The Growing Worldwide Quit Smoking Team – Australia

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway

We are so fortunate to have an incredible array of highly motivated, dedicated, and hugely capable people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. Often people are surprised to hear how our global team has been assembled and this is the second installment of a series of features that look at the various journeys “Allen Carr people” have taken; from being some of the most prolific smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leading experts on stopping smoking.

Natalie Clays, Allen Carr’s Easyway New South Wales, Australia writes:

I’d tried everything over 20 years to stop smoking. I had drifted into smoking – eventually lighting up regularly while hiding in the bushes at school at the age of fifteen.

Throughout my twenty years of smoking I fell into every category or smoking type. For the most part I was just your average pack a day smoker – a couple before work, one every hour at work and then back to back cigarettes at night. But throughout the years I also did the “secret smoker” and “chain smoker” thing too.

In a bid to cut down I became a casual smoker, only smoking with a drink and at weekends, but this just made me drink more as an excuse to be able to smoke. The thought of quitting was always at the back of my mind somewhere but it never quite seemed to make it to the front. Somehow it just never seemed to be the right time, or that’s what I told myself after every failed attempt.

I tried patches maybe a dozen times. I went to see a hypnotherapist (actually I went to see three – I was desperate) and every single time I’d walk out feeling positive and then light up a few hours later. I had gum, herbs, lasers, needles, inhalators, lozenges and some crazy tablets that made me feel even more depressed, but nothing that helped me to stop. Every time I just felt so empty and couldn’t stop thinking about smoking. I decided that I’d prefer to be a smoker and happy, rather than miserable and deprived and not allowed to smoke.

A friend told me about Allen Carr. “It’s amazing,” she boasted, as I puffed away in front of her, envying her ability to drink a glass of wine without it bothering her. I had tried everything else, what did I have to lose?

I was very nervous when I arrived at the clinic on 21st June 2003. What if it doesn’t work? Will I be one of their few failures? What if it does work? I’ll never be able to smoke again! Five hours later I walked out feeling….feeling….I didn’t know how I felt. Had it worked? How would I know? What was going to happen next? And that was it. Nothing happened. No awful withdrawals, no anxiety, no inability to function, I just simply didn’t smoke anymore. No desire, no cravings, no longing. In fact I can’t think of anything worse than having to smoke a cigarette.

That stop smoking session changed my life. It had such a huge effect on me that not only did I quit smoking, but I also quit my job. I trained as an Allen Carr therapist and I now have the wonderful role of showing other smokers just how easy it can be to quit, once you understand how the smoking trap works. It’s wonderful to be part of the worldwide team across more than 45 countries.

Did you find it easy to stop smoking? Maybe you could help to spread the word?

Do you know someone who you want to help stop smoking? Tell them about this feature and if they mention it when they book a session at any one of our stop smoking clinics across the world they can obtain a 10% discount (not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion).