The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
by Allen Carr · first published 1985
87% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Reframes smoking as an easy-to-drop habit by challenging the idea that smokers enjoy it, and many readers report quitting within days without struggle. Suits smokers, and its method is applied to other habits.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Stopping cigarette smoking.
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The Easy Way To Stop Smoking, by Alan Carr. Very logically made me realise that willpower was really just about changing how you talk to yourself. Essentially learning impulse control. I lost a deadly, expensive habit and a fair…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗…are most skilled at ignoring! I find the other possibilities, specifically the wide-scale and unprecedented disruption of routine, much more plausible. (NOTE: I wholeheartedly recommend he book 'The Easy Way to Stop Smoking' by the late Allen Carr. It was a very helpful motivator when I quit smoking.)
on “Smokers quit in record numbers amid Covid fears” ↗I started smoking at 19 and was a chain smoker throughout my 20's. I was a total addict - I hated it. About 10 years ago I read "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. The next day I stopped. For 4 days I felt as though I had got up too early on a winters morning; I felt cold inside and the light hurt my eyes. But after that, it was done. Many people…
on “Ask HN: Ex-smokers, how did you quit?” ↗…the "little monster" of nicotene-directed urges but not the "big monster" of urges that come from the programming in your brain. You definitely should read the book mentioned in the other comment, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, by Allen Carr. Time to take down the big monster.
on “Bangkok Smoking Kid” ↗I quit smoking after reading Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. http://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/06154... The main idea behind book is that smoking is easy to quit. It is not addictive like alcohol, or other drugs, where withdrawal…
on “Ask HN: How can I quit smoking?” ↗For smokers, the easy way to stop smoking by Allen Carr. Read it, quit smoking two days later, and I have been enjoying fresh air, greater taste and an overall feeling of "hell yeah I did it" for almost a year now. My wife also quit one month…
on “Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?” ↗Reading “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Alan Carr probably added years to my life. “Sirens of Titan” by Kurt Vonnegut resonated with me on an emotional level.
on “Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life?” ↗Allen Carr - Easy Way to Stop Smoking Showed me the easy way to stop smoking. (Not 100% sure if it's under 100 pages but at least not much more)
on “Ask HN: Book under 100 pages that changed your life the most?” ↗I recommend Allen Carr's Easy Way to Quit Emotional Eating. After I read it, I stopped craving unhealthy food. Same guy who wrote The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48664748-allen-carr-s-ea...
on “Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?” ↗You can use the same techniques that other people use for other addictive things. Try browsing through a copy of Allen Carr's "The Easy Way To Stop Smoking", and then apply those lessons to social media or whatever your addiction is.
on “Delete or hide life-wasting apps” ↗Congrats! I’m 50% of Allen Carr’s book [0] and it feels very promising. 0 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Easy_Way_to_Stop_Smoking
on “Marijuana hospital visits linked to dementia diagnosis within 5 years – a study” ↗…going to do next, cut out negative carbs? If you go low-fat, will you cut out fat that's no longer there? > The notion of two traps, a physical trap and a mental trap, comes from Allen Carr’s fantastic Easy Way To Stop Smoking. He states, quite convincingly, that there is a physical aspect to smoking (nicotine addiction) and a mental aspect to smoking (feeling that you need it). I think Carr's perspective is very strong advice…
on “Being fat is a trap” ↗…https://www.reddit.com/r/stopsmoking . It was a very helpful community and also full of suggestions what to do when you have cravings for a cigarette. There is one special book that I highly recommend . Allen Carrs - easy way to stop smoking. http://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/06154... It just works. But you need to be persistent with the decision.
on “Ask HN: Alternative tips for quitting smoking?” ↗…that everyone that quits smoking goes through. Now I've spent 500 days without smoking and I've never felt the need to smoke again. I haven't read the Easy Way to Control Alcohol, but if it's as good as Easy Way to Stop Smoking I would recommend it.
on “Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?” ↗Wow, two recommendations for Starting Strength on HN in one week. I have already taken started incorporating the advice at the gym and it seems barbells might be my friend after all. The Easy Way to Stop Smoking worked for me 7 years ago and I can't recommend it enough. I'll never forget scanning the table of contents and flipping to chapter 21, it sold me on the book. I've started Drawing on the right Side…
on “What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?” ↗