Introduction

Welcome to The Easyway to Stop Smoking blog.

My name is Damian O'Hara and I head up Allen Carr's Easyway organisation in the US and Canada. I am a former smoker who, after countless miserable attempts to quit using just about every method under the sun, eventually did so easily and enjoyably at an Allen Carr's Easyway seminar in 2001. Today I have the privilege of helping other smokers achieve this wonderful change in their lives.

I decided to write this blog for a couple of reasons: firstly, there is a real lack of good quality information for smokers wanting to quit. Most of the information out there is just a re-hash of the cliches that the health establishment keep trotting out - that quitting is difficult (harder to quit than heroin, they keep telling us), that withdrawal from nicotine is brutal and that life as a non-smoker will never be as enjoyable. This is absolute garbage and I wanted to begin to put another, more productive view forward.

Secondly, most of the information comes from people within the medical community who themselves have never smoked. Whilst I have the greatest respect for doctors, I think it's easier to learn from someone who has been there than from someone who hasn't.

Thirdly, most of the information focuses on how bad smoking is for you, but it doesn't tell you how to quit. This is worse than useless. Smokers know that smoking is bad for them, but that's not why they smoke. The challenge is not to understand why we shouldn't smoke (we've known that for years and if that knowledge was enough to cure us, we would already be non-smokers); it's to understand why we do smoke and to deal with those reasons.

Fourthly, seeing as tobacco control is now fairly high up on the political radar these days, I wanted a forum within which we could comment on matters regarding tobacco control, tobacco companies, government and smokers.

Finally, I want people to know that there is a viable alternative to white-knuckling your way through yet another miserable quit. That there is a simple, cheap, drug-free way to stop smoking that has been around for 25 years and has helped millions of smokers just like you to quit easily.

Our objective is to inform, inspire, educate and entertain. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it...