CurrentAffairs: Allan Carr cured a million of smoking and died today of...
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I still remember the day I had my first puff. It was at my home where my father ( an occasional smoker) had discarded a stub and neglected to clear it. I was in my 10th std. then and curiosity killed the cat.After that experience (which was not too pleasant), I started smoking again in Junior college and then in Engineering. I was a moderate smoker, smoking not more than a cigarette a day, if at all and used to go for weeks/months without smoking. In other words, I was not an addict, or so I thought. I picked up my strike rate in MBA where I moved to 3-4 cigarettes a day, which we used to see as handy weapons to kill time, during off hours and off college. Of course, we must have thought we looked cool while smoking too. Not that we cared about it, or so we thought.
By the time I had joined my first job out of campus, my strike rate was hovering to about 5-6 a day and in the next 5 yrs it climbed slowly but surely to 10 a day, till a year ago, when I finally quit. This means that I have smoked for about 15 years in total at an average of about 2-3 cigarettes a day. Modest by most clinical stds., but according to MedIndia web site smoking risk calculator I STILL HAVE LOST ABOUT 108 DAYS OF MY LIFE. Hmm... I am not sure I enjoy that factoid as much as I did my smoking.
I remembered all of this, because Allan Carr died today at the age of 72, of Lung cancer. Allan is estimated to have cured 10 million people of smoking addiction through his The Easy way clinics (70 clinics in 30 countries) and became a millionaire by curing people of smoking. His first book, Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, has sold more than seven million copies. He has been credited to have cured Sir Anthony Hopkins and Richard Branson of smoking.
Allan himself was a extremely heavy smoker, and was a 100 a day man till he quit smoking 23 years ago. Talking at the time of his diagnosis, Mr Carr said: "Since I stopped smoking more than 23 years ago I have been the happiest man in the world. I still feel the same way." Mr Carr himself was convinced he would have died many years earlier if he had not kicked the smoking habit. He said "Given that I am informed that I have cured at least 10 million smokers on a conservative estimation, even if that is the case, it's a price worth paying."
I myself never used Easy Way method or read his book in my attempt to quit smoking. But I still managed to kick the habit. I personally am convinced that unless you REALLY want to quit , you can't . There is no other really no other Easy Way and I am sure Carr's 'Easy Way' also says the same thing.And anyway,Allan Carr's Easy Way clinics are not available in India and even if they were launched here, they would probably be too expensive for us 18 crore Indians who use tabacco related products, to bother about. So we really have nobody but our own will power to count on to kick the deadly weed. Good Luck !
By the time I had joined my first job out of campus, my strike rate was hovering to about 5-6 a day and in the next 5 yrs it climbed slowly but surely to 10 a day, till a year ago, when I finally quit. This means that I have smoked for about 15 years in total at an average of about 2-3 cigarettes a day. Modest by most clinical stds., but according to MedIndia web site smoking risk calculator I STILL HAVE LOST ABOUT 108 DAYS OF MY LIFE. Hmm... I am not sure I enjoy that factoid as much as I did my smoking.
I remembered all of this, because Allan Carr died today at the age of 72, of Lung cancer. Allan is estimated to have cured 10 million people of smoking addiction through his The Easy way clinics (70 clinics in 30 countries) and became a millionaire by curing people of smoking. His first book, Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, has sold more than seven million copies. He has been credited to have cured Sir Anthony Hopkins and Richard Branson of smoking.
Allan himself was a extremely heavy smoker, and was a 100 a day man till he quit smoking 23 years ago. Talking at the time of his diagnosis, Mr Carr said: "Since I stopped smoking more than 23 years ago I have been the happiest man in the world. I still feel the same way." Mr Carr himself was convinced he would have died many years earlier if he had not kicked the smoking habit. He said "Given that I am informed that I have cured at least 10 million smokers on a conservative estimation, even if that is the case, it's a price worth paying."
I myself never used Easy Way method or read his book in my attempt to quit smoking. But I still managed to kick the habit. I personally am convinced that unless you REALLY want to quit , you can't . There is no other really no other Easy Way and I am sure Carr's 'Easy Way' also says the same thing.And anyway,Allan Carr's Easy Way clinics are not available in India and even if they were launched here, they would probably be too expensive for us 18 crore Indians who use tabacco related products, to bother about. So we really have nobody but our own will power to count on to kick the deadly weed. Good Luck !
