This probably belongs under the "What We're Reading" Forum, so I'll post something about it there, too. But I thought I'd bring it up here just so we could discuss it a little more --
Keep in mind I'm not promoting this book, nor do I agree with it 100%. But I do think it brings up some interesting ideas, and I may incorporate some of it into my MWO program (specifically into my hypno suggestions).
While browsing a bookstore recently, the title The Easy Way to Stop Drinking caught my attention. Of course with a title like that, how could I resist? The author, Allen Carr, describes the method by which he stopped chain smoking and drinking (alcoholically) 23 years ago -- with no withdrawals, no cravings, and no regrets.
His thesis is pretty simple. Alcohol is a poisonous, addictive substance, just like nicotine, cocaine, or heroin. We do not get any true benefit from it: the only reason we believe we do is because it is legal and socially acceptable, and we have been brainwashed by our society (90% of which uses alcohol) to believe that it provides true relaxation, courage, etc. In reality, it does nothing whatsoever for us except to dehydrate us and rob us of our faculties. There is a disease called alcoholism, but there is nothing physically different between an alcoholic and a "normal" drinker -- we are just people who have progressed farther down the path of abusing the same drug. Why do we single alcohol out and classify users into "normal" and "abnormal" users, when we would never do so with heroin, cocaine, or even nicotine? Remove the brainwashing -- remove the idea that you get some benefit from using alcohol -- and you have no reason to crave it.
Now I'm not so sure that it can be that simple, at least not for most of us. But to look back 40 years and think about how smoking was socially acceptable, and even encouraged, and how we see it now for what it is (a dangerous drug addiction) makes me see how thin the difference is between one drug and another. The only difference is that alcohol consumption is still socially accpetable, and smoking is not. So why do we (alcoholics, recovering alcoholics, problem drinkers -- take your pick) work so hard to hang onto the idea that we can (or should even want to) drink "moderately"?
Anyway -- like I said, I don't necessarily agree with him 100%, but I have found some useful tidbits that I plan to incorporate into my hypnotic suggestions. And it give me more food for thought as to whether my eventual goal should be long-term abstinence or moderation.
Mike
Keep in mind I'm not promoting this book, nor do I agree with it 100%. But I do think it brings up some interesting ideas, and I may incorporate some of it into my MWO program (specifically into my hypno suggestions).
While browsing a bookstore recently, the title The Easy Way to Stop Drinking caught my attention. Of course with a title like that, how could I resist? The author, Allen Carr, describes the method by which he stopped chain smoking and drinking (alcoholically) 23 years ago -- with no withdrawals, no cravings, and no regrets.
His thesis is pretty simple. Alcohol is a poisonous, addictive substance, just like nicotine, cocaine, or heroin. We do not get any true benefit from it: the only reason we believe we do is because it is legal and socially acceptable, and we have been brainwashed by our society (90% of which uses alcohol) to believe that it provides true relaxation, courage, etc. In reality, it does nothing whatsoever for us except to dehydrate us and rob us of our faculties. There is a disease called alcoholism, but there is nothing physically different between an alcoholic and a "normal" drinker -- we are just people who have progressed farther down the path of abusing the same drug. Why do we single alcohol out and classify users into "normal" and "abnormal" users, when we would never do so with heroin, cocaine, or even nicotine? Remove the brainwashing -- remove the idea that you get some benefit from using alcohol -- and you have no reason to crave it.
Now I'm not so sure that it can be that simple, at least not for most of us. But to look back 40 years and think about how smoking was socially acceptable, and even encouraged, and how we see it now for what it is (a dangerous drug addiction) makes me see how thin the difference is between one drug and another. The only difference is that alcohol consumption is still socially accpetable, and smoking is not. So why do we (alcoholics, recovering alcoholics, problem drinkers -- take your pick) work so hard to hang onto the idea that we can (or should even want to) drink "moderately"?
Anyway -- like I said, I don't necessarily agree with him 100%, but I have found some useful tidbits that I plan to incorporate into my hypnotic suggestions. And it give me more food for thought as to whether my eventual goal should be long-term abstinence or moderation.
Mike
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