Part two of our series on quitting cigs
One of the best ways to quit cigarettes this Stoptober would be for nicotine addicts to stop lying to themselves about the so-called benefits of smoking, says Allen Carr’s updated guide
SMOKERS are doing the tobacco industry’s dirty work. From m boosting concentration too helping with stress and weight, nobody obody spreads the lies that con us into smoking – and prevent uss quitting – better than smokers themselves. mselves.
After all, everyone knows cigarettes are killers that burn your money, make you unfit, antisocial and turn you into a slave. So unless it came with benefits, what reason could there be not to stop?
In part two of our extract of Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking, we bust some of the he most common myths around d nicotine products.
MYTH 1: SMOKING AND VAPING HELP WITH ITH WEIGHT CONTROL OL
One of the common misconceptions ceptions about smoking is that it playss a part in helping to control weight.
There are several factors involved in this illusion: the belief that smoking acts as an appetite suppressant, enabling smokers to skip meals and snacks nacks (substituting food for cigarettes) and the idea smoking burns calories by increasing the metabolic rate. e.
Plus there is the relentless influence of the tobacco industry, which continues the work it started years ago,, portraying glamorous svelte stars of the silver screen with cigarettes.
You’re not an idiot. You don’t need anyone to tell you that those glamorous, sophisticated stars weren’t made to look that way by cigarettes.
It was the other way around: the stars made cigarettes appear stylish. sh.
Cigarettes just aren’t sexy. And while it’s true that smoking does indeed increase your metabolic rate – the rate at which your body burns calories – the impact is insignificant in terms of weight control.
Think how long you have to exercise to burn off a few hundred calories. There simply isn’t this fat-burning, calorie-calorieburning process going on in your body as a result of your smoking.
Finally, the idea that smoking acts as an appetite suppressant. It seems to make sense to smokers. We get hungry, have a cigarette and the hunger goes.
In our mind, it has magically taken away our hunger. What we don’t realise is that when a non-smoker ignores hunger for a couple of minutes, their hunger also disappears. How have we become so convinced that it helps with weight control?
It’s our attempts to quit. Smokers quit smoking and put on weight. Why?
They feel deprived and tend to eat or drink in place of smoking. It doesn’t really work, but they carry on and gain weight as a result. If they cave in and smoke again, they stop overeating and the weight seems to drop off.
MYTH 2: IT’S REALLY ABOUT THET RITUAL
A lot of people are attracted to smoking by the paraphernalia – cigarette packs, lighters, boxes ofo matches, ashtrays. Vaping has createdc the same kind of thing based around which device, which “vape juice”, which flavour. All have a certain style that appeals to young people ini search of an identity. A lot of long-term smokers will tell you this is what they enjoy about smoking. The inference is that they wouldn’t smoke if it wasn’t for the ritual of opening the pack, handling the cigarette, clicking the lighter. I want you to go through your usual ritual
now. Focus on each part o the pack, taking out a cigarette, putting it between your lips. Do everything you usually do Take your lighter. Light the cigarette.
Now stop. Stub out the cigarette immediately, without taking a puff. Put the lighter away.
How do you feel? Are you satisfied? I suspect you’re not.
No smoker smokes for the ritual. If they did, they would be happy to stop short of lighting up. But it doesn’t work like that, does it?
Remember, the only reason anyone smokes or vapes or uses any other nicotine product is to get the nicotine.
MYTH 3: I HAVE AN ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY
The addictive personality that – a theory. It’s the belief that because of their genes, some are more susceptible than most to becoming hooked and find it harder to escape. It suits them to believe
this. It’s a convenient excuse, but believe in the theory of the addictive personality and all you do is ensure you remain forever trapped. The misconception is backed up by a number of so-called experts, who support the theory of the addictive personality, largely based on the fact some addicts are addicted to more than one thing – for example, drinkers who are also smokers, or gamblers who are alcoholics. But all addictions involve the same kind of trap, so it’s obvious that someone who is susceptible to one addiction will be susceptible to others. It’s nothing to do with genetics. Remember, the misery of addiction is not relieved by the thing you are addicted to – it’s caused by it. Pleading an addictive personality is just another excuse for doing something that you know is completely illogical. You didn’t become addicted to nicotine because you have an addictive personality. If you think you have an addictive personality, it’s simply because you got addicted to nicotine.
MYTH 4: IT HELPS ME CONCENTRATE
We all have times, whether in our work or home life, when we need to focus on a problem and don’t relish the thought.
For smokers, this is a common trigger for reaching for a cigarette.
You believe that smoking can do two things: relieve the anxiety of confronting the problem and help you rally your thoughts to find a solution.
As soon as this belief is planted in your mind, it becomes impossible to concentrate.
No matter how hard you try to concentrate on the problem, the thought that a cigarette will make the situation better becomes an increasing distraction. Eventually you cave in and light up a cigarette. The anxiety disappears and you find the answer you’ve been looking for.
Naturally you conclude the cigarette has made all the difference. So far, so predictable: You believed a cigarette would help you concentrate. You smoked a cigarette. You found the concentration you needed. What’s the problem? The problem is it’s an illusion – one that’s keeping you in the nicotine trap, choking you to death and burning your money. So what really happened? You believed a cigarette would help you concentrate. You became obsessed with the idea so you were unable to concentrate until you smoked. The cigarette appeared to solve the problem, but actually caused it.
MYTH 5: IT REDUCES MY DEPRESSION/ IS MY FORM OF SELF-HARM
Those suffering with severe depression sense that smoking helps them deal with the problem in some way. In fact, it’s quite the reverse. Smoking has been proven to cause and exacerbate depression rather than ease it.
Any belief that smoking helps you deal with your depression is understandable, but it’s no different from any smoker who believes that smoking helps them cope with stress.
As far as self-harm is concerned, a smoker might say something like: “I smoke to punish myself or hurt myself or because I don’t care about myself.”
If you harbour those beliefs, you need to understand that you don’t smoke because it harms you, you smoke because you are addicted to nicotine.
On some level, self-harm may well have been the motivation to start smoking, but remember we all started smoking for a variety of phoney and foolish reasons, whether it was to be part of the gang, or the opposite, to go against the flow and rebel. Or to try to look tough, cool or sophisticated, just out of sheer curiosity or to show the world that we didn’t care.
The fact is that the reason we start smoking has no bearing on why we then continue to smoke, nor does it prevent us from stopping.
Smoking takes years, sometimes decades, to get what might be described as the self-harm pay-off. People who want to self-harm do it immediately and painfully. Put simply, self-harm isn’t why you smoke.
It might be one of the reasons you lit your first cigarette but it simply is not why you smoke.
No matter what highs or lows might befall you once you’ve quit, I can assure you that the highs will be higher and the lows will be less intense and
easier to handle.
MYTH 6: IT’S A BRILLIANT STRESSBUSTER
Addiction to nicotine makes smokers incapable of doing anything without a cigarette
The same people who claim that smoking or vaping can help concentration will also say it can take your mind off things at times of stress. Think about it. How can the drug take your mind off things and help you concentrate at the same time? These claims are entirely contradictory. The fact is, our addiction to nicotine makes us incapable of doing anything without a cigarette whether stressful or focus-requiring. It’s like the neighbour’s burglar alarm that goes off for hours, and the feeling of relief when it finally stops. This is the only reason you believe that nicotine helps you to focus (you are removing the distraction of wanting a cigarette) and the only reason you believe it helps you cope with stress (you constantly want a cigarette and being unable to have one adds to your stress levels).
Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower (£9.99 in paperback, £6.99 as ebook, Arcturus). For more, go to allencarr.com