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approve of himself: He envies you. Start observing other smokers. They can be the most powerful
boost of all to help you of it. Notice how quickly the cigarette burns, how quickly the smoker has
to light up another. Notice particularly that not only is he not aware that he is smoking the
cigarette but even the lighting up appears to be automatic. Remember, he is not enjoying it;
it's just that he cannot enjoy himself without it. Particularly remember that when he leaves
your company he is going to have to go on smoking. The next morning, when he wakes up
with a chest like a cesspit, he is going to have to carry on choking himself. The next Budget
Day, the next time he has a pain in the chest, the next National No-Smoking Day, the next
time he inadvertently sees the government health warning, the next time there is a cancer
scare, the next time he is in church, on a Tube train, visiting a hospital, library, dentist,
doctor, supermarket, etc., the next time he is in the company of a non-smoker, he has to
continue this lifetime chain of paying through the nose just for the privilege of destroying
himself physically and mentally. He is facing a lifetime of filth, bad breath, stained teeth, a
lifetime of slavery, a lifetime of destroying himself, a lifetime of black shadows at the back of
his mind. And all of this is to achieve what purpose? The illusion of trying to get back to the
state he was in before he became hooked in the first place.
2 The second reason why some ex-smokers have pangs on these occasions is because the
smoker is doing something, i.e. smoking a cigarette, and the non-smoker is not, so he tends
to feel deprived. Get it clear in your mind before you start: it is not the non-smoker who is
being deprived. It is the poor smoker who is being deprived of
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HEALTH
ENERGY
MONEY
CONFIDENCE
PEACE OF MIND
COURAGE
TRANQUILLITY
FREEDOM
SELF-RESPECT.
Get out of the habit of envying smokers and start seeing them as the miserable, pathetic
creatures they really are. I know: I was the world's worst. That is why you are reading this book,
and the ones who cannot face up to it, who have to go on kidding themselves, are the most pathetic
of all.
You wouldn't envy a heroin addict. Heroin kills around 100 people a year in this country.
Nicotine kills over 120,000 a year and 2.5 million a year world-wide. It's already killed more
people on this planet than all the wars of history combined. Like all drug addiction, yours won't get
better, Each year it will get worse and worse. If you don't enjoy being a smoker today, you'll enjoy it
even less tomorrow. Don't envy other smokers. Pity them. Believe me: THEY NEED YOUR PITY.
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30 Will I Put on Weight?
This is another myth about smoking, spread mainly by smokers who, when attempting to stop on
the Willpower Method, substitute sweets, etc., to help relieve withdrawal pangs. The withdrawal
pangs of nicotine are very similar to hunger pangs, and the two are easily confused. However,
whereas the pangs of hunger can be satisfied by food, the withdrawal pangs of nicotine are
never completely satisfied.
As with any drug, after a while the body becomes immune and the drug ceases to relieve the
withdrawal pangs completely. As soon as we extinguish a cigarette, the nicotine rapidly leaves our
body, so that the nicotine addict has a permanent hunger. The natural inclination is eventually to
chain-smoke. However, most smokers are prevented from doing this for one, or both, of two reasons.
1 Money - they cannot afford to increase their intake.
2 Health - in order to relieve the withdrawal pangs we have to intake
a poison, which acts as an automatic check on the number of
cigarettes we can smoke.
The smoker is therefore left with a permanent hunger that he can never satisfy. This is why many
smokers turn to over-eating, heavy drinking or even harder drugs in order to satisfy the void.
(MOST ALCOHOLICS ARE HEAVY SMOKERS. I WONDER IF IT IS REALLY A SMOKING
PROBLEM?)
For the smoker the normal tendency is to start by substituting nicotine for food. During my own
nightmare years I got to the stage where I cut out breakfast and lunch completely. I would chain-
smoke during the day. In the later years I would actually look forward to the evenings only because
then I could stop smoking. However. I would be picking at food all evening. I thought it was hunger,
but it was really the withdrawal pangs from nicotine. In other words, during the day I would
substitute nicotine for food and during the evenings I would substitute food for nicotine.
In those days I was two stone heavier than I am now and there was nothing I could do about it.
Once that little monster leaves your body, the awful feeling of insecurity ends. Your confidence
returns, together with a marvelous feeling of self-respect. You obtain the assurance to take control
of your life, not only in your eating habits but also in all other ways. This is one of the many
great advantages of being free from the weed.
As I have said, the weight myth is due to using substitutes during the withdrawal period. In fact,
they do not make it easier to stop. They make it harder. This is explained in greater detail in a
later chapter dealing with substitutes.
Provided you follow all the instructions, weight gain should not he a problem to you. However,
if you already have weight problems, or find that your weight does become a problem, I would
recommend that you read 'Allen Carr's EASYWEIGH to Lose Weight' (Penguin) which is based
on exactly the same principles as 'EASYWAY' and makes weight control a pleasure.
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31 Avoid False Incentives
Many smokers, while trying to stop on the Willpower Method, try to increase the motivation to stop
by building up false incentives.
There are many examples of this, A typical one is 'My family and I can have a marvelous holiday
on the money I will save,' This appears to be a logical and sensible approach, but in fact it is false
because any self-respecting smoker would rather smoke fifty-two weeks in the year and not have a
holiday. In any case there is a doubt in the smoker's mind because not only will he have to abstain for
fifty weeks but will he even enjoy that holiday without a cigarette? All this does is to increase the
sacrifice that the smoker feels he is making, which makes the cigarette even more precious in his
mind. Instead concentrate on the other side: 'What am I getting out of it? Why do I need to smoke?'
Another example: 'I'll be able to afford a better car.' That's true, and the incentive may make you
abstain until you get that car, but once the novelty has gone you will feel deprived, and sooner or later
you will fall for the trap again.
Another typical example is office or family pacts. These have the advantage of eliminating
temptation for certain periods of the day. However, they generally fail for the following reasons.
1 The incentive is false. Why should you want to stop smoking just because other people are
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