I Quit! Cigarettes, Candy Bars & Booze

By Linda Joy Allan

A true story, told with honesty and wit. Linda Joy Allan was a 200 pound chain-smoker. Also a heavy drinker, she lived a life that alienated both her friends and family. Linda felt so helplessly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977914909
• ISBN13: 9780977914906
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Dovelin Publishing
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

This is a must read.

Linda Joy Allan shares her story with readers. She conveys the pain of staying in a hospital alone, moving away from her friends, giving up her pet, and hearing her grandmother discuss her weight. She was addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolate. Courageously Allan opens her life to reader's scrutiny. Her story is heart-rending. She credits faith for her recovery however, admits it is not wholly responsible. The author spends a lot time discussing her addictions than she does the recovery. This is a must read.

An encouraging tale, sure to motivate readers

Addiction is a tough thing to deal with. Three of them would be a nightmare. "I Quit! Cigarettes, Candy Bars, and Booze" is Linda Joy Allan's inner struggle to overcome the three addictions that plagued her life and that were ruining her health and her life. Through her own sheer determination and will power, she freed herself of her demons, improved her health, and mended broken relationships. "I Quit!" is an encouraging tale, sure to motivate readers.

I love this book!

I just finished reading "I Quit!" I can totally relate to Linda's story. Addictions can be depressing to hear about but the book was written with humor and honesty. This is not a "how to" book but is meant to inspire those with addictions that it is possible to overcome them and live the life you have always wanted.

Overcoming Compulsive Behaviors

In "I Quit," Linda Joy Allan tells the story of her life and how she got caught up in some very addictive behaviors. She smoked for twenty-eight years, drank for twelve and much of her childhood was spent overeating. There were some other compulsive behaviors as well. As she tells her story, you can see how the pain of experiences that went through in her childhood caused her to escape to her addictions. She shares some very sad, serious events with us. She was engaging in compulsive behaviors that would give her a rush. The euphoria caused by either doing something that she shouldn't or what would come from the alcohol or nicotine helped her feel alive. Most of her personal experiences left her feeling sad and full of despair. She started eating compulsively when she was still young. Being an overweight teen did not help her feel accepted with others. This is where the cycle started. Turning her compulsive eating over to God helped her escape that cycle, but it opened up doors for other addictions to enter, such as smoking and drinking. The drinking cost her many relationships and she also was devastating her family. Seeing what she was doing to her mother really opened her eyes up. She started engaging in healthy behaviors and has realized that her life is so much better without the addictions clogging her thoughts. The addictions were keeping her from living and from achieving her goals. Giving up her addictions opened up avenues in her life where she could start living a real authentic life. She no longer has to worry about how she got home the night before or worry about getting to work with a hangover. I am so glad that Linda shared her story. Reading about her life from her childhood made me feel like I knew her and I was suffering along with her. As she got into her bad behaviors, I felt so sad that someone who had gone through so much, was throwing her life away. As she overcame her addictions, I felt like I was cheering alongside her. Connecting to her spiritual side and God really helped save her. I think that readers will be able to relate to Linda's story. If they have compulsions and addictions, it will be wonderful for them to know that they can be overcome and life will get better. For someone who is in a relationship with a person like this, it will give them better insight into their behavior. It will also show them that their addictions can be overcome, however, it the person with the addictions has to be the one to make that choice. This person also might need to leave their life to be able to do so. "I Quit" is a must read for people who are addicted; people who are dealing with friends and families of addicts; and people who work with people who have addictions. Everyone who reads this will gain tremendous insight. Thanks so much to Linda Joy Allan for being willing to let us into her world.

Inspiring Read.

This work chronicles Linda Joy Allan's struggle with three addictions: food, alcohol and cigarettes. She talks about the first time she remembers feeling self conscious about her body and being bigger than the other girls in her class. But the most crushing blow was when she heard her grandmother discussing her weight with her mother. She remembers the binges and the highs and lows that food seemed to be able to bestow upon her. One day she is finally able to quit her food addiction but no sooner had she dropped the candy bar, she picked up the bottle of booze. She drank actively for about eleven years, hurting people along the way including her friends and family and a host of men who tried to love her despite her spiral into severe alcoholism. Regardless of all the love showered on her, no one loved her like her booze(in her mind). Eventually after years of wasting her life away and living very dangerously, she is able to get her life back on track. Linda Joy Allan is brutally honest in relaying the life she lived while in the throes of addiction. My biggest criticism of the book is that while she spent so much time talking about the various details of her addictions, she spends very little time discussing her recovery. Her recoveries from the different addictions seemed almost simplistic. Don't get me wrong she credits her faith in God and spirituality for finally getting her out of the hell she had created for herself but I wish she had devoted a bit more time discussing the details of how exactly this helped her. She leaves the reader with light and rudimentary details of her recovery process. Far be it from me to criticize anyone's ascent into light after such a dark time but I feel that in glossing over the details of how she achieves her recovery, she missed a great opportunity to help anyone who may have identified with her struggle and tried to use it as a tool to help themselves. Just saying you stopped and now you are better does not cut it. Her words in the last few pages are very touching and I felt that they really came from her heart. As someone who has never struggled with any addictions, I was stunned by the revelations in this book. I was shocked at the lengths that people will go to sustain their habit but it also gave me hope that people can change no matter how long that may have been at a particular behavior.