Amazing stories of happy non-smokers - Robert Tulip, UK

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

It’s great to hear from so many people who use Allen Carr’s Easyway throughout the world. The endless pages of testimonials which are left on our website tell their own story (there are thousands and thousands of them). You can browse through them on this link.

Having said that – it’s even more wonderful when we receive even more detailed information about those who stop smoking with us.

Hi there my name is Robert and I’m from Chesterfield in Derbyshire. I first started smoking at the age of around 15. Growing up in a smoking house plus a bit of peer pressure and curiosity is all it took really. I was one of the “cool kids” sneaking off for a fag at break time and spending all my dinner money on cigarettes. I can’t really remember my first smoke so I can’t comment on how it was.

I continued smoking until I was 36. I had tried a few times to quit smoking but to no avail – even with two children I would smoke. I kept it in the kitchen but who am I kidding…..it must’ve had an effect on them. Whenever I would speak to someone who had managed to kick the habit I would say with much bravado “I’ve never been a quitter”.

Here’s how my day would be…. Wake up, kettle on, have a smoke, have a coffee, then another smoke, get ready for work then have a smoke before leaving the house – that’s about 3 fags in the space of an hour! I’d get to work and have a smoke before I clocked in because of the darn smoking ban (I couldn’t smoke in work time so I had to get that precious smoke in again).

During break times at work I’d have a smoke or even 2 if I have enough time then back to work. Lunch break was easily long enough to get a 3 or so smokes squeezed in – then back to work. As soon as I got home I’d have a smoke then about one every hour unless I was drinking and we had friends over then it was a lot more.

I started to struggle to breathe when in bed at night and my chest was rattling loudly. I had real problems when I walked any distance.

I decided to have a go at stopping smoking going cold turkey. I lasted about five days then rang the NHS quit smoking number. I tried the nicotine lozenges and purchased one of those electronic cigarettes because I thought I’d need something to do with my hands. I continued for about 12 weeks on the NHS stop smoking club and was very frustrated because I felt I had become dependant on the lozenges and could see no way off them.

My brother who had quit had mentioned this book weeks before and I thought “What’s a bloody book going to do for me?” But – I was frustrated and clutching at straws when I asked him if I could read the book. Needless to say – it was Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking book – and to say that the book blew my mind would be an understatement! As soon as I finished the book I was filled with a euphoria I had never known but I immediately knew that I would never smoke or need nicotine lozenges, patches, or ANYTHING ever again!

Three weeks after reading the book it was as if I had never smoked at all.

I feel really sorry for smokers who remain slaves to their addiction and my breathing at night is now amazing and my breathing when I walk is too. I’m free and loving every minute of it!

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We never tire of hearing stories about how those who attend Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics or read the books stopped smoking. For information on how you can quit smoking easily – without having to suffer and feel like you’ve quit anything or feel like you’ve given up smoking – click on your country’s flag at the top of this page.

Posted on 11:52 Feb 03, 2012 by John Dicey, Worldwide Director

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Amazing stories of happy non-smokers - Christine Hein, US

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

It’s great to hear from so many people who use Allen Carr’s Easyway to stop smoking method throughout the world. The endless pages of testimonials which are left on our website tell their own story (there are thousands and thousands of them). You can browse through them on this link.

Having said that – it’s even lovelier when we receive more detailed information about those who stop smoking with us. It was wonderful to hear from Christine Hein (shown here with her husband) who stopped smoking while on active service in Afghanistan by reading the Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking book.

Christine (shown in her smoking days – second from left in the photo below) tells her own story, one which is happily not unique amongst the men and women serving in UK, US, and many other nationalities’ armed forces around the world who quit smoking in the most amazing circumstances using both Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics and Books.

Christine writes:

My name is Christine Hein. I’m originally from a small town in Missouri, the heart of the United States, but I’m currently deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

I smoked since “forever”, probably more than 13 years. I never smoked less than a pack of cigarettes a day. I use to be so ashamed to admit that, but now I’m free from it all, I truly boast in my past weakness.

I had been deployed to Afghanistan, for the second time when I decided that I needed to quit. I was trying not to get killed by explosions and bullets from the enemy, then after I LIVED, I would smoke a cigarette with the other soldiers recalling the events of the day. Wheezing and coughing, laughing and patting each other on the back for a job well done. What sense did that make?

I really enjoy books that teach me ways to better myself. I came across Allen Carr’s book on amazon.com, ordered it, and when it arrived I’d read it every time I had an opportunity to do so. I would sit on the steps outside the tent I lived in and smoke as I read. After I finished the book, I immediately stopped smoking – like it was nothing – it was easy.

I haven’t had a cigarette in almost a year now. I see others smoking, and I truly feel sorry for them. I was where they are for years and years. I was stuck – like them.

I accidently packed up and sent my copy of EasyWay To Stop Smoking in our early redeployment cargo containers. I had to buy another one. It’s almost like my “woobie”, like a child’s blankie that makes them feel safe and secure. The stress and rigors of war could easily make me feel like I was about to slip back into the depths of the addiction, but I always reference my book and feel much more calm, composed and confident that the nicotine monster truly is dead.

I look forward to living a long healthy life. Allen Carr’s book is nothing short of amazing and truly saved me from myself.

******************
About the photos:

The first photo is of me and my husband – happy non-smokers.
He never had a problem with the addiction and is “over the moon happy” about my decision to quit smoking.

The photo below is of me (2nd from left) on my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. Red face, just hiked up a HUGE mountain looking for a Russian Artillery piece to destroy, and as I was suffocating, trying to breathe at the high elevation in the wicked summer heat, I light a cigarette. WHY?! I don’t know anymore.

Posted on 14:32 Jan 31, 2012

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The Growing Worldwide Team - Italy

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

We are very lucky to have a variety of hugely motivated, highly dedicated, and extremely capable people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. It can often be of interest to smokers who want to stop to hear how our team around the world has been gathered and this is the fifth in a series of features that look at the various journeys that members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Therapist team have taken; from being some of the most accomplished and active smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Francesca Cesati, Allen Carr’s Easyway Italia writes:

Italy: I was born there. One puff at the age of fourteen, 40 cigarettes a day 21 years later.

I was convinced it was my friend, my support, my shield, my silent companion, the source of my security, the gratification I looked for after a school test or a difficult task. It was the bond with my friends, the still listener of our conversation well into the night, what allowed the concentration to keep up the good work.

The fact that it was a killer – it had killed my grandfather – my greatest friend when I was a child – a decade earlier and the fact that it was “strangling” my father with emphysema and chronic bronchitis was only “a small detail”.

London: I was living there in 1988. A woman, by chance gave me the business card of a gentleman by the name of Allen Carr: he helped people to stop smoking simply talking for one afternoon. Rubbish! Impossible! I had tried everything: hypnosis, nicotine chewing –gum, etc. No success. I even smoked during pregnancy. Not that it was something I was proud of but that was the obvious proof that I could not stop.

I decided to contact Allen. There was that interesting clause in the service that if one did not stop he would refund the fee.

15th August 1988. That was the date in which I came back to life. In one afternoon Allen took away the blinkers which had accompanied me through my smoking career, it showed me that all that I believed about smoking was not only false but the opposite was true: smoking was my worst enemy, was my straw support, did not shield me but made me tremendously vulnerable and insecure, was stealing from me my capacity to be proud of myself and substituted it with a continuous sense of loathing for myself, it was the chain that was suffocating me and my friends, it was the continuous obstacle to my concentration, it was the great screamer that pretended continuous attention up to the point that, if I could not smoke, even my best friends became unbearable.

Italy: The power of what happened that afternoon carried on increasing in time, transforming the fact that I had stopped smoking in a slow readjustment of my total perception of life. It made me see clearly all the tremendous fields of deception in which we continuously move convinced instead that we are free. The Wizard of Oz (the killer version of) had been unmasked by Allen and ten years later I decided to help Italian smokers to walk the same path which Allen had helped me to walk. After my training my first seminar/session was in 1998 and now there is a team of therapists holding Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Seminars all over Italy.

I translated the Allen Carr’s book between 2001 and 2002. Published it end of 2003 and, up to now, it has sold more than a million copies in Italy- almost entirely by word of mouth. It entered in the best selling list in October 2006 and it is still there! The book is incredibly well known in Italy. People simply says: “I stopped with the book..”
More and more blinkers are slowly falling from people’s eyes and God only knows how much we need people who can SEE! Bravo Allen. You are living on in millions of people of all races: a kind of unified field theory!

For more information about Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics and how to find it easy to quit smoking click on your country’s flag at the top of this page.

Did you find it easy to stop smoking? Perhaps you could help to spread the word?

Posted on 10:38 Jan 30, 2012 by John Dicey, Worldwide Director

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The Growing Worldwide Team - England

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

We are so lucky to retain such an incredible team of people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. Smokers looking for a way of stopping smoking sometimes find it really hard to imagine that it is possible to stop easily without any pain or problems at all. They are so used to attempts to quit smoking ending up leaving them feeling miserable and deprived of cigarettes. In their search for a way to stop smoking it can often be inspiring for smokers to hear how our team around the world has been brought together. This is another installment in a series of features that look at the journeys taken by members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Therapist team; from being some of the most hardened smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Colleen Dwyer, Allen Carr’s Easyway London, England writes:

I was a very scared smoker, particularly towards the end of my addiction. I really thought that I was alone in my experience of constantly trying to stop and failing miserably. Some of my attempts were halfhearted and some were really determined efforts to get myself free – either way I failed each time and it wasn’t getting better.

My sister-in-law quit by attending an Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking seminar. I don’t remember paying too much attention to her because she kept talking about a little monster and I thought that was odd.

When my sister quit smoking (shortly afterwards) with Allen’s book I was shocked. I thought my sister and I would be smokers to the grave, so, when she quit so easily I watched in amazement. I excitedly bought Allen’s book ‘The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently’ and I read it from cover to cover.

The transformation in my sister was wonderful – she had gone from being just like me (smoking through colds and flu) to not being bothered by people smoking around her. She didn’t seem to miss cigarettes at all. I thought that a transformation like that would require a very dramatic event to accompany it and I read Allen’s book waiting for my ‘magic’ moment. I put out my final cigarette and about half an hour later I quietly retrieved my packet from the bin and I was smoking once more.

Still, my sister’s success and reading the book had definitely given me hope that there was a solution to my problem – I was sure there was something in the method that could help me – so I booked the seminar with one of my brothers and my best friend.

I remember being so nervous that morning but the banter in the car on the way to the clinic masked my fears a little. The receptionists were so lovely at the clinic and I filled in my registration card, answering questions like, ‘How long have you smoked for?’ and ‘What age did you start?’ I remember feeling quite shocked that the answer to both questions was 12 years. Had I really been smoking for that long?

The seminar was brilliant – not in a ‘razzle dazzle’ way but in it’s simplicity. I loved John’s (the therapist) presentation of the seminar and found the 5 hours flew by. The message was similar to the book but somehow it felt more real when I was hearing it in the seminar with 15 other smokers.

Having said that, at the end of the seminar I wasn’t convinced that I was free. I thought it had been interesting and I thought it was good to hear the message again but I still didn’t get my ‘road to Damascus moment’.

As it turned out – I didn’t need one, I left that seminar and I’ve never smoked since. I certainly thought about cigarettes but those thoughts never turned into cravings. I still feel so grateful to Allen and John for giving me my freedom back. Within days of stopping smoking my skin looked better, my eyes were brighter, my relationships with loved ones improved, the constant depressive pressure of my addiction had lifted. I have regained my confidence, my self respect and my eyes have been opened to the manipulative influences of the smoking trap.

I still feel intensely grateful for my freedom and privileged to now be an ‘Allen Carr’ therapist, helping other smokers to escape from the trap 14 years on from my own seminar :)

For more information about Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics and how to find it easy to stop smoking click on your country’s flag on www.allencarrr.com
Did you find it easy to quit smoking? Maybe you could help to spread the word?
Do you know of anyone who you would like to help stop smoking? Tell them about this story and if they mention it when they book a session at any one of our stop smoking clinics across the world they can obtain a 10% discount (not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion).

Posted on 13:39 Jan 12, 2012 by John Dicey, Worldwide Director

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Goody Two Shoes - Don't drink - don't smoke - what do you do?

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

In 2013 we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Allen Carr discovering his method. Since 1983 EASYWAY has been applied to many different addictions with phenomenal success. At Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinic in London we now offer treatment for, not just smoking, weight, and alcohol – but for “other drugs” as well.

Robin Hayley & Crispin Hay have worked tirelessly to ensure that the method can be applied to a whole host of drug addictions including crack cocaine, cocaine, heroin, opium, marijuana, prescription drugs, and solvents.

There don’t appear to be many alternatives to hugely expensive (and normally residential) treatments such as those provided by The Priory or local health authorities and it’s wonderful to see so many people suffering from addiction to these drugs being freed (often in one 5-6 hour session) at our London Clinic.

There needs to be an alternative to The Priory which is painfully expensive and often only available to those with the means to afford the service and although drug sessions at Allen Carr’s London Clinic are conducted on a One to One basis they remain extremely affordable at £550. This price not only includes free of charge back-up sessions for the few that require them – but also the same money back guarantee that has been enjoyed by our stop smoking and stop drinking clients for more than 25 years.

Addiction to drugs is something that touches so many people in London and the Home Counties and now we have clients flying from all over the world to attend the clinic. Drug addiction seems to cross all sections of London society with recent clients seeking treatment for their addiction coming from every kind of profession imaginable. This month we have seen an electrician, a paralegal, construction worker, estate agent, publisher, student, banker, refuse collector, artist, and an IT professional seeking treatment for anything from crack to cannabis, from heroin to cocaine, Amphetamine to Ketamine to prescription drug addiction.

Rather than an alternative to The Priory or other addiction centres Allen Carr’s Easyway deserves to be the first choice for the treatment of drug addiction in London, the Home Counties and beyond.

Allen Carr’s Easyway isn’t about forcing people to become “Goody Two Shoes” types…for example people who come to us to stop smoking certainly don’t have to stop drinking in order to do so (to the relief of many clients it has to be said)… but if someone has issues with drugs, whether legal or illegal, and wants to stop – we are here to help them at Allen Carr’s Easyway Clinic – London.

Click here for more information about our alcohol and other drugs seminars in the UK

To enjoy “Goody Two Shoes – Don’t drink – don’t smoke – what do you do?” by Adam and The Ants from 1982 click below –

Posted on 12:21 Dec 09, 2011 by John Dicey, Worldwide Director

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