charlie12

I read it! I used his first book (The Easy Way...) to quit smoking. But several months after I bought The Only Way in order to reinforce my decision and in order to learn as much as possible to avoid starting again. IMHO it's worth. Maybe it's not an indispensable book as I think that the first one is enough but it's worth to reinforce or even to just knowing more. The Only Way is very long and the basic concepts are identical to the first book (as expected, I guess) but the anecdotes are written with much more detail, there are tens of new ones and it immerse deeper and deeper on every aspect thinkable of the nicotine addition. As it's been a long time since I read it I barely remember details, except a few, but I remember that it hooked even more my irrevocable decision.

One trick that helped me a lot the first days was thinking on the abstinence syndrome (anxiety, etc) like if it was a kind of flu or cold. Usually people cope with the a little disgusting symptoms of a cold without doing anything too much special. They assume them and continue doing with their regular lifes and everyday routines and many times a day they forget the symptoms. The times you remember the anxiety, you can say to yourself that you know absolutely for sure that the symptoms will go one day (a near day). This helped me a lot during the first week (the worst one as I remember). I got that trick from one of the Allen Carr's books. Some of the rest of tasks to do in order to give up smoking relates to behavior reeducation but that's a topic on its own. Hope it helps...

Hi, Rowlid. I understand you, believe me! Quitting smoking is not always a straight way for everyone. I've been almost nine years without smoking but I must confess that at the beginning I had some temptations and even a few restarts. Fortunately those restarts lasted only one day. I managed to quit again the very next day because of the strong frame of mind I decided to have. I was very stubborn with the idea of not wanting to be a smoker again and with the idea of being a non-smoker. So after a mistake like this I thought "what is stronger? The false pleasure of smoking, with all those disadvantages, or the pain of being a smoker? Do you want to back again to that misery?". The downside was that I had to start again with the process of nicotine withdrawal with that itch... but fortunately it seemed to be quite a bit lesser than when I smoked. Don't get discouraged by this little slip up! Have your big goal on mind, don't punish yourself for this and the next time you'll have a temptation, think on the consequences. Never think such thing as "one puff can't harm, one cigarrete...". They can, you now know it. Nevertheless, you can quit!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. First, I'd wish to thank the nice persons who already welcomed me by private message. Well, this is my story. I'm 37. I started smoking at 18. I quit at 22 but I was only one year without smoking. After that I was a smoker until 29. I was a smoker for 10 years. The last one or two years were the worst ones. I smoked two packs a day, except on weekends, when some days I smoked up to three packs. At that time I did things that today kind of shame me such as using rolling paper to make a new cigarettes with the stubs... But that time is fortunately far and over. Now I'm a non-smoker and I'm writing this just in order to add a humble support to people who is thinking on quitting or has recently quit. It is possible to do and it's absolutely worth. During my first non-smoking year I still missed the cigarettes sometimes (but very little) but a few years from now I feel like if I never smoked. I don't miss them at all. For everyone interested in how I achieved it, I'll tell that I quit cold turkey, with the help of Allen Carr's book. It wasn't easy but not as hard as it may look. And, I insist, it was absolutely worth the effort. Thanks so much for listening (reading). Regards!