Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget patches... doctors should prescribe this book, 1 Feb 2002
If you are a smoker, invest in this book. (Make sure you keep your own copy... others will want to borrow it, but you need to keep your own to reread occasionally.) I had given up smoking a couple of times... the 1st time for 6 weeks, the 2nd time I cut down, then gave up for 3 months. I had a stressful day at work and took a wee drag of someone else's cigarette... not long afterwards I was back to 20 a day. "That's it" I thought, "I'm destined to be a smoker." I was really annoyed with myself. Anyway, later that year, in November, I picked up this book in my mother's and started to read it - after a couple of pages I couldn't put it down. She explained so many things about my addiction I hadn't understood. I frequently found myself thinking "That's SO true... but I would have never worked it out for myself in 100 years!" This book is great because you read it, practice what it preaches, and you KNOW when you are ready to give up and are totally confident from day one - which for me was January 2nd. There are no battles with your willpower, no jealousy of your friends who are still smoking... you will be able to go out and have a drink and cope with people smoking all around you without wanting to grab the cigarette out of their hand. You will welcome cravings and be able to deal with them! (Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?) You will not need patches, or to substitute cigarettes with food (when I was off them for 3 months I did put on weight, but not this time). It totally takes the difficulty out of the process. The beauty of it is that you can also use this method to give up other things too, eg alcohol or cannabis etc.
So how does this book achieve all this? Well, it explains the nature of the psychological addiction, for example why it's normal to have a strong craving for a cigarette maybe 10 years after you've given up! Secondly, it teaches you a different way of thinking. You don't think "I can never have a cigarette again!"... this gives you that familiar feeling of being deprived of your cigarettes... setting you up for failure, as you jealously watch others smoking, and eventually like I did, you crack and "reward" yourself with a cigarette. Instead you are aware that of course you can have a cigarette - you can have a cigarette any time you like, if you want to! When you have a craving, you acknowledge the craving and picture succumbing to it. You have the choice to smoke if you want to. But at this point you realise that if you take even one puff, you will start smoking again... and you always choose not to have that puff. Because you are only choosing to refuse one craving at a time - and, crucially, you will have practiced this so often BEFORE you give up that you'll know you can do it- it is actually easy, with no feelings of deprivation.
I've been off cigarettes for 5 years now and I can honestly say it was easy... and yet I never understood before I read this book exactly how addicted I was to cigarettes! I've bought this book for several people and recommended it to many. Some people said they'd prefer to give up using patches/willpower than read this book... I say read it and save yourself a lot of hassle. I look at people who've been smoking all of their lives and think "If only they knew!"
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
JUST DO IT!, 3 Dec 2002
If you're the sort of person who thinks that your life depends on cigarettes and without them, there would be no fun in your life and you'd be....well, LESS than you are now and if you didn't smoke then you wouldn't be YOU....if you know what I mean - then this book is your key to freedom!
I smoked 40 a day for 25 years.....sometimes more if I was drinking or having a good time.....I LOVED everything about smoking. I never wanted to stop at all. I smoked through colds and coughs, I stood outside buildings in the rain, puffing away. I hated going to friends houses where I couldn't smoke. I never went anywhere without a packet of fags, money to buy another packet just in case I should run out, plus a lighter AND matches (after all - there's nothing worse than a fag you can't light!) Yet, deep down, I despised myself for wanting and needing to smoke and although I didn't want to give up - I sometimes dreamt about that elusive day in the future when I would wake up one morning and not want to smoke anymore!
My sister bought me this book for Xmas one year - she'd sucessfully given up using the unique method Gillian Riley teaches in this book. I stuffed it on the bookshelf and it took me over THREE YEARS to open it up, let alone read it. When I finally did read it, it made such perfect sense - I decided to give Gillian Riley's method of stopping smoking a go. One fag at a time.......
I've not smoked for almost ten years now and I never thought I would be able to get through even a couple of hours without my beloved fags. I'm amazed at myself and eternally grateful to Gillian Riley for showing me the way to smoke-free-dom.
Stopping smoking was THE most important thing I've ever done. It wasn't easy - but without this fantastic book - I firmly believe I would still be puffing away. I can't praise this book enough. If there's was ever a book that deserves every smoker in the country's attention - it's this one.
You wanna be FREE? Then get this book - read it - and as they say - JUST DO IT!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This works - I know, 31 Jul 2001
Came back to look for this book as I am recommending it to a friend. After 10 years of smoking and numerous attempts to stop I read an earlier edition of this book, and once I applied its techniques I have not smoked another cigarette since. It has now been nearly 10 years off the weed. It really works. Deals with the psychology of addiction in a brilliant straightforward manner. Thinking about it I really owe Gillian Riley a lot of thanks. The best money I ever spent was on buying this book.
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