Worked when all else failed
Customer Rating: 
I had been a smoker for over 20 years. I had even successfully quit before for up to 2.5 years using "willpower". But for some reason, as I got older, "willpower" no longer worked for me. I tried cold turkey, "weaning off", you name it.
But this book worked. Mr. Carr explains why tapering off never works, why willpower definitely doesn't work and he really helped me to understand why I was smoking in the first place.
It's been about 4 months now. And I don't smoke!!!! What freedom!
I no longer look at friends who smoke longing for a cigarette, rather, I look at them with empathy. I know they are only smoking because they are addicted!
A grateful thumbs-up from an ex-addict
Customer Rating: Are you a long time, heavy smoker? Do you not even KNOW adult life without cigarettes, having begun puffing away in your teens? Is your every plan dominated by the burning question of whether (or when) you'll be able to light up? (e.g. Is there a smoking section? Does the room have a balcony? Will the seminar have breaks? Do people I'm going to visit smoke? How long is the flight/train ride/movie?).
Do you feel a mixture of envy and scorn for casual smokers; those who can go for days without a fag or only smoke when they drink, and who, when they quit entirely, brag about how easy it is and nag you to quit too? Do you feel that along with lifelong non-smokers, such 'pseudo-smokers' are a different breed and simply don't understand genuine nicotine addicts like you?
Do you find it virtually impossible to imagine being happy without cigarettes? While warding off friends' and family's pleas for you to quit with a rebellious, devil-may-care, live-hard-die-young persona, does worry, self-loathing and despair over your smoking keep you awake at night?
All of the above was me. From age 16 (aside from pregnancy with my daughter at 18) I'd worked up to a couple of packs or so a day and by 50 was convinced I was hopelessly addicted. The few times I had tried to stop (in 2001 while watching my father die from smoke-destroyed lungs and more recently in 2004 after I had a serious bout of pneumonia) had been agonizing failures and I no longer had any plans to try to quit.
I can't quite recall how I came to possess a copy of the book a couple of years ago. I do recall starting to read it but then stopping for two contradictory reasons: 1) with a major in psychology and studies in hypnosis I expected I would see through any mind-bending persuasion tactics the book might employ and so, despite the glowing reviews I'd read, it probably wouldn't work for ME and 2)I had an uneasy intuition that if I finished reading the book I actually WOULD quit smoking whether I wanted to or not!
To cut a long story short, I pulled the book from the shelf again in September '08; finished it and have not smoked since. It's still early days but what a revelation to discover my body's natural relaxation now that it is off the nicotine misery-go-round; the jumpy nervy feeling that I had mistakenly attributed to my own nervous system,(which made me feel I needed to smoke) has GONE. I'm actually almost glad to have been such a hopeless, heavy smoker because of the wonderful contrast I feel now that I've stopped.
How delightful to feel comfortable wherever I am instead of always obsessing over how to escape for my next fix! Had I known how great I would feel once free and how easy it could be to get there, perhaps I'd have done it sooner. Carrots always motivated me better than sticks.
My recommendation: Even if you're not sure you want to quit just yet (or ever) buy this book anyway and keep it in your bookshelf until you're ready. Don't even consider trying to quit before you read it.
Even after finishing the book I found it tremendously valuable to always keep my copy nearby; in the beginning I took it with me everywhere like a security blanket. If an old habit of thought came up (not surprising perhaps after 34 years!) just opening up the book and reading a sentence or two would dispel it like magic and later just knowing the book was there was sufficient. I've started buying copies for friends and family, but I'm keeping my own copy right here just in case!
I don't think I could have succeeded without the information in this book (they also have other books, seminars and an excellent webcast- check online, but this book was enough to get me smoke-free) and I feel immense gratitude at having had the good fortune to come across it. Highly recommended!
