Allen Carr's easy way to quit smoking: what is the essence, its advantages and disadvantages? How many years did Allen Carr smoke? What illness did Allen Carr die of and at what age? How to Quit Smoking Using the Allen-Carr Method?
The name Allen Carr is not only known to smokers. The British guru in the fight against addictions and anxiety started out as an ordinary accountant, but his stressful work led him to smoke 100 (! ) cigarettes a day.
After 30 years of regular and unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, Allen finally discovered an effective way, with the help of which he finally stopped smoking.
Since then, Allen Carr's method has helped an additional 50 million people around the world. It is curious that among them there are not only smokers.
Allen Carr
The future anti-smoking campaigner 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.
While serving, Allen Carr began smoking. After demobilization, he graduated with a degree in accounting and, due to his intensive work, began to smoke increasingly day by day.
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. So thirty years of cigarette slavery passed.
The significant day that changed the life of Allen Carr and then millions of his followers was July 15, 1983. On that day, a chronic smoker passionate about overcoming his addiction came to a session with a psychotherapist.
The treatment didn't seem to help. When Allen Carr left the clinic, he immediately lit a cigarette. True, after a while I still found the strength to overcome a bad habit by inventing and testing my owneasy 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 was 71 years old.
In an interview with Izvestia, which he gave a few months before his death, Allen Carr expressed confidence that if he had quit smoking earlier, he would have lived for another twenty years.
Allen Carr's latest work was the book "The Nicotine Conspiracy". In it he talked about how media and government organizations, under the influence of cigarette manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, support myths about smoking. This is how they make money from both smokers and those who choosehave to stop smoking.
Allen Carr explained:
"Smoking is the greatest shame in 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;
- craving for gambling;
- Addiction to caffeine and sugar.
Carr's method has also proven effective in the fight against debt and 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 Quit Smoking" (1999);
- "The Easy Way to Enjoy Air Travel" (2000);
- "An Easy Way to Quit Smoking, Especially for Women" (2003);
- "An Easy Way to Quit Drinking" (2005);
- "An easy way to live without a hangover" (2005).
The Allen Carr Center is considered the world's leading authority in the fight against addiction.
Allen-Carr method
Allen Carr claimed to help get rid of addiction painlessly, without holding back through willpower. Carr did not intimidate his patients and did not use shocking images of internal organs and diseases caused by smoking (smokers know this very well).
Instead, Carr explored the misconceptions that shape addiction and helped overcome them. He analyzed the reasons that lead him to smoke and concluded that the 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 nicotine addiction by recognizing that cigarettes do not help you enjoy life. The "Time X" approach increases the value of cigarettes, so it does not recommend reducing the number.
Smokers believe that a cigarette gives them a special pleasure. That it helps to cope with stress, lead a fulfilling life, collect oneself, relax, concentrate, find a common language and keep in shape. They feel that by quitting smoking they are losing 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 a gap, they create it! "
At the same time, smokers continue to worry about how smoking affects their health, face constant social pressure, and need to find a time and place for a cigarette between tasks.
"Last cigarette"- the final exercise in which a smoker, smoking a cigarette, promises never to smoke again, remembering what exactly prompted him to do so.
Of course, thoughts of cigarettes will return from time to time, but for this Carr offers several exercises to do when the desire to smoke arises.
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 validated in two randomized controlled trials. The use of medication or nicotine products is not necessary and even with severe addiction, nicotine withdrawal practically does not occur.
Smokers note that after using the Carr Method they feel like they never smoked. You can interact with smokers even if they smoke and have no desire for cigarettes.
Despite millions of positive reactions, there are those who doAllen Carr's method didn't help: Some did not feel the effect, others collapsed a few months later, others decided that "nothing will happen from one". . . For them there are many other methods - domestic, foreign and even artistic.