When you walk down the street today and smell the smells of blooming flowers, mowed grass, tire residues on the road or leaking sewage – you might think it's obvious. But twenty years ago, the only smell you could smell on the street was that of cigarettes. The percentage of smokers in the population was high, and they smoked everywhere. What changed that was probably a combination of two key factors: strict rules and Alan Carr. On the occasion of the 17th anniversary of his death, here is the story of the accountant who became the main guru of smoking cessation, who helped us write Forefront and Perplexity.
Carr was born in London in 1934, and began smoking at the age of 18, while serving in Her Majesty's Army. He was a chain smoker for 31 years and claims to have smoked 60 to 100 cigarettes a day. After countless failed attempts to quit, he met with a hypnosis therapist who promised to get him to quit smoking. Soon after, he did stop – with no withdrawal symptoms. According to him, he was weaned not because of hypnosis, but because of a sudden understanding of another and much easier method.
Carr has written a series of bestselling books, the first and most famous of which is The Easy Way to Quit Smoking, which has sold more than 13 million copies in 57 countries and 38 languages. According to Carr, smoking addiction is psychological. The book is divided into 44 chapters, the purpose of which is to lead the smoker at the end of the call to make a decision to quit smoking. The book does not use scare tactics, and ostensibly does not replace the need for a cigarette with another addiction such as food.
The method is also used to quit overeating, alcoholism and drugs. He has also written follow-up books on addictions to vaping, emotional eating, sugar, gambling, drugs, fear of flying, getting into financial debt, technology addiction, and more. And for those who prefer personal togetherness rather than reading a long book, Carr built a successful network of smoking cessation and other addiction clinics around the world, based on the method he described in his books.
Unfortunately, Carr was diagnosed with lung cancer in the summer of 2006, and died less than six months later. Despite quitting smoking, it seems that his many years as a smoker, and the following years spent using secondhand smoke due to the treatments he provided in his clinics, left their mark on his body. Before his death, he stated that "given that I have been informed that I have cured at least 10 million smokers, in a cautious assessment, this is a price worth paying."
Carr's method gained popularity, and quite a few celebrities reported quitting smoking because of it, including Anjelica Huston, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sarah Silverman, Jamie Oliver, Katherine Tate, Russell Brand, Lily Allen, and Ellen DeGeneres.
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