The Easy Way to Control Alcoholã¢â‚¬â by Allen Carr
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Even if you're a casual drinker, reading this will take the magic away from drinking. Most of that magic is highlighting that alcoholics are alcoholics purely because of alcohol and nothing more, and the fact that all the things you enjoy--yes every single thing, including Christmas and parties--are exactly the same without drinking, and would likely be even more fun without it. And there is absolutely no credible argument against Allen Carr's reasoning here. That sounds obvious but again, the cognitive errors are so deep and automatic that in order to remove them, such obvious advice is necessary.
It works like a charm, but only if the reader is already in a state to objectively analyze their attitudes towards alcohol.
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I've been completely sober since reading this book - ten years ago! My drinking was destroying my life and my relationships. I felt out of control. It actually took me months to finish this book because I was afraid it would work - that's how much I felt I needed/enjoyed alcohol, despite all the awful repercussions.
Not only do I not drink, I don't miss it. Not even a little. That is the greatest thing about this.
Edit: it's May 2021 - I'm still sober, no relapses. I've never re
This worked for me!I've been completely sober since reading this book - ten years ago! My drinking was destroying my life and my relationships. I felt out of control. It actually took me months to finish this book because I was afraid it would work - that's how much I felt I needed/enjoyed alcohol, despite all the awful repercussions.
Not only do I not drink, I don't miss it. Not even a little. That is the greatest thing about this.
Edit: it's May 2021 - I'm still sober, no relapses. I've never regretted quitting drinking. I still don't understand how this book helped me so effectively, but I continue to recommend it to people all the time. Whether you're doubting it's efficacy or you're scared of a sober life (I was) you've really got nothing to lose in giving it a go. I hope it works for you! Stay strong & remember every single day sober is progress, even if you relapse. Keep going, keep trying - you've always got that potential to get where you want to be.
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On the former, I see it every day in my life, my consumption of marketing and entertainment and the area I live in. We are inundated with alcohol related media/advertising, businesses that near or solely exist because of it and the odd social reality tha
There was no way this book was getting more than a couple stars. While I appreciated some of his points on personal, corporate and social brainwashing, there was far too much repetition and outright untruths to totally buy in on the methodology.On the former, I see it every day in my life, my consumption of marketing and entertainment and the area I live in. We are inundated with alcohol related media/advertising, businesses that near or solely exist because of it and the odd social reality that every occasion must involve drinking. When the area you live in proudly opens a new craft brewery every other month, when the plethora of outdoor events and sponsored competitions are always preceded by or concluded with a drink fest - it's not hard to see the heavy and insistent influence and conviction of 'normalcy' in a life filled with alcohol consumption.
But the latter... he can call it DEVASTATION and poison all he wants as that's true for many people. But he also insists that any and all alcohol doesn't taste good to anyone ever, and if we think it does we're just lying to ourselves. There are many straight spirits, beers and wine varietals that I find unpleasant or foul. But a lovely Scotch, herbal gin, sweet cabernet, or bourbon barrel aged beer can taste fantastic. My taste buds aren't lying to me - it's actually very enjoyable to consume.
So my positive takeaway is a new clarity regarding my relationship with alcohol. It's a choice and not a necessity.
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This book, similarly to the Easyway to quit smoking, will exploit the brain-washing that tells all of us that drinking is good, normal and social, to make you aware that alcohol is indeed a poison.
I was an alcoholic, albeit not a final
This book, similarly to the Easyway to quit smoking, will exploit the brain-washing that tells all of us that drinking is good, normal and social, to make you aware that alcohol is indeed a poison.
I was an alcoholic, albeit not a final stage one - you could have called me social drinker, or heavy drinker, but once I realised I was actually addicted to the drug - to the point that I couldn't enjoy a social moment if alcohol wasn't present - then I decided to stop this mindless consumption.
This book helped me immensely, and I recommend it to anyone.
As with every drugs, addiction lurks right behind. Be mindful in what you put into your body, and in what quantity!
...more For this CBT (and any other CBT) to work, you have to actively question your cognitions, hence it does not work for a everyone. Not everyone succeeds at questioning their cognitions for one reason or another (even when they think they do).
If you are the type of person on whom CBT is effective, then this book is for you (it will work like a magic
This book is an effective CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). It can and it will immediately get you rid of your desire (the cravings) to drink alcohol.For this CBT (and any other CBT) to work, you have to actively question your cognitions, hence it does not work for a everyone. Not everyone succeeds at questioning their cognitions for one reason or another (even when they think they do).
If you are the type of person on whom CBT is effective, then this book is for you (it will work like a magic pill).
If you do not know what CBT is, or have never tried CBT, then you should definitely try it out.
If you have tried CBT 10 times with different therapists and none of them could help you, then this book won't be of any help (for this group of people, the book will feel very repetitive).
I had to read the book twice for it to work on me. That's just how it is with therapy sometimes.
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That said, I could see how this book would be very helpful on a journey to sobriety in many ways. So I'm not saying don't read it- I just had to speak my thoughts on the potential dangers of unmonitored withdrawal for some people.
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I didn't give it a 5 because I think he is a terrible writer, uses poor examples and arguments, and makes a lot of assumptions. Despite this, if you read it with an open mind and try to understand where he is coming from, you w
The reason I gave this book a 4 is because he does bring up some really good points that make you think about why you even drink in the first place. Like are there any actual positive reasons? He goes through many examples that make you think just a little bit differently.I didn't give it a 5 because I think he is a terrible writer, uses poor examples and arguments, and makes a lot of assumptions. Despite this, if you read it with an open mind and try to understand where he is coming from, you will get value out of reading this book.
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UPDATE: I have been fully sober since January 1, 2016.
If anyone out there is struggling with drinking and you want to slow down or quit, I suggest the audio version of this. The content itself seems unbelievably simple, and a little dated and regionally specific even, but after listening to it, I have no desire to drink. At all. Was it hypnotism? Subliminal suggestion? I don't know about you, but if it worked, I don't really care why in this case.UPDATE: I have been fully sober since January 1, 2016.
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Well, now that's out of my life… (this is not sarcasm, it really is that easy, but you've gotta read the whole book, in order. No cheating and just skimming the quotes).
Paraphrase: reasons don't drive behavior, choices do.
Quotes:
Like all confidence tricks, drug addiction can fool intelligent people. But once he has seen through a confidence trick, even a simpleton won't be fooled.
We actually start to grow old the moment we are born but we don't feel old for many years. Have you considered the p
Well, now that's out of my life… (this is not sarcasm, it really is that easy, but you've gotta read the whole book, in order. No cheating and just skimming the quotes).
Paraphrase: reasons don't drive behavior, choices do.
Quotes:
Like all confidence tricks, drug addiction can fool intelligent people. But once he has seen through a confidence trick, even a simpleton won't be fooled.
We actually start to grow old the moment we are born but we don't feel old for many years. Have you considered the possibility that the reason we can't work out exactly when we lost control is because we were never in control in the first place? Perhaps all the billions of drinkers in the world that lie between grandma and Uncle Ted are on the same downwards slide.
That's the nature of all such drugs: the more they drag you down, the greater the apparent need for them. The greater this need seems the more you have to try and justify it by pretending – to yourself and to everyone else – that you are in control. But why would you need to do that if you really did feel in control? You didn't lose control: YOU WERE NEVER IN CONTROL!
We have defined an alcoholic as a drinker who has lost control. Let's now adjust that definition to: A DRINKER WHO REALIZES THAT HE IS NOT IN CONTROL.
Put aside any self-recrimination for anything alcohol has caused you to do in the past. You haven't been abusing alcohol; on the contrary, it's been abusing you.
There is only one real culprit. No it's not alcohol, but the ignorance that surrounds it. It is this misconception that we drink because we choose to.
The only real answer is to remove the reasons that cause us to drink, or to drink too much.
I'm taking nothing away from you. Alcohol never did give you courage or confidence; you only thought it did. In reality, it has been imperceptibly and systematically destroying your courage and confidence for years.
Inebriation is a process of gradually deadening your senses until you are rendered insensible or, to use the vernacular, until you are blotto. True relaxation is having no worries, cares, tensions, stress or pain. It is impossible to feel truly relaxed, or anything else for that matter, if you have been rendered senseless.
You don't satisfy your thirst by having a drink. On the contrary, you create a little monster inside your body that has an insatiable thirst, and the more alcohol you give him the thirstier he gets! It is not the flawed genes of alcoholics that, if they take just one sip, makes them want another and another, ad infinitum; that is the effect alcohol has on every living creature, including you!
I took the attitude that I would rather have the shorter, sweeter and more exciting life of the drinker and smoker, than the longer more mundane life of the abstainer. I must emphasize that if that were the real choice, I would still be smoking and drinking heavily. Correction, I wouldn't be here.
I felt like an old man when I was 46 and I feel like a young boy now I'm in my seventies. What's more, I look forward, without trepidation, to many more happy and exciting years. The only material change between then and now is that I ceased to poison my body on a daily basis.
Surely a miracle is an event that is not beyond the powers or laws of nature, but beyond the comprehension of mankind.
So much of modern medicine is based on pills or medicines that remove the symptoms of the disease and not the cause.
Our taste-buds are flexible and we don't have to be slaves to them.
I would define cowardice as: failure to act as my conscience dictates, because of fear of physical injury or ridicule.
How could alcohol possibly make you feel truly brave? Bravery involves surmounting fear. So if you reduce the level of fear, doesn't it follow that it takes less bravery to surmount it?
Fear is a warning of danger, a warning which, as in the case of the burglar alarm, could either prove to be real or unfounded. To remove fear through any means other than removing the cause of the fear, is like believing that you put out the fire merely by turning off the alarm.
You cannot gain the trust of a wild animal until you have convinced it that you won't harm it physically. Likewise it is only natural that children should be wary of strangers until they are convinced that person will do them no harm, be it physical or mental. It was nice to learn that my shyness was quite normal and as a result I stopped worrying about it. It also helped me to realize that what I had always assumed to be stand-offishness by other people at social gatherings was really due to their own shyness. By concentrating on helping them to get over their shyness, I become oblivious to my own and get a great pleasure from breaking the ice.
It is an illusion that alcohol gives courage. It does remove fear and inhibitions: the illusion in this case is that this is a good thing.
When in England, I'm in the habit of driving on the left side of the road. When I cross to the Continent, I immediately break that life-long habit without any hassle whatsoever. I confound the platitude that habits are difficult to break.
Christmas can be a wonderful high, but do we get into a terrible panic because there is no Christmas for the rest of the year? The heroin addict has to go through that terrible ritual to try to end the awful lows that the first dose created and the following doses perpetuated.
What you really enjoy in an alcoholic drink is not the drink itself, but the ending of the irritation of wanting that drink. Non-drinkers enjoy that all the time.
People are suffering from the same disease, and that is the disease: the belief that alcohol does something for you and that you are dependent on that so-called benefit. You are cured once you see alcohol for what it is: a poison that does nothing whatsoever for anyone.
There is not one single item of hard evidence to show that a chemical defect or an addictive personality is the cause of anyone becoming addicted to any drug.
So if "normal drinkers" occasionally lose control and alcoholics occasionally gain it, the difference is surely not in an inherent physical or mental defect, but one of degree.
All drug addicts feel uncomfortable in the presence of people who aren't addicted: they know that what they are doing is stupid and people who aren't in the same prison remind them of their stupidity. For this reason alone drinking is an anti-social pastime. It creates barriers between drinkers and non-drinkers, at parties and other social functions.
The chief effect of alcohol is to deaden you to everything you are going through, and indeed to impair your critical faculties. That is why alcohol seriously compromises your ability to enjoy genuine pleasures.
This is the enigma of all drug addiction: because we know that we could enjoy social occasions and cope with stress before we got hooked, we sense that alcohol does nothing for us. But because we also know that we cannot enjoy certain occasions without it, we tend to close our minds to the fact.
Once you can see alcohol not as the pleasure, crutch or friend that we've been brainwashed to see it as, but as it really is DEVASTATION, then the fear about never, ever being allowed to drink again ceases to exist. I can remember this fear about never being able to drink again turning into the joy of never having to drink again.
There is a disease called alcoholism but there is nothing intrinsically or physically wrong with the alcoholic. Alcoholism is an entirely mental disease.
You cure your alcohol problem the moment the desire to consume alcohol is removed permanently.
Once you discovered that the ointment was the cause of the rash rather than the cure, you would be delighted that you had discovered both the cause and the cure, and you would never be tempted to use that ointment again.
It is essential that you realize that your failure to solve the problem isn't due to your physical make-up. It is due to your mental perception. But it is just as essential to realize that it is not an innate mental flaw like an addictive personality, and that with an open mind the flaw can be remedied.
But we don't drink for the reasons we shouldn't! We drink for the reasons that we do. And if you are convinced that you won't be able to enjoy social occasions or cope with stress without alcohol, then you won't be able to. The solution then is to remove all of the brainwashing and return to the blissful state we enjoyed before we fell into the trap.
The fact that certain people can't enjoy certain situations without alcohol doesn't mean that alcohol provides genuine pleasure. They were perfectly capable of enjoying those situations before they fell into the trap.
I tend to leave certain social functions earlier and not attend others at all. Initially this worried me. It seemed to indicate that I wasn't enjoying myself so much without drinking. I realized it was the exact opposite. The true reason was that they were boring functions. The only way I could suffer them previously was to inebriate myself.
I could never get hooked again even if I tried for the rest of my life; because what hooks you is not the drug itself, but the illusion that you get some crutch or pleasure from it. Like any other confidence trick, once you understand the trick, you can't possibly fall for it again.
Drinkers see alcohol as a tug-of-war. On one side fear: it's ruining my health and wealth. On the other side: it's my crutch and pleasure. In reality it is fear on both sides. There is no genuine crutch or pleasure. It is a case of: I can't enjoy life or even cope with it, without alcohol. The fears on both sides are caused by the alcohol: non-drinkers don't suffer from either set of fears. You didn't suffer from either set of fears before you had your first alcoholic drink.
Remember, any slight aggravation that you might suffer over the next few days is not because you stopped drinking, but because you started. Non-drinkers don't have this problem.
Typo location Location 1300-1301: "as you want to and whenever you what to." (what should be want)
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Read this as I'm 25 and I feel like it's time to start pursuing other ways of finding exhilaration on the weekends besides getting shitfaced.
Result: so far, I've been a lot more cautious about even drinking any hard alcohol. Carr's method effectively shoots down any argument you might have for drinking with one logical counter: it's literal poison. You didn't enjoy it when you were young
Lulls you into a false sense of security before demanding you once and for all give up ever drinking alcohol.Read this as I'm 25 and I feel like it's time to start pursuing other ways of finding exhilaration on the weekends besides getting shitfaced.
Result: so far, I've been a lot more cautious about even drinking any hard alcohol. Carr's method effectively shoots down any argument you might have for drinking with one logical counter: it's literal poison. You didn't enjoy it when you were young either, but you trained yourself to like it. You still have to water down spirits. But society tells us kids drink juice boxes and soft drinks and adults drink alcohol and that's just the way it has to be.
Another thing that really changed my mind about getting shitfaced was when he said, since you love alcohol and it reduces your senses sometimes to the point of unconsiousness, then you must think going a few rounds with McGregor in the Octagon is positively charming.
Don't really know what else to say about this book as I don't normally review self-help books. Can't even say for sure I'll stick to my guns. But it has filtered through on some level, which I think is what I needed. So based on that, yes it good.
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There are some really good points and new perspectives in this book that I honestly hadn't considered before. Unfortunately they are shadowed by some equally bad logic and absolutely absurd assertions, which makes it hard to trust the
Someone on Joe Rogan's podcast mentioned Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking and praised it. This was not the first time I'd heard good things about the book. Since I don't smoke anymore, I checked out if the author had written about alcohol. It turned out he had.There are some really good points and new perspectives in this book that I honestly hadn't considered before. Unfortunately they are shadowed by some equally bad logic and absolutely absurd assertions, which makes it hard to trust the author even on the better content.
For example, I can agree that pure alcohol tastes bad - but to argue with a straight face that therefore everything with alcohol tastes worse than without, is like saying that everything with salt tastes bad because salt by itself doesn't taste good.
For another example, at one point Carr argues that if alcohol really makes people happy, they should get happier the more they drink ad infinitum, and thus this can't be the case. By the same logic eating ice cream can't make a person happy, because eating a thousand ice creams will make him sick.
It's hard to believe that this book was written by a person who has been an actual alcoholic. The way he talks about alcohol sometimes reminded me of Steve Carell's character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin describing breasts to feel like bags of sand.
However, if one is ready to believe everything this book says without question, the method will most probably work. So if you find it helpful, more power to you - but I, for one, will not be recommending it to people who actually need help with quitting drinking.
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Now I'm free!
The book contains many great ideas, but also lots of bullshit. Some parts writer could have just skipped. But I'm giving this book 5 stars because it was a very effective way to rethink alcohol. It's a great way to understand why thinking of quitting drinking might be so hard. For me Friday evening drinks were sacred and if you would tell me before to stop buying Friday night beer, I'd laugh. That was a long awaited treat.
Now I'm free!
The book contains many great ideas, but also lots of bullshit. Some parts writer could have just skipped. But I'm giving this book 5 stars because it was a very effective way to rethink alcohol. ...more
For a better written book with the same content, go and find Annie Grace's The Naked Mind.
Terrible writing, but a very interesting and helpul read for people who are struggling with alcohol addiction.For a better written book with the same content, go and find Annie Grace's The Naked Mind.
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Fair disclosure: I only made it about 25% of the way through the book. Are there some nuggets of wisdom that could be gleaned if I had finished it? Probably. But I can't bear to read anything by someone so full of themselves. Mr. Carr is a salesman, who spends most of his time telling you how he's not a salesman, and how he's better than a salesman, while selling you something, and discrediting actual free programs.
Apart from h
Absolute drivel. Tl;dr: just read 'Lost Connections' by Hari instead.Fair disclosure: I only made it about 25% of the way through the book. Are there some nuggets of wisdom that could be gleaned if I had finished it? Probably. But I can't bear to read anything by someone so full of themselves. Mr. Carr is a salesman, who spends most of his time telling you how he's not a salesman, and how he's better than a salesman, while selling you something, and discrediting actual free programs.
Apart from his ego, this book is trash. It is perhaps 2 or 3 times too wordy, and worse yet, it harps on concepts without showing any evidence. Zero citations, in one of the most heavily studied realms of neurology and psychology, is just lazy writing. Every statistic begins "90% of...", which is a huge red flag. 90% of anything is pretty unusual in human matters, we're a divers bunch. Mr. Carr managed to find dozens of 90% statistics in the ~50 pages I read of this book, none of which were referenced to primary material, so it's safe to say the author made them up.
If you're interested in the psychology of over consumption or how to optimize your vices (as the title claims, and as the book fails to address), I suggest you read 'Lost Connections' by Johann Hari. There's a book with real research, references, first hand stories that keep the pages turning, and is written with heart, not dollar signs in mind.
At the end of the day, I bought the book, which I suspect is all Mr. Carr really cares about. I wish I had read just a single page before, so that I could have avoided this complete waste of paper.
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He has unique style of writing which really suits me. Maybe there were some weird examples and comparison here-and-there, but overall I really agree with him. I think the content of book can easily be mapped to any other addiction YOU consider harmful or not positive.
Let's see what happens from now on. :)
I stopped smoking because of this man, this was 4 years ago (I think). I've never craved cigarette (despite the first weeks), which is more of a habit than anything else.He has unique style of writing which really suits me. Maybe there were some weird examples and comparison here-and-there, but overall I really agree with him. I think the content of book can easily be mapped to any other addiction YOU consider harmful or not positive.
Let's see what happens from now on. :)
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I recommend this book for everyone who had a drink at least once a month or simply feels that they need to drink on any social event. It is quite repetitive, but I understand that it's necessary for person who is in the alcohol trap. Now I know that I really don't want to drink any of this poison, not even a bit 🙂
I recommend this book for everyone who had a drink at least once a month or simply feels that they need to drink on any social event. ...more
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