It's been four years since my last cigarette. This book reprograms the way your brain thinks about smoking and I've tried to give up at least 6 times..

But sir, I'm mentally ill.

2023 update:
This was my first review on Goodreads, and the only one for quite some time. I wrote it because I truly wanted to share my experience, particularly because prior to reading the book, it was hard to believe it could ever help me quit smoking.

I am now 8 years smoke free, I never think about smoking and, so far, I don't have the drive/ need to pick up a cigarette. Quitting smoking remains the hardest thing I ever had to do, and I am not sure I would have the strength to do it again.

Regardless, if you want to quit, do pick up this book. Thank you Allen Carr!

2019 review:
It is the worst book I ever read but it worked for me. I’ve used to smoke a pack per day for 10 years and am now 4 years smoke free.

I lit my last cigarette ever today. I lit my first cigarette when I was 17 years old and have been a victim to the unremitting, unrewarding slavery of smoking for nearly a decade now. I was a chronic quitter. I would quit for a few months at a time, and would fall off the wagon when a stressful or traumatic event in my life convinced me that just one cigarette would make it at least a tiny bit better. Then the cycle would start all over again. So what's different this time? I believe that today I smoked my last cigarette because I am no longer relying on willpower, moping over supposed self-deprivation, all the while wishing more than anything that I could light one up. Rather, this book has offered me a different approach- change your mindset. Think not about what you're sacrificing by quitting (spoiler- NOTHING), think rather about what you're gaining- health, money, self-confidence and so much more. One of the rules given by the author was to not try to quit until the book was finished and the brainwashing (i enjoy this, it calms me down, I need it to function, life will be miserable without it) was removed. So every time I lit a cigarette during my time reading this book I would say, "I do not enjoy this. It tastes bad and its killing me." I believe I really had to be proactive in order to join the 600,000,000 people who have quit using this method. I'm proud of myself. And if I fall off the wagon again, God forbid, then damn it, I'll read the book again. Because I believe this is the only way to quit smoking- to celebrate my life free from this drug that has been poisoning me for nearly a decade, as well as the stigma that caused me to feel constant shame.

Also, I beg of all of you reading this review- please don't be that person that belittles smokers, "ostentatiously waving away smoke and pretending that it's choking you to death." All this does is cause the smoker to feel stressed and shamed which makes the desire to light up even stronger. Shame begets and perpetuates harmful behavior. I know that no one who has condescendingly "revealed" to me that I was killing myself has ever helped me in my journey to quit one bit. Just a final thought.

I recommend this book to any smoker out there who wants to be free from this drug addiction. And that is what nicotine is. A drug. Due to this book I've stopped downplaying that fact.

دو سال پیش دوستیو دیدم که گفت با این کتاب ترک سیگار کرده. برام خنده‌دار و جالب بودو گفتم یه نگاهی بهش بندازم.
کتاب جالب و زردیه
در مورد اینکه چی میشه و چرا آدما سیگاری میشن حرف زده ولی اونقدر که انتظار داشتم عمیق نشده و در لایه‌های سطحی پیش میره
کمی رند و شکل عموهای کول و باحاله که میشینی باهاشون حرف میزنی و نصیحت نمیکنن اما به شیوه خودشون درس زندگی میدن.

Smoke free since october 27 2023

Really eye opening book, Carr goes through every single possible excuse and question you would have about smoking and tells you the truth of the matter. That is that you have no real reason to smoke and any excuse you might have that you cannot stop or must continue is simply your way of rationalizing your addiction. Its eye opening in the sense that you have a pre conception of what the process of quitting will be like and what the cigarette does for you. For example you think that quitting will be this very torturous process and that when you quit cigarettes you are actually giving up a part of your life. Carr argues that you are actually giving nothing up and you are only gaining. That the quitting process is not half as bad as you imagine it to be no matter the degree of smoker you are. He dispels common notions such as "I smoke to relax/concentrate" in a very rational and fact based way.

Me personally, though I am only three days in feel no desire to ever touch a cigarette again after reading this work. Before this I was smoking roughly half a pack a day

I will update this every few months - years with my progress and change the rating accordingly

Day 0: 40+ cigarettes/day

Day 1: Well, that wasn't so hard: 0 cigarettes/day

Day 2: Still smoke free, this is going to work!!! A guarded 5 star rating for now.

Day 3: Well I'm a weak willed sucker (not that I needed further proof). It was 2am on Day 3/4, and it ended like all my previous attempts with a delicious Gauloises. Not the books fault though and there is still hope.

After a week, I think it's time for a mini résumé on Allan Carr's quitting method.

As I wrote in the comments, after my lapse on Day 3 I rage quit again (why do I have to make everything so hard?).

Anyway the good news for every smoker is: Allan Carr's quitting method works. I was skeptical at first, but believe the hype, quitting can be easy! The withdrawal symptoms hardly matter, you will feel better immediately.

There is also bad news however, at least for me: Staying clean is the hard part. There still is craving, not as bad as with my previous attempts, and there are still some depressive phases. But now I can glimpse a light somewhere out there; maybe the end of the tunnel isn't so far away?

Ревю - след една година...

Este o carte care îți oferă sfaturi destul de simple și pe care le-ai mai auzit de multe ori, dar totuși este bine să ți se reamintească.
Nu îți oferă o pastilă magică care te face să te lași de fumat, în schimb, dacă pui în practică sfaturile pe care ți le oferă, chiar te ajută.

he is right, but I couldn't convince myself the freedom was better than the miserable desire for nicotine. lovely, sickening nicotine.

which makes Carr's book one of the more annoying I ever made it through. I can see how a revelation would occur if he were standing in front of me, talking like that. My brain conjured images of silent cartoon/vaudeville movies with the evil bad little demon looking contrite and nodding, yes yr right yes yr right. & then a halo appears! "YIPPEE!" (A Direct Quote.) Mr. Carr looks pleased and sanctified, for he has SAAAAVED ANOTHER SSSSSSSMOKING SSSSSSSSINNER. He jots down some notes, "check," "check," "check," tweaks the halo, and runs off to another sorry filthy stinking chump with smokestacks coming out his ears. The halo starts to burn. YOW! Damn me.

So now I am looking for a recommendation for a hypnotherapist in the Greater New Orleans Area. For real.

Thanks.

I have never been more hyper in my life before this last round of quitting. So obscenely hyper I swallowed a giant burrito whole, didn't get drunk from an entire bottle of wine (or hung over), talked 199 mph, and forgot the stupidest littlest things that could have meant certain doom and disaster, and my usual obsessive concentration on the thrills of tediums and details flitted away like a pissy tinkerbell. BACK TO EARTH, EARTH PALS. Needing to read that book in a hurry was probably a bad idea- it was on short loan- and really, it is hard to convince me that a smoke tastes bad or that nicotine is so horrible. I don't like beer but wouldn't even try to convince a beer lover how shitty it tastes. I love stinky cheese but do not long for the days before I thought stinky cheese was the bees knees. "You did not follow my Instructions, Miss," Mr. Carr might scold. "You must go back and read them again. You must really BELIEVE. If you do not BELIEVE, then OZ does not exist."

It is a fact: cigarettes are disgusting. So? Now what. I have shit to do............. pissed off that I gave in....... didn't have a cent to my name when I quit, thinking that would do the trick. NO! Sorry fans of Allen Carr, but if I don't read it again- try try try try again again again-- I'll quit one way or another. A regime.... hypnotism, acupuncture. Soon as I can afford & also find the real deal. (No gestalts, por favor, I'm not going to a vet for flea medication only to be informed that if I don't also get heartworm meds, my claws pulled, my leukemias annihilated, my ears clipped, my third ovary tied to my neck, etc. that I will never ever truly be rid of fleas.)



adding insult to "ha ha" tag, I QUIT I QUIT I did quit smokes. I did not quit nicotine, tho I feel that the day I feel that I don't need to "get to work" which I guess my friends know the meaning of, is the day I can scratch the gum. So far, I am very pleased. And now I do understand what Mr. Carr meant by.... "YIPPEE!" if you can pronounce that in a subconscious whisper, as you cannot force someone who cannot be convinced by bludgeon that cigarettes, hand rolled tobacco cigarettes, taste awful and feel worse. You, smoker, have to determine this sense of liberation by your own regard. You will realize in spite of contradictory evidence, the giddy effervescence of liberation from smoke-in-the-lungs. This happens through trickery, determination, despair, and a religious fervor. How you direct it in the long run is up to you and your original nature. Once quit, you cannot determine whether or not you shall be a conquistador of anti-smoking or that delightful ex-smoker who relishes that odor forevermore, happily recalling the joan crawford moments while relishing the guillotine "nevermore" finality of not smoking.

the next trick is the weaning... from.... nicotines... and I ask... you... not Mr. Carr.... what is so bad about it now? (besides the expense & the taste. what is your drug? I could have it all ways--- )

Listened to in audio format.

I bought this book a couple of years because my parents were desperate for me to give up. To be honest although I stopped smoking in January this year I switched to vaping instead. I wanted to listen to this book to stop me from smoking cigarettes again.

I have listened to this book multiple times since January. I know this book is a best seller but personally I found the time a bit preachy at times and full of buzz words.

Although it may work for some the late Mr Carr`s words of wisdom didn't work on me.

Безспорно най-тъпата книга, която съм чел до момента в живота си.
И като помисля, че има хора, които твърдят, че наистина отказват цигарите, благодарение на нея... никакъв полезен метод не видях там, само безкрайни и нелогични мрънканици на досадния автор.

Най-интересното е, че я прочетох седем дни след като отказах тютюнопушенето, а след нея пропуших отново.