So I've been an on and off smoker (18 years) since the age of 16, I'm now 34. I say on and off because sometimes I'd quit for periods in my life, but the majority of periods I'd smoke with a wanting to quit. So I never felt like I was a full blown smoker because I never accepted it as a lifestyle and I always wanted to quit, but at the same time I was definitely an addict and a regular smoker.
So here's my review after 10 days of having my last cigarette, and after 18 years of "on and off" smoking.
It was easy! And you don't feel deprived or missing out.
Some people might think 10 days is nothing, or I can't consider myself having overcome an addiction after 10 days, but I disagree, and even Allen himself tells me the day you stop smoking, you're already a non smoker. It's these labels society and we put on ourselves and internalise them, which is part of the brainwashing. When does a drunkard stop being a drunkard? The day he stops drinking.
His method is simple but powerful. It is a type of hypnosis or anti-brainwashing, or maybe his own brainwashing. But all he does is repeatedly challenge the lies you've internalised into subconscious beliefs, by using logical explanations of why they're wrong and stupid until they're neutralised. Once this happens, the craving disappears, and so does the struggle. You don't constantly think about cigarettes, smoking, or struggle to avoid them, and you don't take it day by day. It really doesn't require any willpower, or at least only a little. For example I don't think about cigarettes or smoking or buying them until someone mentions it, where I then get a little triggered, but I always remember the last chapters of the book about there's no such thing as one last cigarette, and there are 0 benefits to smoking. So when I get a little triggered, this requires a little bit of willpower, but it's the same amount of willpower as choosing to have a desert or not at a restaurant, or choosing the one that is the healthier option (sorbet?) vs the sugar laden option. And I think even that small struggle would go if I read the book again.
Big Insight into Mass Psychology
I've gotten some great insights from this book, the biggest one being how powerful the written word is (and hence freedom of speech).
I make the simple challenge of people doubting this method (of how reading a book can cure addiction).
If the written word throughout history, whether it's religious texts, political books, or whatever other powerfully written literature has changed the course of history, such as creating wars or peace, raising new countries, governance, civilisations, and ideologies, and also destroying them. But you don't think it's possible to cure an addiction from just reading a book?
If you can wrap you mind around what I just wrote, you can begin to understand why just reading a book can cure an addiction. That's my insight anyway.
The other insight is addiction is 99% psychological. Anyone who has gotten past a physical dependency stage of any drug, whether it's crack, heroin, alcohol, or whatever else. Because maybe they went to rehab, or went to jail, or voluntarily quit, or didn't have the money, or whatever. After they've been clean long enough to overcome the physical dependency. Why then is there such a thing as relapse? It's 100% psychological.
When I struggled to fully quit these last 18 years, relapse was easy, occurring every day or couple of days. No amount of willpower could do it. But when I read the book, relapse hasn't happened, because the psychology (subconscious beliefs) that made cigarettes appealing, has been neutralised or severely lessened.
Anyway that's my review. I'm now trying his book on sleep, to see if it can help me in that area too.
Edited by Mr Serendipity, 01 January 2023 - 03:19 PM.
