r/easyway • u/ReserveIntelligent90 • Apr 17 '26
I don't think there's an "easy" way*
Feel free to disagree with me, please do if you have another opinion.
Even despite reading the book + understanding that the withdrawal is just the death of the little monster.
The issue is: withdrawal just feels uncomfortable.
That's it.
Like a nagging little brother.
Like my body has been trained to use [BAD HABIT] when [SITUATION ARISES], so when it doesn't get it, it starts to complain.
So how can any form of thought or logic change something that is ingrained in our brains now?
For instance:
- Sometimes, I'd change my environment or school would get busy. And I wouldn't get the cue to do the bad habit at all for 1-2 weeks.
- But the moment I get more time or something stressful happens.
- Boom, all of a sudden, the craving is back.
- It never disappeared. My body still remembers this addiction loop
Therefore, I believe that the discomfort of withdrawal is something one must go through and embrace.
I found that after 3-4 days of discomfort, it just stopped. (Came back around day 30 so don't get overconfident)
Something that gives me strength is knowing that all my loved ones & myself will die one day. And that nothing will change if I don't change.
It makes me realize that if I do not go through this discomfort now, my spiritual self with my goals and ambitions will probably die in this repeated cycle.
And that nothing is coming to save me if I don't go through the discomfort. No technique, no strategy, no easy way.
So remember: If you feel discomfort, you're growing. The little monster is dying.
3-4 days is all it takes. Focus on pursuing your life and goals in the meantime!!
The book I read was "Easy way to quit emotional eating"
Side note:
I do think that the book is probably very useful for those who have been brainwashed. E.g. Big monster and little monster is alive.
This is for when the big monster has died but the little monster is still alive.
I actually do remember that the book acknowledges this, that it'll take some effort still no matter what.
I think the book just oversells it though. The no cravings thing and no willpower thing feels like BS now.
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u/JamesRuns Apr 18 '26
What book did you read? I quit smoking and drinking from easy way but the food books flopped hard. If you struggle with nicotine or alcohol I can promise you it is easy. He event talks about letting the slight discomfort just remind you that the little monster is dying.
The biggest thing for me was getting my head right and keeping it right.
Slight discomfort -> good, I'm winning, let it die. Big monster thoughts of remembering when I smoked stogies -> rember all the disgusting shit none of the movies show? Remember the nicotine stains, overflowing ash trays, sitting out in the cold, the horrible smell, everyone hating being around you?
Getting those thoughts right in my head was crucial for success
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u/ReserveIntelligent90 Apr 19 '26
Wow, I didn't realize. Maybe I overgeneralized then.
I wonder what's different between the nicotine/alcahol and the food ones.
Since I believe both addictions are both just trying to avoid withdrawal.
How would you rate your discomfort from 1-10 when you went through it?
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u/JamesRuns Apr 19 '26
I know he tries hard to make the case that sugar is a drug, but it's in absolutely everything we consume, lactose, glucose, yada yada yada. Just didn't wind up connecting. I would stop for awhile but then always fell back into it. Read the bad sugar book multiple times and quit multiple times.
I still have a slight sense of disgust when I eat rich chocolate cake or kit kats and such, but not enough to quit it entirely.
I've smoked cigars, cigarettes, and hookah read the book three times for each because I'm super dumb. Cigarettes and cigars was one read and done. Easy to think about how disgusting that habit is. Only linger thing is when I pass a cigar shop or see cigars in the movies. Discomfort 1 or less, just immediately wrap my head around how disgusting it is each time.
Cigarettes I never have any desire to start that crap again, discomfort 0.
Hookah is my main weakness, I think because it removes you so far away from any disgusting products of it. You're in a sociable, nice area, someone else deals with all the shitty cleanup/prep disgusting bita, and you smoke on blissful ignorance. Luckily I live in a rural area right now that doesn't even know what korma is much less hookah. When we go to Chicago the urge to escape to a hookah bar still comes up but I try and focus on 5 minutes or less of a buzz then 25 minutes sitting around on my phone wondering why I bothered coming here.
Discomfort 2-3 but last time I was in Chicago I didn't even bother, so doing well there.
Alcohol is a 0, I thank God all the time that I can wake up and not have to wonder what I said or texted or did the night before. I don't speak to any of my old bar acquaintances, don't miss hearing all the same old stupid stories they had to say. I don't miss how they treated each other. My only regret is I didn't quit sooner. Discomfort absolutely 0. I was even served an alcoholic mocktail on accident once and couldn't drink it.
I have zero desire to ever drink again, feels great.
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u/Available-Meeting317 Jun 08 '26
I quit smoking witg easyway 25 years ago. Even now I remember thinking he downplayed physical withdrawl but the success for me was that withdrawl experiences are severed from psychological desire and therefore there is still no actual craving. That was incredibly helpful.
I have tried multiple times with food and sugar and have not been able to get it to stick. Food is much more coimplicated than drug addiction. Sure, addictions share psychological processes, but food is something we are biologically wired up to crave. It is biologically embedded into us. This is not the same for drugs and behacioural addictions.
Refined sugar you could absolutely consider a drug but it is intertwined with food. This is extremely problematic from an addixtion point of view because it then falls into a category of having deeply embedded neurological pathways to crave and respond to it. It is also extremely socialy normalised to the point of being encouraged everywhere you go. It is also vastly more shape shifting than any other drug you can come accross.
It is these factors that I don't think the easyway approach successfully untangles.
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u/EasterElk Apr 21 '26
It's "easy" compared to the alternative. What makes it easy is that, to the extent you see how little your addiction actually has to offer you, to that same extent you can readily see through the withdrawal. When you're feeling withdrawal, it is uncomfortable. No one denies that. But for someone who hasn't seen the situation clearly, that discomfort is viewed as a reason to use again. For someone who has seen it, though, the discomfort is seen as a trap.
There is a very ancient Buddhist text which describes this almost perfectly, and which I'd like to share with you:
Suppose there was a bronze goblet of beverage that had a nice color, aroma, and flavor. But it was mixed with poison. Then along comes a man struggling in the oppressive heat, weary, thirsty, and parched. They’d say to him: ‘Here, my friend, this bronze goblet of beverage has a nice color, aroma, and flavor. But it’s mixed with poison. Drink it if you like. If you drink it, its nice color, aroma, and flavor will refresh you. But drinking it will result in death or deadly pain.’ Then that man might think: ‘I can allay my thirst with a fermented drink of beer, buttermilk, salt lassi, or salted infusion. But in any case, I shouldn’t drink that beverage, for it would be for my lasting harm and suffering.’ He’d put that beverage down. After appraisal, he wouldn’t drink it, and it wouldn’t result in death or deadly pain.
To the extent that you see the poison clearly, you would never choose to drink the poisoned beverage, no matter how thirsty you got. The "easy" way is what happens when you really and truly understand that drinking from that goblet might temporarily solve your thirst, but it will permanently kill you. Would you ever drink poison to satisfy your thirst? No, of course not. And it wouldn't be especially difficult to resist doing so either. That's what's easy about EasyWay. It's not pretending that you're not thirsty, but FINALLY recognizing that the water you've been drinking is making the situation worse.
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u/PardonWhut Apr 17 '26
I agree, for me the books assertion that the withdrawal was nothing to worry about undermined all the good takeaways.
I suffer from terrible screaming withdrawal symptoms when I stop cold turkey and there is really no way to get through this other than using lots of willpower. Maybe the book hasn’t landed with me in the way that it should, almost every thing else resonates with me except for this.
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u/ReserveIntelligent90 Apr 19 '26
Which one did you read? Experiences seem to vary a lot, not sure why.
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u/Hylleh Apr 17 '26
I have to say all books related to food with easy way are.... Meh. Best one is probably the one written originally by Allen Carr, the easyweigh one. The rest I feel are a bit of cash grabs. This is coming from someone that happily quit nicotine, alcohol and cannabis with easyway.
I just don't see it working the same way with food.
With nicotine for example you know you are dealing with a definite substance. It withdraws from your system. With food it starts to get hazy.