QUIT SMOKING/VAPING BOOKS

Most smoking cessation methods emphasise how difficult it is to stop, list the awful withdrawal symptoms you are likely to suffer and warn you of the risks of cancer and heart disease. They then usually recommend the hindrance of nicotine replacement therapy (really nicotine maintenance) or drugs. You’re defeated before you start.

In contrast, based on a doctor’s actual experience of successfully treating hundreds of smokers, this book shows it’s easy to stop if you know how. You will find out why you really smoke, and once you understand that, you won’t want to do it anymore! It’s explained why nicotine products or drugs should not be used, there are no horrible pictures and willpower is not required.

This book sets out to reproduce in written form what takes place in Dr Symonds’s face-to-face stop smoking sessions that have proved so successful with hundreds of smokers; it is the distillation of his twenty years of experience.

The Symonds Method is based on helping smokers to demonstrate to themselves why they really smoke and why quitting seems so hard. Once these are understood, smokers will find there should be no difficulty in refraining from something they don’t want to do anymore.

Unlike other quit-smoking books, the unique Symonds Method is simple and quick to learn. No nicotine products (including e-cigarettes), drugs, hypnosis, scare tactics, or gimmikcs are used.

– Do not choose a ‘quit date’ — this is setting yourself up for failure
– Do not worry about smoking ‘triggers’ — just carry on with your life except for smoking
– Forget ‘cravings’, whatever these are

In spite of knowing the risks, why do smokers keep smoking? They feel compelled to do it because of mild anxiety and nervousness – produced by the smoking itself. The long lists of awful withdrawal symptoms trotted out by orthodox smoking-cessation counsellors are largely untrue: most smokers when they quit do not experience such symptoms – unless they think they will! Understanding this is the key to successful quitting.

In this ground-breaking book Dr Symonds exposes how the current approach of governments to the smoking problem is wrong-headed. It’s based on the idea that the way to reduce smoking prevalence is by so-called tobacco control – strong health warnings and horrible pictures on cigarette packs, plain packaging, restrictions on where you’re allowed to smoke, increased cigarette taxes, etc. Though this has some effect, it doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. Tobacco doesn’t need to be controlled; it needs to be abolished.

Furthermore, for smoking cessation the emphasis should shift away from nicotine products and drugs to being nicotine- and drug-free. More attention should be paid to evidence that shows the best way to stop smoking is – just stop! Many smokers achieve this on their own, but for those who need help, the Symonds Method is simple, quick, and gimmick-free.

The recommendation to use e-cigarettes (vaping) as an allegedly safer alternative to smoking is a counsel of despair and almost an insult to smokers. It’s merely another way of continuing in slavery to nicotine which could last for the rest of one’s life.

Vaping means inhaling – often hundreds of times every day – a nicotine-laced aerosol also containing propylene glycol, flavourings, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, metal nanoparticles including arsenic, volatile organic compounds, and trace amounts of other toxicants and carcinogens.

Nonetheless, for former smokers (or for those who have not previously smoked) who find themselves hooked on vaping, with the approach explained in this book any vaper can quit without a struggle and become nicotine-free.

The Symonds Method is based on helping vapers to demonstrate to themselves the real reason they vape and why quitting seems so hard. Once these are understood, vapers will find there should be no difficulty in refraining from something they don’t want to do anymore!

Among other thought-provoking background material, Dr Symonds examines the foundation of the oft-repeated claim that vaping is 95 per cent safer than smoking and shows it to be built on sand.

In his inimitable satirical style, Dr Gabriel Symonds shines a critical light on the shortcomings of the orthodox approach to smoking cessation, especially the recommendation to use e-cigarettes (vaping) which he argues is both misleading and unnecessary. He shows how the concept of ‘smoking-harm reduction’ is not only flawed but counterproductive. The deceitful practices of Big Tobacco, particularly their repulsive use of animal experiments, also come under scrutiny.

Included in this wide-ranging anthology are examinations of the contentious issues of so-called gender dysphoria and transgender treatment, psychiatric research and the use of hallucinogenic drugs in depression, vitamin drips for healthy people, an inquiry into the meaning of consciousness, and an essay on misuse of the English language.

Originally posted on Dr Symonds’s website, these controversial articles will be sure to inform, amuse, and surprise.

Dr Gabriel Symonds is a British doctor living in Tokyo where for many years he ran the Tokyo British Clinic serving the expatriate community. Now semi-retired, he offers his unique method of smoking cessation as well as Jungian-based psychotherapy.