Frequently Asked Questions
How Allen Carr's Easyway Works
Allen Carr’s Easyway is the most successful smoking/vaping cessation method available and is quite unlike anything else because:
- You can stop smoking and vaping easily in one day.
- Withdrawal symptoms are reduced to the extent that they’re virtually imperceptible and therefore not a problem.
- There is no need for substitution activities like snacks or eating so there is no need for you to gain weight once you stop smoking with this method.
- This is the only method that truly treats and eliminates the mental addiction – eradicating that ‘But I enjoy smoking and miss it’ feeling – so you do not need willpower.
- It is completely natural: no need for pills, nicotine patches, gums or e-cigarettes so the therapy has no side-effects and no ongoing costs.
To sum it up, the biggest advantage of this method is that you are going to stop smoking easily, without pain or any sense of loss – and permanently.
Oh, and the great news is that you carry on smoking whilst you are quitting until you’re happy to put out your final cigarette.
In addition to that:
- You won't feel tense or nervous
- You will enjoy social occasions more
- You will be able to handle stress more easily
- You will be able to concentrate better
- You will not be tormented by a desire to smoke – even occasionally
- The quitting process will be quick, easy, and actually enjoyable.
There are a few ways of accessing Allen Carr’s Easyway method; the best-selling book, live face to face small group seminars or live online seminars.
So which is best for you?
- The book is the cheapest way of accessing the method and for the cost of a couple of packs of cigarettes you can free yourself easily. Ideal if you’re on a budget and enjoy reading.
- Our live seminars are the original and best way of accessing the method, boast the highest success rate and include a full money back guarantee and ongoing support.
- Live online seminars are perfect if you would prefer to quit from the comfort and safety of your own home. Just as effective as in-person with the same success rate, support and money back guarantee.
The seminars are engaging and positive. They offer a refreshing insight into the true nature of addiction and are hugely successful.
Upon arrival, or prior if online, we’ll ask you to complete a short questionnaire about your smoking history and then we’ll talk about smoking.
We’ll talk about your very first cigarette; how it tasted, how it felt.
We’ll talk about the special cigarettes and how they feel. The first of the day, after a meal, with a drink etc etc.
We’ll talk about casual smokers, heavy smokers, pack a day smokers, young smokers and older smokers.
We’ll explain how nicotine withdrawal really works and the difference between the physical vs the mental addiction.
The seminar will challenge what you currently believe and change the way you think about cigarettes, so rather than feeling that you’re ‘giving something up’, instead you’ll be truly glad that you no longer have to smoke any more.
Throughout the day there’ll be regular smoke breaks so when it’s time to smoke your final cigarette, you’ll be well and truly ready…maybe even excited!
The final cigarette will be followed by a light hypnotherapy so that you leave feeling calm and relaxed.
At some point during the 6 hour session there will be a moment when you truly understand that there is no reason for you to smoke any more. This is the moment you are free from the nicotine trap. 😀
Yes, in fact we encourage you to smoke or vape during the day so please bring your cigarettes and nicotine products with you.
This is not aversion therapy where you smoke until you feel ill; this is about understanding why you do smoke so by the time we get to the final cigarette, you’ll be ready to leave as a happy non-smoker.
Whilst cutting down will save you money and possibly have a lesser impact on your health, it won’t change your relationship with cigarettes.
Whenever I tried to cut down, it just made cigarettes appear even more special and as the wait time between them got longer, the urge to have one became even greater. In other words, I was even more desperate to have one!
Just carry on smoking as normal until your seminar date and come with an open mind and a packet of cigarettes.
This is a great question and one we get asked frequently.
The book is fantastic and reading it is enough for many smokers to get free of nicotine for life however the live online or in-person seminars are more effective for those who need a bit more help or support with quitting. Natalie, our most senior facilitator, read the book 3 times but only managed to quit for good after attending the seminar!
You can ask questions throughout the live seminar and you’ll get a real, live, straight answer from someone who has themselves used Allen Carr’s Easyway method to quit smoking and has received comprehensive training to become a qualified Allen Carr’s Easyway facilitator.
You’ll be shown a strategy to help you break through your fears and easily deal with anything that may previously have led to temptation. This is done using powerful psychology aimed at the conscious mind, reinforced at the end of the seminar by light hypnotherapy.
You get to share your experience (if you wish) with those of other participants, often realizing you are not the only one with your particular fears and worries.
Although you will be given everything you need in one seminar to become a happy non-smoker, if you should need support after you leave us, free back-up seminars and telephone support is available.
It is a common misconception that it takes willpower to quit smoking and that belief alone can make it difficult to quit. But does it really take willpower to quit, or is it a shift of perspective that is really needed?
You only need willpower not to do something that you actually want to do. If you don’t want to do something, it doesn’t take willpower not to do it.
Think of a food item that you don't like. How much willpower would it take you to say no to it? None!
The difficulty that many experience is because even though they want to quit, they still want to smoke because they believe that cigarettes give them some kind of pleasure or crutch.
Allen Carr’s Easyway shows you how your desire to smoke is based on a trick that nicotine played on your brain when you were starting out as a smoker. We can teach you how to correct your perspective with respect to smoking in a way that leaves you with no desire to smoke whatsoever. And with no desire to smoke, it doesn’t take any willpower to quit.
This is another question that often crops up at our live group seminars.
It’s great to have a hedonistic, devil-may-care, swashbuckling approach to life yet that doesn’t prevent us from taking sensible precautions.
The fact is that life’s extreme daredevils display incredible levels of precaution, attention to detail and care when they pack each other’s parachutes for sky-dives, prepare breathing apparatus for deep dives, or undertake meticulous calculations of speed, distance, and ‘point of impact’ for stunt-driving “accidents” staged for movies.
They simply don’t have a "what’s the point in taking care when I might get run over by a bus tomorrow" kind of attitude. They have the furthest thing from it.
In fact, you’re the same. When you cross the street you don’t close your eyes, hum the national anthem, and hope for the best do you? Of course not! You look both ways and cross the road with care. And you teach your children to do the same.
Why? Because you don’t go looking for trouble. If there’s a way of mitigating the risk of anything we do, then we do so.
The “I might get run over by a bus tomorrow” attitude is born out of frustration at previous failed attempts to quit. We’d far rather present our failure to get free as a devil-may-care attitude to life, but deep down we know the truth. The only reason we smoke is because we’ve failed to quit in the past and are afraid of trying again.
The good news is that once you understand how nicotine fools us into thinking it provides boundless pleasures and infinite support and benefits, you stop falling for it. It really is like a confidence trick. Once you know how it works, no way can you be fooled by it again.
Health-wise, it would be far better for you not to smoke anything. Your lungs don’t like it. So without condoning it, or recommending it, or supporting the use of illegal drugs in any way, I would suggest that if you use cannabis/marijuana and you want to continue using it, you should preferably switch to taking it in a calorie free edible or drinkable form (in tea for example).
That said, if you really wish to smoke it then you should never, ever, ever mix it with tobacco. You can have it neat, use a pipe, a bowl or hot knife it, but never mix it with tobacco. The only caveat to this advice is that you should never think that having quit smoking, and not mixed it with tobacco for a period, it might be ok to have a puff on someone else’s joint at a party. One puff of one cigarette, cigar, pipe, or joint with tobacco in and you will be a smoker again.
Seminar locations
If there isn’t a seminar in your location we are happy to travel to you but require a minimum of 6 people committed up front. Once we have that commitment we can open up a session to the public in your location. Depending on the location we might also ask you to cover travel expenses.
Our live online seminars are always available for you to quit from the comfort and safety of your own home.
Yes, we can run a private session for you in the comfort of your own home or at a venue of your choice.
The minimum cost for a private session is $2,380 for up to 4 people including the money back guarantee; additional people will be charged at the standard rate of $595.
Depending on the location we might also ask you to cover travel expenses.
Yes, an experienced Allen Carr quit smoking facilitator can come to your workplace or to a venue of your choosing.
Your investment includes:
- An initial 6 hour private seminar
- Free access to online follow-up sessions for employees who need them
- Free telephone support from qualified Allen Carr facilitators
The program works for all smokers regardless of age, gender or smoking/quitting history. There are no drugs, patches, lozenges, lasers or willpower, just a logical and sensible approach.
To make sure your staff members achieve success and you get the most from your investment, we offer corporate clients two guarantee options: our 3-month money-back guarantee or our 3-year unlimited session guarantee.
Contact us for a personalized quote or click here to read more.
success rates
Based on our 3 month Money Back Guarantee the success rate of Allen Carr’s Easyway clinics is over 90%; independent scientific studies published in peer reviewed journals indicate that even after 12 months the success rate is over 50%; and an independent randomized controlled trial indicates that the success rate is significantly higher than the established national health service program against which it was tested (which involves the use of nicotine products).
In reality for you it’s either 100% or 0% and to give yourself the best possible chance, we recommend committing to the full program and attending the free follow up sessions if required.
If you’re committed enough to do that and are still smoking, we’ll genuinely refund your money.
All smokers are under the illusion that they enjoy smoking or that cigarettes/vapes provide them with some sort of crutch or pleasure, or that life will be incomplete without them, therefore all smokers have a psychological addiction to smoking.
Allen Carr’s Easyway addresses both the physical and psychological addiction so yes, the method will work whether you smoke 1 a day or 100 a day.
If you relapse or are struggling at all, the first thing you need to do is get in touch! Often a quick phone call can get you back in the right frame of mind.
If you still feel you need more help, free live online follow-up sessions are included in your seminar investment; as many as you want/need to attend within 3 months. We also offer free phone support for as long as you need it.
YES. The good news is that the method did work for you. The bad news is that at some point you got overconfident or casual about cigarettes and smoking. The chances are you thought you’d try “just one” or forgot why you wanted to quit smoking in the first place or mistakenly reached for a cigarette at a time of crisis and stress. In these circumstances it can be hard for the book to work its “magic” a second time. The seminar will set you free – and more importantly – help you stay free this time.
The seminar can help because you can ask questions as they come to mind. And you’ll get a real, live, straight answer from someone who has themselves used Allen Carr’s Easyway method and has received comprehensive training to become a qualified Allen Carr’s Easyway facilitator.
You’ll be shown a strategy to help you break through your fears and easily deal with anything that may previously have led to temptation.
There is also the money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose!
The feeling that most smokers describe as nicotine withdrawal has little to do with nicotine. It is a physical symptom of a psychological process. It occurs when we want to smoke but can’t. This conflict creates feelings of deprivation, sacrifice, anxiety and stress.
Allen Carr’s method removes the desire to smoke and with no desire to smoke, there is no conflict and the withdrawal process becomes easy.
Many ex-smokers say they feel nothing when they quit smoking using Allen Carr’s Easyway. No painful withdrawals, no anxiety, no fear or stress. Just a sense of calm.
Rest assured, you’ll be the same person. From the moment you stub out your final cigarette, you will be a happy non-smoker. You will enjoy social occasions more without having to worry about the need to smoke. Your ability to cope with stress will improve as you realize you have no further need for a crutch. Physically, within 20 minutes of quitting, the health benefits begin!
Absolutely. When you leave a seminar you are free from the tricks that nicotine plays on the brain and you will not want to smoke again. This means you are free to socialize with smokers even while they smoke and not feel the desire to join them. We know that’s hard to believe but take our word for it . Whether you’re surrounded by smokers at work or at home or throughout your social life, you’ll be a happy non-smoker and won’t be tempted to smoke. Even better, you won’t turn into one of those awful “reformed smokers” – someone who quits smoking and subsequently hassles their smoking friends. Your friends, colleagues, and family will be amazed how easily you’ll cope with life as a happy non-smoker and you won’t feel like you’re missing out on anything once you quit.
Remember, you are not going to stop living; you will be freeing yourself from an addiction that has controlled you since you started smoking.
Non-smokers enjoy meals, drinks, holidays and social occasions, and so will you. You have just forgotten what it’s like to be a non-smoker.
There is no reason to gain weight when you quit smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway because you won’t miss smoking and therefore won’t be looking for a substitute or replacement.
We usually hear more stories of clients losing weight because they become more active and feel energized.
You may believe that smoking relieves stress or helps you cope with anxiety. Anyone who believed this would have a desire to smoke in such situations and that desire to smoke would make it difficult to quit. But does smoking really relieve stress, or is there something else going on?
Well, if smoking relieved stress you could reasonably expect smokers to be able to cope with stress better than non-smokers and this just isn’t the case. In fact, research indicates that smokers are substantially more stressed and suffer far higher levels of anxiety than non-smokers.
Allen Carr’s Easyway helps you understand the trick that nicotine plays on the brain. This trick cons the smoker’s brain into seeing the cigarette as a stress reliever when in fact it is a stress creator. We can completely remove your desire to smoke in a stressful situation, and with no desire to smoke, it doesn’t take willpower to stop.
cost & guarantee
The price for an individual is $595 which includes unlimited follow-up sessions for the initial 3 months plus a full money-back guarantee.
Discounts are available for military, front line healthcare workers and first responders. Please ask.
For the average smoker in America, this is the cost of just a couple of months of cigarettes.
Many companies use Allen Carr’s Easyway to help them achieve a smoke free workplace, so go ahead and ask.
We can tailor a package that works for you so why not invite your HR department to look at our corporate page or ask us for a personalized quote.
If within 3 months from the date of your first seminar you are still smoking, vaping or drinking alcohol and decide not to stop, your fee will be refunded in full without inquisition. Your word will be taken on trust. However, we would request you on your part to be genuine in your desire to stop.
This guarantee will be invalidated in any of the following events:
(1) That you cancel, postpone or fail to attend any seminar or arrive over fifteen minutes late for any seminar.
(2) That you fail to attend at least two free follow-up seminars within three months of the date of your first seminar (the second and third seminars are not a repeat of the first seminar and last approximately 2-4 hours each)
Should you stop smoking, vaping or drinking alcohol for 3 months or longer but start again at a later date, you may attend any number of follow-up seminars on payment of half the standard fee. However, once you have not attended a full first seminar in the preceding 12 months you would need to attend the first seminar again, the standard fee will be payable and the guarantee will apply.
Please note that follow-up seminars are only available online which requires a webcam, laptop or tablet device and a strong internet connection.
nicotine
When tobacco smoke or vapour is inhaled, nicotine is absorbed through the mucosal linings in the nose, mouth and lungs and travels through the bloodstream to the brain. When sniffed, snussed (via pouches) or chewed it is absorbed through membranes in the mouth and nose. It then travels through the body, via the bloodstream to the brain. It is also possible to absorb it through the skin.
When smoked nicotine reaches the brain in about seven seconds. It is about the same when vaped, around 8-20 seconds. Nicotine reaches the central nervous system in about 3-5 minutes when tobacco is chewed.
Neuroscience still hasn’t fully understood how nicotine affects the brain or how addiction works but more is being learnt all the time.
Is there a high?
Some smokers claim that the feeling of dizziness or light-headedness after they haven’t smoked for a while is like a “high” – but when you think about it – it isn’t is it? It’s just dizzy and you can get exactly the same feeling by spinning around on the spot for ten seconds.
Does nicotine relieve anxiety or make you feel depressed?
Some people claim that smoking helps with depression and anxiety but if this were true then surely smokers would be less anxious and less depressed than non-smokers? Yet research shows the exact opposite – that they are much more anxious and more depressed than non-smokers. Tragically there’s no doubt that a good portion of people who live with depression and anxiety are drawn into smoking by the flawed belief that nicotine might help them handle their condition – that’s all part of the brainwashing.
How does nicotine affect dopamine?
Humans are programmed to seek out dopamine elevating activities to ensure good health, happiness and longevity/survival. Examples are making love, eating, listening to music, hugging children/animals/your partner/a friend, socialising, and exercising. These are natural/normal/healthy activities/behaviours that the normally functioning “reward system” is designed to re-enforce.
Back when smoking was at its peak, we didn’t know how nicotine and other drugs affected the brain. Since then we have learned a great deal about a function of the brain known colloquially as reward pathways.
In the brain dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter – a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. The reward pathways play a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated, or re-enforced behaviour. Can you imagine the disruption that can be caused to this natural, instinctive process by the introduction of a highly addictive drug, one which appears to relieve the discomfort created by the first dose, and every subsequent dose?
In 2019 one of the world’s leading academics in the field of nicotine addiction, Professor Robert West stated publicly, “Nicotine causes dopamine release by nerve cells that make up the “reward system” in the brain, including the nucleus accumbens– a part of the brain involved in learning to do things. The dopamine release tells the brain to pay attention to the situation and what the smoker was just doing – and do the same thing next time they’re in that same situation. So, a link is forged between the impulse to smoke and situations in which smoking normally happens”. Importantly, Professor West went on to add, “Crucially, the smoker doesn’t have to feel any pleasure or enjoyment for this to work.”
How does nicotine make you feel?
A smoker’s first experience of nicotine is normally at worst extremely unpleasant, and at best, a little unpleasant. For the sake of understanding this, smokers have to ignore the feelings aroused by the circumstances surrounding their first cigarette; the peer pressure & praise, the feeling of rebelliousness, the feeling of fitting in, the sense of appearing stylish, sophisticated, or macho. None of those are caused by the introduction of nicotine to the body, they’re all to do with the environment.
How does nicotine produce a feeling of pleasure?
So, most smokers remember the physical effect of their first cigarettes as being unpleasant and this alone disproves any notion that nicotine’s initial introduction to the body and brain caused “pleasure”. Whatever impact nicotine has on dopamine levels when first introduced to the body – it’s certainly not pleasurable. In fact, most peoples’ first cigarette is so unpleasant and unrewarding it convinces them that they could never become addicted. The reason smokers develop a deep-seated belief that smoking IS pleasurable is explained by Professor West perfectly.
Nicotine withdrawal is the result of the first ever cigarette a nicotine addict smoked. It is momentarily “relieved” by the next cigarette. The brain concludes, non-consciously, “next time you feel nicotine withdrawal – do that again!”. In other words, the behaviour of lighting a cigarette in response to experiencing nicotine withdrawal is reinforced every time a smoker lights a cigarette regardless of the fact that the next cigarette will also cause nicotine withdrawal.
Whether a smoker is in a happy situation, a concentration situation, a sad situation, a stress situation, a relaxing situation, a boring situation, or a lonely situation they simultaneously experience nicotine withdrawal, and respond by lighting a cigarette, thereby immediately feeling better than a moment before and oblivious to the fact that that cigarette will perpetuate nicotine withdrawal once it is smoked .
It’s no wonder they think cigarettes help them to be happy or to concentrate, or to cope with sadness and stress, and to help them relax or cope with boredom or loneliness! It’s got nothing to do with genuine pleasure or genuine improvement of mood. And every single time they light a cigarette in one of those situations – the brain concludes, non-consciously, “next time that happens – do that again!”.
Non-smokers don’t have to deal with any of the mental and physical aggravation of being addicted to nicotine. They don’t suffer nicotine poisoning, nicotine withdrawal or the aberrational/unnatural impact nicotine has on dopamine and their behaviour.
Smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing the risk of conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease (damaged blood vessels) and cerebrovascular disease (damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain).
Once in the brain it mimics acetycholine a natural neurotransmitter which naturally occurs in the brain activating particular types of acetycholine receptors.
Acetycholine is known to help maintain healthy respiration, heart function, muscle movement and cognitive function such as memory.
Nicotine increases adrenaline which in turn increases blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate.
A drug is defined as a medicine or a substance which has a psychological effect after being ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.
How addictive are cigarettes?
Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. You can suffer from cigarette addiction otherwise known as smoking addiction, or you can suffer from vaping addiction. Of course any product that contains nicotine will be addictive, including nicotine patches and gum, inhalators, lozenges, mouth sprays, nose sprays, chewing tobacco (or dip), and snus (otherwise known as pouches).
Addiction is the term commonly applied to maladaptive drug seeking behaviour, often taken despite knowledge of negative health consequences5. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that nicotine meets the established criteria for a drug that produces addiction, specifically, dependence and withdrawal.
Nicotine dependence is an anomaly. Although the phrase is commonly used by doctors and academics it is a statement of fact that no-one is dependent on nicotine. No-one needs nicotine in order to function properly. The fact is that nicotine makes addicts FEEL dependent on it. This is a very different state of affairs to BEING dependent on it.
How much nicotine and cigarettes does it take to get addicted?
It takes just one puff of one cigarette, cigar, pipe, vape, or joint with tobacco in, to cause someone to become addicted. The same goes for snus and chewing tobacco.
There have been many studies conducted looking at all the different parameters such as gender, social structure, socioeconomic variables, parental and peer smoking, academic achievement, ethnicity, mental health, and many others to see how these affected chances of nicotine addiction. Research now postulates that the progression is essentially universal.
What does nicotine do to your body?
Nicotine is the fundamental cause of addiction among tobacco users. Nicotine adversely affects many organs as shown in human and animal studies. Its biological effects are widespread and extend to all systems of the body including cardiovascular, respiratory, renal and reproductive systems. Nicotine has also been found to be carcinogenic in several studies. It promotes tumorigenesis by affecting cell proliferation, angiogenesis and apoptotic pathways. It causes resistance to the chemotherapeutic agents. Any substantive beneficial effect of nicotine on human body is yet to be proven.
Is nicotine bad for you?
Undoubtedly, nicotine is bad for you. It doesn’t occur naturally in our diet (other than tiny traces in aubergine/eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, and green peppers). Nicotine is poisonous and can easily kill when consumed in large doses. As little as 1 teaspoon of liquid nicotine, as used in vape juice, can be fatal for the average 26-pound toddler.
Negative effects of nicotine
Aside from health issues – being addicted to nicotine in any form isn’t fun. It controls what the addict does, when they do it, and how they feel when they’re doing it. The impact of nicotine addiction, and repeated failed attempts to break it, causes issues with self-esteem, self-respect, as well as relationships. This is all quite aside from the costs involved.
Dangers of nicotine
There are the health risks, the cost, the slavery of being addicted, the risk of overdose, as well as the impact on the body of whatever carrier is used to deliver the nicotine (cigarettes, vape, chewing tobacco etc).
Nicotine health risks
Nicotine is highly addictive as shown above and has many side-effects not least the desire to smoke cigarettes, chew tobacco or vape.
The side-effects connected with smoking and vaping are covered in a separate page side effects of smoking.
Nicotine side effects
Blood circulation
Taking nicotine results in blood vessels constricting and narrowing, limiting the blood that flows to your organs as well as thickening of the blood.
Short term
Increased tendency to clot
Increased blood pressure and heart rate
Long term
Atherosclerosis (plaque forms on the artery wall)
Increase in size of aorta
How does nicotine affect the brain
Taking nicotine affects the efficiency of the limbic and paralimbic and paralimbic areas of the brain. These regions are responsible for attention, memory and learning.
Short term
Dizziness
Poor sleeping
Long term
Bad dreams and nightmares
Headaches
Heart
Taking nicotine results in blood vessels constricting and narrowing, limiting the blood that flows to the heart.
Short term
Chest pain
Uneven heartbeats
Long term
Increased risk of stroke
Constriction of the coronary artery
Gastrointestinal system
Nicotine interacts with all parts of the digestive system leading to many harmful effects.
Short term
Hiccups or belching
Dry mouth
Nausea
Long term
Diarrhea
Constipation
Heartburn
Ulceration
Reproductive system
Nicotine damages all parts of the reproductive system in both men and women including the genetic material of sperm cells.
Short term
Sperm and semen quality suffer
Egg cells damage
Affects the menstrual cycle making it more irregular
Long term
Decrease the sperm count
Reduction in the volume of sperm
Changes to cervical mucus (affects how sperm reaches the egg)
Problems with fallopian tubes
Infertility in both men and women
Other
Taking nicotine has harmful effects on other parts of the body not least the respiratory system.
Short term
Throat or mouth soreness
Watery eyes or mouth
Coughing
Sneezing
Suppression of the immune system
Long term
Changes in taste
Wheezing
Narrowing of the lung airways
Development of emphysema
Pancreatic cancer
Breast cancer
Increased risk of developing cataracts
Increased risk of chronic kidney disease
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