dutzend, vor Eigenwerbung und Selbstbeweihräucherung strotzenden Seiten, dürfen dem entsagungswilligen, angehenden Exraucher weder als arrogantes Gehabe erscheinen noch als potentielle Rechtfertigung für vorzeitige Beendigung der Lektüre dienen. So selbstsicher wie Carr auftritt, so durchdacht und sinnvoll ist sein Konzept auch wahrhaftig, womit die pompöse Inszenierung durchaus ihre Berechtigung hat. Und gute Vermarktung noch dazu sinnvoller, vor einer perfiden Sucht befreiender und das Gesundheitssystem entlastender Konzepte schadet der Idee gewiss nicht.
Beginnend mit der Symptomatik der Nikotinsucht und dem wichtigsten, im Kopf anzusetzenden Hebel werden, bereits gescheiterten Rauchern leider allzu bekannte Themenfelder, wie die diabolische Macht der Gewohnheit, des Unterbewussten und der Konditionierung, Selbstversklavung auf der panischen Flucht vor dem kalten Entzug, Stresssituationen und persönliche Krisen und die Gefahr der Methode Willenskraft dargestellt.
Unter letzterem versteht Carr Raucher, die mit Selbstbeherrschung und eiserner Disziplin die kritischen, ersten 3 Wochen überstehen, den Ausstieg aus der Raucherkarriere allerdings nicht freiwillig motiviert, sondern gesundheitlich bedingt oder ohne rechten Glauben an ein glückliches, rauchfreies Leben eingeläutet haben. Die latente Gefahr bei einem nicht mit hundert prozentiger Überzeugung einhergehenden Rauchausstieg besteht darin, weit über den eigentlichen Entzug noch jahrelang den vermeintlichen Glücksspendern nachzutrauern, anstatt sich an der gesünderen Lebensweise und dem gesparten Geld erfreuen zu können.
Genau aus diesem Grund liegt ein verstärktes Augenmerk auf der Motivation, den Tabakabhängigen zu der Einsicht gelangen zu lassen, wie sinnlos, dumm, gefährlich, einschränkend, negativ und in keinster Weise genussvoll, aromatisch, entspannend, individuell oder die Kreativität fördernd das Entzünden länglicher Papierhülsen in eigentlich für die Nahrungsaufnahme konzipierten Körperöffnungen ist. Solange diese Erkenntnis und die Bereitschaft, ein Leben lang gerne und freiwillig auf Zigaretten verzichten zu können, nicht einen Fixpunkt des eigenen Denkmusters darstellt, ist die Rückfallwahrscheinlichkeit und generell das Leiden wesentlich ausgeprägter.
Ein nur physisch, aber nicht mental entwöhnter Raucher, wird den Geruch von Tabak, rauchende Menschen und alle mit dem Inhalationsprozess assoziierten Gedanken und Bilder weiterhin als positiv erleben, das Bedürfnis nach Zigaretten wird sowohl in Ausnahmensituationen als auch im täglichen Leben ausgeprägter sein und somit sinnlos Lebensqualität verschwendet und Qual erzeugt.
Genau aus diesem Grund hält Carr auch nichts von Nikotinersatzpräparaten, da diese den Entzug und somit die schmerzhafteste Phase nur künstlich verlängern. Während ein auf Vollbetrieb rauchender, 1 bis 2 Päckchen Zigaretten täglich vernichtender Konsument zumindest keine unangenehme, nervöse Leere verspüren muss, so ist ein mühsam über Monate hinweg auf nur 5 bis 10 Zigaretten am Tag reduzierter Raucher quasi im permanenten Entzugszustand, was nur Stress und Unwohlsein mit sich führt und die Angst vor dem totalen Rauchstopp noch verstärkt. Auch dass die meisten etablierten Entwöhnungskonzepte mit der Verschreibung von Ersatzpräparaten einhergehen, was den Herstellern sehr gute Gewinne, den Konsumenten aber im Gegenzug nichts Gutes bringt, wird angeprangert. Bei den Substitutionsprogrammen für härtere Drogen, bei denen ein Entzug mitunter tödlich verlaufen kann, ist die Gabe von Methadon und Konsorten sinnvoll und angebracht. Bei Nikotin aufgrund der rein körperlich nur gering ausgeprägten und in keinster Weise gefährlichen Entwöhnungsphase hingegen sinnlos und kontraproduktiv.
Zu den kaum vorhandenen Kritikpunkten kann man neben der unverhohlenen, nicht einmal mehr als Schleich- sondern Offensivwerbung zu betrachtenden Hinweisen des Autors auf seine anderen, vielfältigen Produkte die Behauptung stellen, man könne sich ruhig gesellschaftlichen Ereignissen in nikotingeschwängerter Luft aussetzen. Dies steht in eklatantem Widerspruch mit dem häufig zitierten, richtigen Argument, dass eine einzige Zigarette, wenn nicht sogar schon ein paar Züge zu Entzug und Rückfall führen können. Insofern (und aufgrund eigener Erfahrung und den Erzählungen Anderer) sollten sowohl ein akut an Entzugssymptomen leidender, als auch langjährig entwöhnte Raucher weder allzu oft und lange in noch nicht rauchbefreiter Gastronomie arbeiten oder verweilen, noch in einem Wohnverhältnis mit aktiven Tabakvernichtern stehen.
Da beim Passivrauchen der Gegenwert von bis zu mehreren Zigaretten inhaliert werden kann, käme man auf ein ähnliches Pensum wie ein leichter, aktiver Raucher und würde somit unter permanenten Nikotinnotstand leiden. So gehört auch die Vorstellung, dass ein Partner weiter seinem Laster frönt, während der Entwöhnte phlegmatisch zusieht, in das Reich der extremen Ausnahmesituationen.
Im Gegensatz zu Alkoholismus, Tabletten- und anderen Süchten sind zwar sowohl der Entzug als auch die direkten Folgeschäden der Nikotinabhängigkeit weniger stark ausgeprägt und sogar teilweise reversibel. Aber Bier, Wein, Valium und Schmerzmittel kann man nicht unbeabsichtigt passiv konsumieren und ist insofern wesentlich selbstbestimmter als bei Nikotin. Die Möglichkeit, dauerhafte Abstinenz aufgrund eigenen Willens ohne Abstriche im gesellschaftlichen Leben zu erreichen, bleibt jedoch bis zur Etablierung eines generellen, strengen Rauchverbots eine Utopie. Außer, man hört für die Dauer der Besuche von Nachtclubs, Bars, Volksfesten und Privatfeiern auf zu atmen.
Ich habe das Rauchen vor einigen Jahren aufgegeben und kann nach einer zehnjährigen Raucherkarriere (zwischen 15 bis 30 Zigaretten täglich) samt mehreren erfolglosen Entzugsversuchen nur die uneingeschränkte Empfehlung zur Lektüre dieses großartigen Werkes geben. Es bedarf beträchtlichen Muts und der Bereitschaft zu leiden, aber das hehre Ziel eines längeren Lebens sollte den anfänglichen Schmerz erträglich machen und als motivierendes Leuchtfeuer in der Zukunft anstelle orangerot glimmender Sargnägel lodern. Abschließend meine Favoriten unter den Mantras zu dem Thema. Ich bin nicht mehr ganz sicher ob sie selbst erdacht oder gestohlen sind: Bei jedem Tabakinhalieren mental „Krebs-“, beim Ausatmen „Tod“ mitsprechen. Oder alternativ „Lungen- Krebs“, „Raucher- Bein“, „Unfrucht- Barkeit“ „Schlag- Anfall“, „Bein-Amputation“, „Herz- Infarkt“, „Im- Potenz“ usw. Der Kreativität sind keine Grenzen gesetzt!

Here's the book in a nutshell

Smoking is disgusting. You would rather be a non-smoker than a poor, pathetic smoker. Quit smoking and be delighted that you are no longer a disgusting smoker. YIPEE IT'S EASY! And if it's not easy, then there is something wrong with you and you need to reread the book.

Yes, I quit smoking 3 days ago and no, it is not easy. Since I am using willpower, Mr. Carr feels that I am doomed to fail.

I consider this book to be mostly scare tactics and BS.

If you change your mind, it will change your life. This book can help you change your mind.

This book is badly written in the way that only a self-help book can be, and I wanted to dislike it based purely on that principle.

I also wanted to dislike it because of the author's horrifying habit, throughout most of the book, of classifying smokers as poor pathetic creatures to be pitied, only to throw in a very brief chapter at the end begging readers not to become those condescending, self-righteous ex-smokers. (Perhaps he doesn't feel that pity is, by definition, condescending?)

I wanted to dislike this book because Carr absolutely insists that certain smoker experiences are universal. He says multiple times that everyone's first cigarette is unpleasant and results in coughing, which was simply not true for me — and no, I'm not lying to myself about this to "justify" starting, as Mr. Freud — ahem, Mr. Carr — smugly asserts. This is a very minor detail, but for me it erodes the author's credibility.

I further wanted to dislike this book because of Carr's zealous adherence to the status quo — just for an example, his explicitly stated assumption that smokers were able to cope with life before they started smoking, which ignores the high incidence of smoking among oppressed minorities and those with anxiety disorders.

For these reasons, I'd like to give this book a 1-star review.

However, I began reading it several weeks after I quit smoking, and can now safely say that reading it has definitely helped me to stay quit, to brush off a relapse with very little drama, and to stop feeling so anxious about the "forever-ness" of quitting. This book helped me not to care about cigarettes anymore, not to be afraid of living without them. Despite itself, it did what it set out to do.

For this reason, I'd like to give it a 5-star review.

As my friend mentioned in the comments I assume I would be the only non-smoker reader of this book! I picked this book to utilize its method to quit other bad habits since there are lots of books on how to form a new habit yet no book on how to quit the old ones (if you know one plz let me know). Did it work? no, cuz smoking is an addiction and not a habit. However, I find this book smartly written and persuasive. One might think it is too repetitive, yet that is a way to pierce the words into the reader's mind (I do a parallel read "make it stick" and this book has been written to stick in one's mind!). Carr offers a new mindset towards smoking and no specific method or magic, he also reveals the reason beyond all the dysfunctional methods to quit smoking. As 5 of my GR friends have quit smoking by reading this book I suppose it might be helpful, so give it a go.

işe yaradığına inanamıyorum shsjcjjsmdldşf

Este libro lo lei cuando fumaba, hace siglos, y me ayudo a dejar de fumar mes y medio... porque realmente cuando me dio el mono no me ayudó en absoluto. Al final deje de fumar por mi cuenta y con mucha voluntad