The Growing Worldwide Quit Smoking Team – Scotland

We are very lucky to have a variety of hugely motivated, highly dedicated, and extremely capable people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. It can often be of interest to smokers who want to stop to hear how our team around the world has been gathered and this is the fourth in a series of features that look at the various journeys that members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Facilitator team have taken; from being some of the most accomplished and active smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Paul Melvin, Allen Carr’s Easyway Scotland writes:

I fell into the smoking trap around the age of twelve. All my friends were doing it and just to be one of the gang I puffed away trying not to cough my lungs up. My father died at the age of 47 years old due to smoking and by this time I was a confirmed 10 a day smoker at the ripe old age of 16 years old. My family arranged an appointment with the doctor for me to try to persuade me to stop smoking. I looked at the doctor with a blank expression as he warbled on about lung cancer and heart disease. I thought “I can stop when I want to” but I didn’t realise then that I was no more in control of smoking than a fly who lands on the predatory pitcher plant for the first time and thinks it can fly away at any point. Little did I know I’d be back at the same surgery 12 years later begging the doctor to free me from nicotine addiction.

Fast forward to that point at 28 years old and I’d become a chain-smoking physical wreck. By this time I was incapable of running and coughed the contents of my lungs up every morning knowing it was going to kill me. At this point I decided it was time to quit or die in a few years and this is where my nightmare began.
I began by trying to use willpower to quit but this was a nightmare. My first few attempts were scuppered after one hour or so. I’d put myself into a blind panic at the mere thought of losing what I thought of as “my little friend” so I decided to seek the help of my doctor.
I couldn’t believe that the doctor wanted to prescribe me more nicotine and this would seemingly help me it to quit. It didn’t!!!! I’d take the patches off to have a cigarette then try unsuccessfully to stick them back on leaving a trail of fallen nicotine patches wherever I went. I soon gave up on this strategy thinking I’d never be free.
I also tried Laser Therapy where someone fires a laser gun into your ear and this supposedly makes you quit. I was desperate for a cigarette the moment I left the building. Another failed attempt and waste of my time and money. I’d become resigned to the possibility of spending the rest of my short life as a hopeless smoker.

One day my mother said a friend had told her about a stop smoking method that I should try. It was called Allen Carr’s Easyway. Although they had stop smoking clinics all over the world I thought it would be just another waste of time but two things made me think again. One was that you could smoke throughout the seminar/session (halleluiah) and the other was that the method provided a money-back guarantee. I really didn’t think there was anything to lose by giving it a try.
I gave the clinics a call and found out that the therapist was an ex-smoker. This helped to convince me to give it a go. I arrived at the session with much trepidation and a full pack of twenty cigarettes.
I sat in a comfy chair for the next five hours and puffed my way through most of the pack and learned the truth about nicotine addiction. This took away my fear of stopping and toward the end I started to get really excited. I went through a ritual of smoking a final cigarette and knew at that moment – I was free. I was still apprehensive about the physical withdrawal pangs though…. I needn’t have worried.. The slight feeling of emptiness I felt later that day was actually enjoyable as I knew my body was kicking out the nicotine for the last time.

Since that day 8 years ago I’ve never ever contemplated having another cigarette and once again feel great about life. This is what Allen Carr’s Easyway has done for me. I considered myself the most hopeless smoker in the world. If it can do that for me – anyone can do it!
I’ve also used Allen Carr’s Easyway as a catalyst to achieving other seemingly impossible feats in my life such as running my own business and pushing myself academically to limits I didn’t think possible. My greatest feat though, was studying to become a therapist for Allen Carr’s Easyway and after 18 months of arduous training becoming part of a global family of Allen Carr stop smoking therapists around the world.

For more information about Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Clinics and how to find it easy to stop smoking click on your country’s flag on www.allencarrr.com
Did you find it easy to quit smoking? Maybe you could help to spread the word?
Do you know of anyone who you would like to help stop smoking? Tell them about this story 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).