DRUGS VS BOOKS: The Eternal Debate Rages On!

Seven months ago, I quit smoking.  I smoked between a half-pack to a pack a day for eight years.  The fear that I would not be able to quit was terrifying: having felt simultaneous shame and relief after a previous failed attempt, I wasn't sure I could go through the process again.  

I forget now if there was a specific moment I committed, because I was generally aware of how miserable I was making myself every time I smoked.  I decided to use a two-pronged tactical method of stopping.  To reduce the physical sensation of withdrawal, I used the drug Chantix.  To break down the psychological addiction built brick by brick for eight years, I did what those who know my stubborn distaste for this type of literature never imagined I would do: I read a self-help book.  

Allen Carr's EasyWay to Stop Smoking, by (you guessed it) Allen Carr, is a book that from the outset looks dubious.  The brand-name title struck me as presumptuous, especially as a long-time smoker.  Flipping through doesn't help - skimming reveals passages you have heard a thousand times, worded a thousand ways, from a thousand relatives and concerned passers-by.  In fact, the book is badly written.  It's repetitive and boring.

But it worked.

Essentially, Carr's method effectively anti-brainwashes you with a vigorous, healthy brainwashing.  By the time you quit, Carr has derailed all your usual excuses and rationales for doing it.  If you go to his webpage (there is a link to it in the previous paragraph) you can read all the melodramatic testimonials various celebrities have given the "EasyWay" over the years.  I would add my own here, but my pride won't allow it.  Just look at the website.

Meanwhile, the featured side effect of Chantix as described by the accompanying pharmaceutical literature, and attested to by my ex-girlfriends mother, are horrible nightmares.  For me this was not the case:  it admirably reduced withdrawal symptoms and knocked me into a deep dream-state for eight hours every night.  I even awoke feeling refreshed.  I considered saving the extras for restless nights.  

My two-pronged attack was successful. If I were to rank the importance of each maneuver though, I believe the book contributed 95% of the victory.  

Cigarette addiction is mostly psychological.  Consider: I still occasionally have dreams where I smoke.  It's not because nicotine is still coursing inside me.  It's because eight years is a long time.  Eight years of association, memory, and habit won't just go away.  I'll probably have smokers dreams for decades.  But I'm okay with that.

The Chantix,  though helpful, started to feel like its own addiction.  Even after only three weeks, I started to get nervous if I hadn't had my dosage.  I wondered if I would break down without it, if all my success was only because of a pill, a manufactured hormone, replacement confidence.  Despite the drugs ludicrous recommendation to be taken for up to a year, I stopped taking it after three weeks.

I recommend the book to anybody trying to quit.