Allen Carr – Easy way to Stop Drinking
While this one is written specifically for those of you who have decided you want to totally stop drinking. Again, like his other book, it concentrates on the cognitive aspects of your alcohol problems – what you are telling yourself internally about alcohol.
Hi
Its been a while since i posted. This is my 5th week of being a non-drinker, i have no reservations saying to people i do not drink. All i can say is that the Allen Carr Seminar worked for me. I am now focused on improving myself through exercise and setting new goals in my life. i just feel free. Good luck everyone
Hi Kate went on Tuesday day two good luck to u and well done
Hi All
I read THE BOOK about 3 years ago and stopped for four months and was convinced i would never drink again. i lost all the weight i needed to, looked fabulous and felt brilliant. Unfortunately I started again thinking i could drink socially, of course i can’t, i end up bingeing eventually.
so am back on track now, have been on the forum which is great, started with the 7 day thread and now moved on to the 2 week thread, am going to re-read the book as really i do believe it is excellent if we remember what he says. why would any one want to pour poison down their neck. I also think that actually it is easier to be sociable without alcohol because with it i always think when i am only a bit pissed “how do i sound, am i making sense, am i going red?” and then when i am really pissed i don’t care and am just a nightmare. it gives one a lot of power to be sober and in control i have realised.
remember if we don’t look after our bodies, where will we live?
good luck to everyone and for those who haven’t read it READ IT! even if you do end up drinking again like me, its always there and you know it to be the truth…. and eventually the truth will win.
hi everybody, i have read the book (stopping drinking) and i think i am still holding on to a tiny bit of brainwashing, could it be the little monster carr describes, i havent drunk for 2 weeks but its something i feel uncomfortable about when going food shopping a job i hate, i always used to buy sherry to have something to look forward too when i got home,
should i read it again as obviosly something is not clicking into place somewhere
has anyone else read it more than once?
Hi Julie, I can totally relate to you and am currently reading the book for the third (maybe fourth?) time. When tempted by the sherry maybe try to focus on how well you have done in the two weeks not drinking.
When you say the sherry gave you something to look forward to when you get home ask yourself what possible bonus would it be. Apart from blurring the rest of the day how bad are you going to feel the next morning when you beat yourself up for giving in?
Not that I am the best person to give advice – I agree with every word of the book but am struggling to put it into practice. If I can’t get to grips with it this time I’m planning on booking into the seminar. Best of luck!
Hi Good People. I read the book in 2007 and quit as a truly happy non-drinker. But, after a short while I started to crave chocolate and really had to work on stopping buying cadburys flakes etc. It was like a physical, hungry for chocolate craving. I later found out that the body processes alcohol in a similar way to sugar which is why it has such a terrible effect on blood sugar levels and is a major cause of hypoglycemia and diabetes. Its part of the reason you feel dizzy after binge drinking. Anyway, the evening is always the chink in the armour when you quit taking alcohol because of the way you have programmed your blood sugars through embibing alcohol for all those years. I have read the book 3-4 times and am still struggling with alcohol, mainly in the evenings, drinking what ever is available. Again, its a case of retaining some of the brainwashing, and feeling so low from yesterdays drinking, that i take more to escape. Alcohol is an aneasthetic after all. I think this is a multi-faceted problem, getting hooked back into the trap. Firstly, after quitting, we potentially remain subject to the ongoing brainwashing that got us hooked in the first place. “Pub culture” bekons. All those “Lucky normal drinkers”, as Allen puts it, are having a “fantastic time” getting nicely wasted (only on the weekend mind), then we start to doubt our decision. “i can just do it the weekend”. the trap is re-sprung. For me, it was after nearly 12 months dry, one afternoon having fininshed work, a customer offered me a beer, “ah, f*ck it, why not”, i was back in the pit, and worse than before. I’ve been on and off since then. I wonder why I just get on with myself without the stuff. Its really hurting me. I’m trying to imagine what all those clubbers would do without alcohol. Would they still dance the night away? Would they still go out and meet their perfect match? or have a fantastic one night stand whilst out on an all night bender, fuelled by nothing but orange juice and nibbles?
what can i say charlie, i agree with every word of that.
everytime i get the urge to drink i read another chapter of the book,
i am a very stubborn person and i wont give in, i WANT to be a non drinker
its just so deeply entrenched in my brain i’m going to have to keep re-reading as i’m obviously not reversing all the brainwashing, does that make sense? prob not lol. but something is not clicking into place somewhere,
i think Carr is (was) a genius, although he says he stumbled upon Easyway accidently, i think i will book into a seminar, see if i can see what i’m going wrong with.
Read the book three years ago with immediate success and lasted over year but fell into a going on holiday/it was so easy I can do it again trap; read the book does help but I felt I was missing some key point.
Went to the seminar in Birmingham and its clicked into place again. I’m looking forward to never drinking again.
Good luck everyone.
Yes I think it will have to be the seminar for me as reading the book is somehow not reversing the brainwashing. Can anyone advise from a practical point of view whether driving is the best route (I think there is parking on site at Birmingham) or it is better by train. Given that it is a 10am start am even considering booking an overnight stay in a hotel as I hate motorway driving. Any advise from anyone who has been to the Birmingham clinic would really be appreciated (I live in Lancs)
Yes, Parking good. I did stop over at the Bromsgrove Hilton which is 10 minutes away.
Hi Kathryn,
I went last Friday and it’s quite easy to get to with plenty of parking around.
just be aware theres a “Hagley Road” and a “West Hagley” road…
Threw me into a spin when I turned up at an empty hotel 15 minutes before the session.
That was the only real downer of the day..the session was great and the therapist, Cris Hay was about as good an example as you can get: funny, eloquent, entertaining and quite obviously …happy.
i have got a big problem with drink can anyone help
well i am getting to the end of the book for the 2nd time, its making sense this time i have read it properly, not just skimmed it like last time, but i know i am getting to the part where it says ‘your final drink’ i dont want to do this part,
i have been sober over 1 week and i have a small brandy in the cupboard, but i loathe brandy, i know it says choose a drink you dont like, what shall i do?
i really dont want to drink it but will it not complete the reversal of brainwashing if i dont drink it, if i am brutally honest i think perhaps drinking it will send me helter skelter into trouble again, even though as i said i hate brandy and that bottle has been in the cupboard for months, bought by my son,
trev have you read the book, you need to reverese all this brainwashing,
the brainwashing the tells you you are getting a benefit from drinking,
we are not getting any benefit thats what the book explains, if i can do it so can you, i have been drinking for 30 years on and off, its a miracle i’m here at all,
Do not drink the brandy. The last drink is symbolic and if you have followed the book and not already quit drinking as the book suggests, then have the last drink. But you have already quit. Your last drink a week ago was your final drink. Or use your loath for the taste of brandy as your last drink memory, but please do not drink again if you have already quit. I am struggling myself again with the poison. It only gets worse. Be thankful you have beaten it. If you go back as I have it will be much much worse. You will hate yourself. The book did get me to quit for a while. Some people need more. I am trying hypnosis CDs and treatment. If you keep trying you will beat it. But I am so happy to hear that you have already quit a week ago. Be thankful. Do not drink again!
I quit today after reading Allen Carr’s book (for the 4th time) and I also didn’t want to take ‘the final drink’ in the way he describes. I went to the supermarket but just couldn’t bring myself to buy more booze. Instead I chose to buy freshly squeezed orange juice and I’m currently drinking it out of the same tumbler that I usually drink wine from. Instead of concentrating on the horrible effects and taste of alcohol I’m savouring the delightful murmur of pleasure my body gets when I imbibe a beautiful, healthy drink. I got the ‘moment of revelation’ and felt a massive joy and relief that I never have to drink alcohol again.
Good luck to all on your quests.
Dan
wow had my first drinking dream last night, it was so vivid and real and i could actually almost taste the sherry ,but i woke and thought ‘thank god, it was just a dream, i dont have to drink that poison.’
i tipped the brandy down the sink but smelled it first and it made me almost retch, that will be my last drinking memory i think.
I have been drinking for many years and I feel like my life is in a downward spiral lately. I so badly want to stop drinking. I feel like my health is deteriorating and I am so sick of everything. I drink even when I don’t want to drink. I bought the book last week and have started reading it. Last night I drank but I didn’t really want to. It’s like I had a good devil on one shoulder and an evil one on the other and the evil one won.
I really hope the book will help me as I have tried AA and that didn’t work for me. Sometimes I think this problem is going to kill me. I am just sick of it!!!!
Sandra AA didnt work for me either, it didnt make sense, and i felt a bit resentful towards some of the members, which i know was wrong of me, i didnt like the preamble (WTF is that about?) i hated all the drama, the hugging, sitting there listening to the swearing, crying, i felt like i was going insane, i thought ‘no way is this for me’
the book by Allen Carr is much more my cup of tea, i can relate so much, he makes sense to me whereas AA never did.
i dont mean to slag AA off, i know its saved millions of lives but its not going to save mine, Easyway will . Good luck.
I think it’ll help you, Sandra. If you read it all and don’t skip bits this little spark of hope will appear at some point and grow until you’ll know you can do it. And you’ll know that being free is a very good place to be.
Well done Julie H, and good luck to you both!
Dan