Literally life changing.

I read this book for Sober October, after it was referenced many times in "This Naked Mind." I would say that this is probably the "older, more male" version of the same information in "This Naked Mind". Women who wish to examine their relationship to alcohol might do better with the Annie Grace version.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a very black & white take on whats involved in quitting drinking. Carr takes a no-holds-barred approach to tackling our sociocultural beliefs around alcohol and the role it plays in our lives which I found refreshing and straightforward. His work is largely anecdotal which isn't a negative thing; however, having some science or studies to back up his claims would also be helpful. One issue that I did find in this book is his belief that essentially, withdrawal symptoms don't exist as a result of quitting drinking. This is categorically false. While the severity of withdrawal symptoms varies considerably from person to person and while I agree with his idea that we don't need to talk ourselves into having worse symptoms than what we're actually experiencing (mind over matter), in some cases, folks who are typically physically dependent on alcohol do experience withdrawal symptoms and need some medical support to safely remove alcohol from their lives. Granted, this is not the majority of people but it feels borderline irresponsible to claim that withdrawal symptoms are non-existent or not severe. Even if it ultimately ends up being unnecessary, if you're a heavy drinker, its a good idea to check in with your doctor prior to quitting cold turkey as there may be some support they can offer that will support the safest removal of booze from your body and life.

I finished this on a 42 day no alcohol stint. I had already started cutting way back and learned about how horrible alcohol is for our health and brain. So a lot of what he said was repetitive because I was already in the mindset that alcohol is not serving me and I feel so much better and more inspired without it.

Alcohol has been imperceptibly and systematically destroying your courage and confidence for years, you have absolutely nothing to lose and so much to gain. It has been stealing your money, health, courage.

The government and treasury enjoy a share of the profits.

Why do we confuse responsibility with stress? We take on responsibility because we thrive on it and would find a more mundane job boring and therefore stressful. Stress and nerves are not a bad thing. Responsibility is not stress.

Alcohol is a chemical depressant and a powerful poison. It destroys us physically and mentally. By inebriating us, it destroys every survival instinct that we possess and takes the joy of life with it. In short, it makes us feel suicidal.

If you have no desire to drink, you'll have no desire to have an occasional drink. If you have a desire to have an occasional drink, you are already hooked. - This is where i'm at, I have zero desire to drink because it ruins my health, it hasn't been hard to deny drinks.

Definitely, interesting. Hmm.

I found this book very annoying and aggravating at times. The author exaggerates too much and is sometimes just blatantly wrong. Especially the chapter about wine drove me mad. However, there were some interesting ways of looking at alcohol differently that I liked and will try to take with me.

I no longer drink or see a point to drinking. Easy read and it will change your life for the better.

DNF. I made it to page 166 before I decided I wasn’t going to continue reading. “Your real problem is that you are a schizophrenic. I regret that I need to digress for a moment. I have recently been chastised for using this word in this context. I am fully aware that schizophrenia is a serious psychotic disorder. So is alcoholism. Schizophrenia could not be a more appropriate word to describe alcoholism.” Seriously? At almost five months sober, I’m glad I didn’t read this book in the darkest parts of my time with alcohol.


I’m only giving it two stars because there are very basic common sense points, this book has truly helped a ton of people quit drinking and I can understand how a book like this would help someone who is pondering sobriety to quit. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for anyone deeply addicted to alcohol and in need of serious help. The terrible comparisons to mental illness and disorders, the repetitive opinions based on personal scenarios, come on. Yes, repetition is helpful for people to retain information and ideas and I’m aware of that! But this book is compiled with arrogant and ignorant opinions of alcohol and those who consume it, a good bit of misinformation regarding why people drink and the science of it all, and while there are some valid points and truth to some of the parts, overall it’s very “I needed a book similar to my smoking book so I’m going to use only my personal experiences and formulate an easy program that sounds smart enough to profit off of.” It just doesn’t seem like he’s well equipped to be writing on this particular subject. The dangers that can come with quitting, the tools needed in sobriety afterwards, it’s not a one way street. This book could’ve been condensed down to maybe 100 pages, if that. As much as he kept suggesting to keep an open mind throughout the book every other page, I just couldn’t take it anymore.

"If we discovered alcohol today, we would restrict and criminalise its use in the same way we have for drugs such as heroin. Objective examination of harms associated with 20 of the most commonly used legal and illegal drugs ranked alcohol as the most dangerous."

This book, similarly to the Easyway to quit smoking, will exploit the brain-washing that tells all of us that drinking is good, normal and social, to make you aware that alcohol is indeed a poison.
I was an alcoholic, albeit not a final stage one - you could have called me social drinker, or heavy drinker, but once I realised I was actually addicted to the drug - to the point that I couldn't enjoy a social moment if alcohol wasn't present - then I decided to stop this mindless consumption.
This book helped me immensely, and I recommend it to anyone.

As with every drugs, addiction lurks right behind. Be mindful in what you put into your body, and in what quantity!

I read this book and stopped drinking altogether. It's been over a year and I haven't had a drop. At times I miss the ritual of a glass of wine at the end of a long day, and yes, I miss the buzz. That said, I can't say I "crave" it. I see alcohol consumption in a new light (or, rather, the darkness that it too often brings). "Wine is a mocker" as the scriptures say, and boy is it true.

In short, I now dictate my relationship with alcohol. I didn't realize that it was the other way around in the past.

Mr. Carr's book is very readable, casual, and full of great advice for those who want to quit drinking alcohol. However, it is deliberately misnamed ( for which the author apologizes for, although not until nearly the end of the book). Mr. Carr's belief is that the only way to control alcohol is to quit completely and forever. This book is aimed at drinkers who want to quit for good and gives excellent advice on how to do so and I think is probably a good workable method for most; however, if you are looking to read this as a method to cut down on your drinking and still enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage this book repeatedly and clearly states this is impossible. The more accurate title would be "Easy way to quit drinking alcohol for the rest of your life and not miss or regret it". If you just want to cut back on your drinking but still want to enjoy an occasional drink this book will probably not help much.

This book gives you ironclad common-sense-based reasoning for quitting drinking. The premise is that all drinking, whether it causes you harm at that particular point in life or not, is perpetuated solely by a set of cognitive errors ingrained in our culture. It makes loads more sense than the common viewpoint presented by Alcoholics Anonymous and most doctors (who ultimately encourage drinking by reinforcing the myth of the "normal drinker" and that there really is something you're missing out on if you quit--which is a lie), and gives clear, non-judgmental advice about actually stopping.

Even if you're a casual drinker, reading this will take the magic away from drinking. Most of that magic is highlighting that alcoholics are alcoholics purely because of alcohol and nothing more, and the fact that all the things you enjoy--yes every single thing, including Christmas and parties--are exactly the same without drinking, and would likely be even more fun without it. And there is absolutely no credible argument against Allen Carr's reasoning here. That sounds obvious but again, the cognitive errors are so deep and automatic that in order to remove them, such obvious advice is necessary.

It works like a charm, but only if the reader is already in a state to objectively analyze their attitudes towards alcohol.