4 ms·

Can confirm anecdotally on this one. I had accepted the logical reasons to quit a good year or so before I actually got rid of them. When I did manage to kick

by corobo 4y ago

Can confirm anecdotally on this one. I had accepted the logical reasons to quit a good year or so before I actually got rid of them. When I did manage to kick them it was after I read the Easy way to quit smoking by Allen Carr which helped with the mindset then admittedly I ruined the data by moving house and starting a work from home job, therefore got rid of all of my cigarette initiating habits in one go.

nohuck13 4y ago
Are your sure your anecdote confirms this? The higher cognitive function that leads you to read books about quitting could be exactly the mechanism the GP describes. If books can help you quit, less bookish people will quit less, all else equal.
- williamcotton 4y ago
  From what I remember, Easy Way even tells you to keep smoking when you start the book and to stop reading if you don’t feel ready! FWIW, I also credit that book with me finally quitting the habit.
  - corobo 4y ago
    It does yeah, I think that was what made my mind open up to the book early on. An intriguing enough nonfiction twist, I had to see where it was going with this. I was expecting a mix of "here's why it's bad" and "here's the good stuff, and at which milestone dates you'll notice them" maybe. The stuff I already knew and believed in really strongly.. for 20 minutes until the third 'last' cigarette of the month. If anyone else is stuck in a holding pattern of quitting it's worth giving it a shot. Promise no affiliation haha, go see if your local bookshop or charity shop has a used copy for 20p (the pages will be a deep yellow, of course)
  - skhm 4y ago
    I read a different Easy Way book of Carr’s (I understand they are all similar) but felt like by the end I’d been scammed or something - he repeatedly tells you the Way works, and trust the process, and then the book … finishes? Is it really just that the Easy Way is a self-referential thing and the Way is itself to think about the Way a lot and in doing so convince yourself or your subconscious that you’ve reached some sort of solution despite having not? Or was there some set of concrete messages I might just have missed? Is the act of reading the book the thing itself?
    - williamcotton 4y ago
      There is definitely an element of self-hypnosis!

by corobo 4y ago

nohuck13 4y ago

Are your sure your anecdote confirms this? The higher cognitive function that leads you to read books about quitting could be exactly the mechanism the GP describes. If books can help you quit, less bookish people will quit less, all else equal.

williamcotton 4y ago
From what I remember, Easy Way even tells you to keep smoking when you start the book and to stop reading if you don’t feel ready! FWIW, I also credit that book with me finally quitting the habit.
- corobo 4y ago
  It does yeah, I think that was what made my mind open up to the book early on. An intriguing enough nonfiction twist, I had to see where it was going with this. I was expecting a mix of "here's why it's bad" and "here's the good stuff, and at which milestone dates you'll notice them" maybe. The stuff I already knew and believed in really strongly.. for 20 minutes until the third 'last' cigarette of the month. If anyone else is stuck in a holding pattern of quitting it's worth giving it a shot. Promise no affiliation haha, go see if your local bookshop or charity shop has a used copy for 20p (the pages will be a deep yellow, of course)
- skhm 4y ago
  I read a different Easy Way book of Carr’s (I understand they are all similar) but felt like by the end I’d been scammed or something - he repeatedly tells you the Way works, and trust the process, and then the book … finishes? Is it really just that the Easy Way is a self-referential thing and the Way is itself to think about the Way a lot and in doing so convince yourself or your subconscious that you’ve reached some sort of solution despite having not? Or was there some set of concrete messages I might just have missed? Is the act of reading the book the thing itself?
  - williamcotton 4y ago
    There is definitely an element of self-hypnosis!