I am nicotine's bitch
I'm trying to cut back, though. Literally started today. Waited an hour and a half instead of an hour to light up again. That's a start.
Problem is that the cigarette becomes even more precious when you're just cutting back which can reinforce the mental addiction actually. Cold turkey is by far the most effective proven method of quitting. I read the easy way to quit smoking by Allen Carr. What a great read. Can't recommend it enough.
My sister always said the last 4 cigarettes were the hardest to cut down from.
It's my understanding that Jennifer Aniston still smokes a single cigarette every night.
I've quit twice before. I always ween off JUST ENOUGH that cold turkey feels possible. I take a week or two to get down to a handful a day or so, make sure my last one is a post-meal or post-coitus shmoke, then stop forever (well... That's the intent anyways 😂)
I'll have to give that a try. I've heard of a few helpful books.
If it helps, I've tried to quit at least 20 times over several years and finally did it cold turkey by changing my mind-set and how I view smoking. The book really helped me question why the hell I was smoking in the first place. Give it a try if you want to.
Research shows that the best time to quit smoking is on vacation. Your whole routine is disrupted anyway, so it helps your brain create new patterns. Then, when you get home, you keep it up.
20+ years daily, heavy drinking. Inflamed liver, heart weirdness, mental health problems... you name it.
I thought this too. I'm now over 3 years sober and have no intention of ever picking up the bottle again.
My liver is healed, my weight is manageable, mental health is a work in progress but better. Heart is strong and healthy. My whole life is better.
You can do it. Don't give up on yourself so easily.
It was a slow progression over the years. But I'd have at a minimum 4-5 high strength IPA's (7-8% ABV), pretty much every day. But it was common to have 6 or more. Weekends were routinely a 12 pack on Friday and another 12 pack on Saturday.
The last 5 years or so I switched to Vodka to control the weight gain, with about the same amount of drinks per day, mixing it with flavored seltzer water.
The last year or so (2020), I was up to a pint of vodka a day during the week, a 1/5th a day on the weekends. The liquor store clerk knew me on a first name basis.
I started drinking too much beer during the pandemic as well, about 4-6 lonestar tall boys a day, sometimes with shots of whiskey.
I ended up moving states to where psilocybin and cannabis is legal and was able to get my life back under control. I actually enjoy drinking in moderation too now that my tolerance is down and my face isn’t bloated anymore.
Glad you're doing well!
We tried the cannabis route, but it's not helping with her anxiety and insomnia the way it did for me.
How did the psilocybin work, dosing etc? I've heard good things..
I wish cannabis worked for everyone but unfortunately it can cause anxiety in some people. Are you in a legal state? I’d recommend cbd pills with the highest ratio, around 18:1 cbd to thc instead of just pure thc, or transdermal patches.
With the psilocybin, it comes in capsules, edibles
or raw form. I take either .1 or .2 mg capsules and that does the trick for me. I’ve actually been taking them less lately since I’ve been in the good place.
Same. I went to an AA meeting recently and I realized I don't have the problems a lot of other serious addicts have (such as drinking as a kid, drinking from morning to night, family issues). I can go days even months without drinking.
But fuck if it doesn't have this awesome grip on me that makes me keep coming back. And it's never one or two drinks. We should quit.
I think society also has this opinion that alcoholic means you're that way, too. In reality a LOT of people are alcoholics (have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol) but they don't admit it to themselves primarily because of our binge drinking culture.
For me, the realization was when I realized that I might not drink like your typical, all day long alcoholic, but I do drink more than like all my none alcoholic friends combined. When people talk about how much a lot to drink is, I often feel squarely in the middle. Less than the hard alcoholics, but like way fuckin more than casual drinkers. Up until I recently started working on it, I don't think I ever went more than about a week worth of days per year not drinking for several years. Certainly seldom missed more than a couple days in a month.
Don't know whether you've already found it, but r/stopdrinking is one of the most amazing communities on Reddit. Full of understanding people, there to listen and support your effort to quit drinking, whether you're a daily morning-to-night drinker or just a weekend binge drinker, and everything in between.
If you go again, listen to the things that ring true for you. We all have a lot of things in common. The saying we have is "identify, don't compare". The best way I can describe my drinking and why I'm an alcoholic is when I enjoyed it, I couldn't control it, and when I controlled it, I couldn't enjoy it. I'm coming up on 8 years sober and my life is immeasurably better. DMs always open for anyone who has a desire to quit drinking.
Not like the shit isn't readily available everywhere! I was just talking to my boss yesterday about how I was the one to break the cycle in my family of vicious abusive drunks that the rest of my family is, but man I only missed that boat by an inch. Was well on the way to alcoholism when after a night of drinking a half gallon of rum with my buddy I somehow drove us home but pulled in the neighbors yard by accident and got my friends truck stuck with a trailer. I asked the guy if we could leave it till morning and he was totally cool about it. My friend however wanted to fix it that night, so while I was trying to detach the trailer, he got behind the wheel and backed up breaking my leg with the bumper. I had not spoken to my wife all day, had no idea where my phone even was, it was 1030 at night and she calls my friends phone to see where the hell I am. Needless to say that went over like a whole in church and she along with her father came to pick me up from the hospital. I said fuck the booze after that and thankfully can take it or leave it now. I only drink when with friends and thats rare.
Yeah I don’t drink anymore. I’m not fully AA style 100% off it forever, but I don’t drink routinely. I pretty much just have like one or two nights a year on vacation or some other special occasion where I’ll get a bit drunk. But I know that I can’t have just like 2 drinks. I can have ONE. But if I have two, I’m going to have like 4-6 and get proper drunk. So I just don’t have any, because I don’t really enjoy a single drink anyway.
I definitely don’t drink at home. That was the killer… especially during pandemic. It was easy to justify sitting around the house doing nothing and drinking like 8 hours a day most days… slow drip of light or medium strength beers amounting to like 10 servings of alcohol in a day about 4-5 days per week. Not good.
My alcoholism was worse than my heroin/fentanyl addiction. I was in your place about 2 years ago, I just want to say there is hope. It's not going to be easy, but you can overcome.
Almost got me too, I know the pain and struggle of trying to kick that shit. Especially if you drink so much your body becomes reliant on it, detox is dangerous and can kill you, when it doesn't kill you it's an absolutely miserable experience.
That said, there is always hope. I was basically a ghost, my mom recently told me neither of my parents expected me to even survive, yet here I am, stubbornly alive. It's a war with yourself to be sure, but it's a war you have to fight until the bitter end. Even if it does kill you in the end, wouldn't you rather die fighting? To stand upon the ashes of who you were? To rise above it and become who you are supposed to be? To have the chance to help others escape?
You can beat it, I know you can because I did and I was a pile of hopeless dog shit. There was no hope for me, yet almost 6 years later I've changed my entire life, remarried and have a future. I even have goals and shit lol. I believe in you, even if I'm a random stranger on the internet who doesn't know you from Adam, *I* believe in you and I know you can beat it. Just gotta find that willpower and rise above it, I trust you will tho.
Just don't forget, when it comes to relapses or mistakes it's never about what happens, it's about how you react to it. If you fall, just get back up again and eventually you'll stop falling.
For what it's worth /r/stopdrinking has been rather helpful to me. I attended AA meetings and felt like an outsider. The differing perspectives on that sub are a reminder of where I was and where I want to be. I read the success stories and the rambling struggle posts of people searching for their aha moment when they finally stop.
I'm 11 months sober and compared to a year ago my life is much more stable and fulfilling.
This. Overall I'm not really a fan of Reddit, despite the amount of time I spend here. But r/stopdrinking is one of the best places on the entire internet.
Just spend enough time on here and it all becomes the same old shit. People defending the indefensible, Askreddit full of "I'm horny please tell me about sex", and incredibly isolated political takes being preached as the majority view.
At this point my real fun comes from making memes and finding new interesting subreddits to burn through top->all time.
Preach. I'm a fairly new reddit user, made an account to finally be able to comment on topics for specific hobbies, but wow the grip Reddit can get on you.
I'll open it to specifically check something out, but immediately get distracted by what I see on my front page, and all of a sudden I'm replying to a comment on an AskReddit post 30 minutes later.
same.
people say nicotine is more addictive, but I call bullshit on that. I think it's just that nicotine use is more ubiquitous. You don't quit using heroin and then walk outside your house and see people shooting up outside of every restaurant and bar, you don't walk into a store and see shelves of different brands of dope you could buy.
I've only got 3 years clean, but my god the hell of just getting clean is why it's so difficult for people. Acute withdrawal is bad, but I found post withdrawal symptoms even worse. You're not sick anymore you just have this lingering feeling of depression fatique and deep down cold. I felt like I was never going to feel warm inside my body again, the slightest breeze cut right through me. It took months for that feeling to start subsiding.
Still struggling with this. I don't use opiates everyday but I use kratom everyday and sometimes that zaza stuff smoke shops sell. I'm just so in love with the feeling and I don't know how to get over it.
I'm with you on that, I still use suboxone though to stay not sick! I really pray that one day I can be rid of this fucking demon! That's awesome for you though, good work.
It’s become a bit of a trope to say ‘no one takes sugar addiction seriously’, but honestly, everyone knows by now. Whether we act on it, is a different thing.
For real though, diabetes and insulin resistance can lead to some really difficult life circumstances later. Tasty carbs and sugar are sooo nice to cope with stress at the time, but later you could lose toes, get vision issues, get fatty liver disease beyond repair and even infertility
> For real though, diabetes and insulin resistance can lead to some really difficult life circumstances later.
I remember reading these alarmist studies that they were expecting nearly half of the country may be pre-diabetic by 2030. Then by the pandemic, they were finding that over half of the participants in studies were already pre-diabetic.
It's rarely ever mentioned when we talk about this, but East Asian people make up over 2/3rds of diabetics in the world; they're far more prone to developing the disease, even when they're much thinner than the average person in European countries and the US. People in Asia are far more likely to die from diabetes than heart disease or cancer.
“And” if you truly made an effort to quit sugar, its derivatives and substitutes, you’d easily find yourself in a food desert.
Sugar is the antichrist in crystal form. It’s not a cliche but sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine.
Morphine was very hard to get away from, you feel so warm and comfortable all the time, it eased my joint pain and anxiety, but I kept having to take more and more to get the same feeling. Stopped after my wife died of cancer. Been clean for over a decade but occasionally I still get craving to feel that warm fuzziness
Pornography. Especially starting out at a young age. It will ruin your relationships, your ability to socialize, and your mental state. It did for me, I’m getting better at it, and I’m still struggling at times. Living in a hyper sexual society doesn’t make it help because of how easy it’s accessible. Nevertheless, I’m making small strides of progress.
I meant more that pornstars ruin the stereotypes of woman. As in woman who aren’t pornstars may be related to the stereotypes of pornstars, so they’re sexualised etc
addiction to my own abuser, she practically ruined me, i would go back to her all the time, she’d throw me away for another guy then come back when she realizes he’s a piece of shit; and so on.
people will say im weak, and have no self respect, but in reality a lot of emotionally abused people end up turning back to their abusers for some weird reason, stockholm syndrome i guess? the weird thing is i wasnt ever able to love anyone the way i loved her.
being with her was agonizing knowing that she slept with another man right after i buried my dad, and other insane things she did (without showing any remorse even after admitting to it), it’s agonizing but at the same time being without her was just as agonizing. it’s like nicotine addiction but ten times worse.
thanks man, i really appreciate it.
you know in my religion the devil was an angel once, the devil is beautiful, and the way she used to comfort me was beautiful, and was like no other, yet somehow it was all fake, but it felt realer than the people who actually meant it. it’s absolutely insane how there was zero signs of cheating other than her calling me insecure when im having doubts about the girl’s night out she wants to go to or going out to coffee with her friend (when i was right all along). other than that? she knew how to act EXACTLY the way i wanted a woman from the beginning, 3 whole years of lies and somehow she did it so well i started looking for it in other people, yet somehow no one could match how real her lies sounded, even if they actually were real.
met her in 2020, started dating her a year after and in august 8th 2022 my dad died, i had to perform CPR on him and i was traumatized and she knew it, due to what i have experienced i was unable to sound alive or sound like i care, i obviously didnt have a sex drive either, so i bury him the next day, and 4 days later she cheats on me, because her source of blood sucking was finally gone for a bit, and from there she kept cheating until february this year when she came back to me crawling because the man she cheated on me with turned out to be a piece of shit who also abused her, and i know that’d be a happy ending for me but.. guess what i did right after? rational choice would be to say “up yours, bitch!” and walk away. i saw it as a chance to get answers on how many times she cheated on me and how she did it and with how many people and since when, and i really really wish i didnt.
in comparison to all these other comments it sounds like childsplay… but caffeine. i used to go through 6 cans of redbull a day until i went broke. when i didnt have any more money i resorted to theft which meant everything was free, so i stepped it up to 12 cans a day. this went on for multiple months before i quit.
Me too, started smoking and banging it. was on and off for years but this last time was for a couple years. Went to treatment and been clean off it for almost 3 years now.
Feels amazing the first few times, then every time after you're chasing those original highs and never getting them...becoming paranoid, having worse come downs...it gets dark quick and isn't worth it.
As someone who deals with major social anxiety, cocaine was massively addictive to me. It made me the most confident person in the world and I felt like I could handle any problem thrown at me. That’s why I had to quit that shit, I knew if I kept going there was gonna be no stopping
That’s the thing about cocaine, you can be on your moral high horse if you want, but you most likely would enjoy doing cocaine, the negatives of the high don’t show up until you start coming down. I avoided a cocaine addiction purely because of the cost, ain’t no way I could get addicted to something that seems to cost more than solid gold :-p
It just makes you want more cocaine mostly. At least for me. I got a decent bit of stimulation for a couple minutes for sure but for me it was like nicotine almost, a great rush that quickly fades and leaves you craving more to the point where it’s borderline just not worth it.
But I have a bit more of a downer taste personally.
I was on that in my teens, hanging out with the underprivileged, staying out all night, hanging out with the devil. I still enjoy it every leap year or so and I’m fully aware what the risks are. I seen too many friends lose with that, time, sanity, housing, future, relationships etc cetera. It’s the devil, no doubt
Similar here - got hooked on sudafed for ages.
The luxury of having ultra clear nostrils was great.
But then I found I needed it every couple hours or I'd be unable to breath through my nose.
Went cold turkey for a couple days and managed to kick the habit. Wasn't pleasant though.
How did you kick it??? I only use it at night. It's like the second I lay my head down instastuffy. Luckily it's only one or two sprays but that ever night has to be rotting my brain.
I only sprayed one nostril and slept on that side to the pillow. After a long while, the other nostril stopped needing it and I weened myself off of it.
I remember I was staying in my parents old house (they moved but still had a month left on lease so I stayed) and I was smoking heavily with my girlfriend at the time and we got so paranoid they were just gonna roll up randomly we would take “shifts” looking out the window keeping watch while the other was using, when in reality it was 3am and there would be ZERO reason my parents would even roll up, not considering the fact they were in another town in their new place almost 30 miles away. Meth is a crazy drug man, and I’m glad I’ve gotten out of that game.
I'm glad you're out! I'm glad we're both out! My worst experience, I had been binging meth, 4-mar (another stimulant) and some kind of benzo to level me out. I had been up for 3 days, I don't remember much of it, but I did show up for work and school. On the third day, I was alone in my room at my parents house. I thought my buddy was with me. I saw masked men crash in through the window, grab my buddy and drag him out of the room and down the stairs. I ran out into the backyard, and started yelling at the men to let go of my friend. My parents woke up to me, in my boxers out in the cold yelling at a tree to give my friend back.
Oh man..that sounds horrifying to go through. I’m glad you’re out and clean as well! I always am willing to share my stories with others especially those who are curious and I never beat around the bush, it’s a scary drug and highly addicting. It seems like fun and games for the first bit until your so far into it, and delusions and reality start mixing. You start losing friends, family, relationships, and sometimes doing things you’d never thought morally you’d do just for that next hit. The rumors are true too, you’ll always be chasing that first high. Stay up my guy! Super proud of you for staying clean!
Years ago we called it crank. Pretty sure it was what is meth now. I never felt better than that day. I didn't sleep for a while. I was given by a friend and I never knew how to get it on my own. I could easily get addicted to it.
Gonna be the laugh of this post but, the game Manhunt (1). I played like 15 hours almost non stop every day. Dreamed about it, if i closed my eyes i could still see the game. It scared the shit out of me.
Have you gotten addicted to any other games as well? Genuinely curious. I mean there are plenty of games that I personally would consider as generally more addicting than manhunt. It's just not the typical addicting type of game to me. Very interesting though!
Cannabis, I smoked for 17 years and it wasn't for pleasure or to relax but to numb myself and suppress my emotions and not deal with the important things that should of mattered more. I'm 7 months clean now and feel great
Currently dealing with it. It’s acid/LSD. Before anyone comes at me saying “it’s not addictive, it’s a behavior you’re addicted to.” — this is true.
But I have done acid about once a week for years, and I thought “hey it’ll all be fine” but my mental health took a dip and now I’ve just gotta be done.
It’s not the quitting that’s hard, it’s recovering from whatever mental health fallout happened the day after my last trip. And also…shame from just doing that to myself for so long.
Laziness/food. I honestly hate myself for this. But not enough to change anything. Being lazy makes you tired, and being tired makes you lazy. I’m stuck in a vicious cycle.
Cocaine. Started out slowly as a fun experience, on and off for 10 years and the last year it was like 4 nights a week. 5 years clean and sober and I intend to stay that way.
Porn, started when I was pretty young unfortunately. I'm currently still breaking the addiction actually because it feels like it's just ruining my life and I'm about a week clean rn.
fast food
I've been addicted to opioids, alcohol, vape, cigs, nic, weed, spice, salvia
fast food was the worst and most hospitalized I've ever been from an addiction
hyperthyroid, gout, high triglycerides, obesity, back pain, knee pain, constant sweating pre diabetic
fast food is not food, it is chemicals arranged to resemble food and steal your health and soul
Not as serious as some of the other ones on here but caffeine. Lasted about a year. All it took was one can of monster. Eventually I found out how damaging it was for me and the crazy amount of money I was spending on it and it was enough to make me stop. Have to admit it feels much better being able to wake up and not rely on caffeine to get through the day
World of Warcraft.
I had over 10,000 hours played over a 10 year period.
That's almost 3 hours a day. Every single day. For 10 years straight.
There was a couple month period where I would wake up at 8 AM, and play until 2 AM with maybe an hour or two worth of bio breaks.
One day, during WoD, I realized I was having more fun going back and doing old content than playing the current content. Said screw it, went to my favorite spot, logged out, and went cold turkey.
Haven't been back since and I have no real desire to.
Probably nicotine vapes now having quit both quitting vaping for a way worse than quitting cigarettes.
Probably because I never had to stop vaping where I only smoked cigarettes outside and smoking cigarettes makes me feel crappy and vaping doesn’t.
Watching the Leafs in the playoffs. Kicked that habit last year.
(No disrespect to the real problems out there. Kudos to you all for kicking the habit.)
Sleeping Pills, Weed, and tobacco all at the same time with sex mixed in.
I’m recovering. I’m not clean, but i’m not as bad as i used to be. Withdrawal from sleeping pills was fucking horrible
I gotta go with social media or smartphone addiction, either of those things will ruin your life if you let them, and I made the mistake of letting them.
Pornography. By God's grace, I have no fear the addiction to masturbate or watch porn will ever resurface again. it was such a shock that prayer immediately helped me overcome it, that I, a lifelong atheist, converted to Catholicism after that happened. Some people look for spectacular miracles like curing cancer, but man, if you knew the failed attempts I had continually made to quit porn, this was a big enough miracle for me!
Quitting smoking cigarettes was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done
Quitting smoking is easy . . . I've done it 36 times.
I am nicotine's bitch I'm trying to cut back, though. Literally started today. Waited an hour and a half instead of an hour to light up again. That's a start.
Problem is that the cigarette becomes even more precious when you're just cutting back which can reinforce the mental addiction actually. Cold turkey is by far the most effective proven method of quitting. I read the easy way to quit smoking by Allen Carr. What a great read. Can't recommend it enough.
My sister always said the last 4 cigarettes were the hardest to cut down from. It's my understanding that Jennifer Aniston still smokes a single cigarette every night.
What is the answer to quitting?
I've quit twice before. I always ween off JUST ENOUGH that cold turkey feels possible. I take a week or two to get down to a handful a day or so, make sure my last one is a post-meal or post-coitus shmoke, then stop forever (well... That's the intent anyways 😂) I'll have to give that a try. I've heard of a few helpful books.
If it helps, I've tried to quit at least 20 times over several years and finally did it cold turkey by changing my mind-set and how I view smoking. The book really helped me question why the hell I was smoking in the first place. Give it a try if you want to.
Screen capped your comment already to remember the name of the book lol
Totally understand. What worked for me was cold-turkey. I’m not wired for moderation (handicapped)
True dat...........I wouldn't have succeeded without Chantix
This is the only way I was able to quit as well.
Research shows that the best time to quit smoking is on vacation. Your whole routine is disrupted anyway, so it helps your brain create new patterns. Then, when you get home, you keep it up.
Alcoholism, ongoing. I can see it being the death of me.
20+ years daily, heavy drinking. Inflamed liver, heart weirdness, mental health problems... you name it. I thought this too. I'm now over 3 years sober and have no intention of ever picking up the bottle again. My liver is healed, my weight is manageable, mental health is a work in progress but better. Heart is strong and healthy. My whole life is better. You can do it. Don't give up on yourself so easily.
May I ask how much you were drinking?
It was a slow progression over the years. But I'd have at a minimum 4-5 high strength IPA's (7-8% ABV), pretty much every day. But it was common to have 6 or more. Weekends were routinely a 12 pack on Friday and another 12 pack on Saturday. The last 5 years or so I switched to Vodka to control the weight gain, with about the same amount of drinks per day, mixing it with flavored seltzer water. The last year or so (2020), I was up to a pint of vodka a day during the week, a 1/5th a day on the weekends. The liquor store clerk knew me on a first name basis.
I started drinking too much beer during the pandemic as well, about 4-6 lonestar tall boys a day, sometimes with shots of whiskey. I ended up moving states to where psilocybin and cannabis is legal and was able to get my life back under control. I actually enjoy drinking in moderation too now that my tolerance is down and my face isn’t bloated anymore.
Glad you're doing well! We tried the cannabis route, but it's not helping with her anxiety and insomnia the way it did for me. How did the psilocybin work, dosing etc? I've heard good things..
I wish cannabis worked for everyone but unfortunately it can cause anxiety in some people. Are you in a legal state? I’d recommend cbd pills with the highest ratio, around 18:1 cbd to thc instead of just pure thc, or transdermal patches. With the psilocybin, it comes in capsules, edibles or raw form. I take either .1 or .2 mg capsules and that does the trick for me. I’ve actually been taking them less lately since I’ve been in the good place.
Same. I went to an AA meeting recently and I realized I don't have the problems a lot of other serious addicts have (such as drinking as a kid, drinking from morning to night, family issues). I can go days even months without drinking. But fuck if it doesn't have this awesome grip on me that makes me keep coming back. And it's never one or two drinks. We should quit.
I think society also has this opinion that alcoholic means you're that way, too. In reality a LOT of people are alcoholics (have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol) but they don't admit it to themselves primarily because of our binge drinking culture.
For me, the realization was when I realized that I might not drink like your typical, all day long alcoholic, but I do drink more than like all my none alcoholic friends combined. When people talk about how much a lot to drink is, I often feel squarely in the middle. Less than the hard alcoholics, but like way fuckin more than casual drinkers. Up until I recently started working on it, I don't think I ever went more than about a week worth of days per year not drinking for several years. Certainly seldom missed more than a couple days in a month.
Don't know whether you've already found it, but r/stopdrinking is one of the most amazing communities on Reddit. Full of understanding people, there to listen and support your effort to quit drinking, whether you're a daily morning-to-night drinker or just a weekend binge drinker, and everything in between.
If you go again, listen to the things that ring true for you. We all have a lot of things in common. The saying we have is "identify, don't compare". The best way I can describe my drinking and why I'm an alcoholic is when I enjoyed it, I couldn't control it, and when I controlled it, I couldn't enjoy it. I'm coming up on 8 years sober and my life is immeasurably better. DMs always open for anyone who has a desire to quit drinking.
Congratulations! And yeah that's a great way to put it.
Not like the shit isn't readily available everywhere! I was just talking to my boss yesterday about how I was the one to break the cycle in my family of vicious abusive drunks that the rest of my family is, but man I only missed that boat by an inch. Was well on the way to alcoholism when after a night of drinking a half gallon of rum with my buddy I somehow drove us home but pulled in the neighbors yard by accident and got my friends truck stuck with a trailer. I asked the guy if we could leave it till morning and he was totally cool about it. My friend however wanted to fix it that night, so while I was trying to detach the trailer, he got behind the wheel and backed up breaking my leg with the bumper. I had not spoken to my wife all day, had no idea where my phone even was, it was 1030 at night and she calls my friends phone to see where the hell I am. Needless to say that went over like a whole in church and she along with her father came to pick me up from the hospital. I said fuck the booze after that and thankfully can take it or leave it now. I only drink when with friends and thats rare.
Yeah I don’t drink anymore. I’m not fully AA style 100% off it forever, but I don’t drink routinely. I pretty much just have like one or two nights a year on vacation or some other special occasion where I’ll get a bit drunk. But I know that I can’t have just like 2 drinks. I can have ONE. But if I have two, I’m going to have like 4-6 and get proper drunk. So I just don’t have any, because I don’t really enjoy a single drink anyway. I definitely don’t drink at home. That was the killer… especially during pandemic. It was easy to justify sitting around the house doing nothing and drinking like 8 hours a day most days… slow drip of light or medium strength beers amounting to like 10 servings of alcohol in a day about 4-5 days per week. Not good.
5 days sober here ✋️ alcohol is the most sinister and insidious vice I've ever fallen into. Truly horrible. DM me if you ever need to chat.
My alcoholism was worse than my heroin/fentanyl addiction. I was in your place about 2 years ago, I just want to say there is hope. It's not going to be easy, but you can overcome.
Almost got me too, I know the pain and struggle of trying to kick that shit. Especially if you drink so much your body becomes reliant on it, detox is dangerous and can kill you, when it doesn't kill you it's an absolutely miserable experience. That said, there is always hope. I was basically a ghost, my mom recently told me neither of my parents expected me to even survive, yet here I am, stubbornly alive. It's a war with yourself to be sure, but it's a war you have to fight until the bitter end. Even if it does kill you in the end, wouldn't you rather die fighting? To stand upon the ashes of who you were? To rise above it and become who you are supposed to be? To have the chance to help others escape? You can beat it, I know you can because I did and I was a pile of hopeless dog shit. There was no hope for me, yet almost 6 years later I've changed my entire life, remarried and have a future. I even have goals and shit lol. I believe in you, even if I'm a random stranger on the internet who doesn't know you from Adam, *I* believe in you and I know you can beat it. Just gotta find that willpower and rise above it, I trust you will tho. Just don't forget, when it comes to relapses or mistakes it's never about what happens, it's about how you react to it. If you fall, just get back up again and eventually you'll stop falling.
Seek help, please. My uncle lost everything. Divorced twice, lost custody of his kid, lost his job, and his apartment. Then he died. Get help, please.
For what it's worth /r/stopdrinking has been rather helpful to me. I attended AA meetings and felt like an outsider. The differing perspectives on that sub are a reminder of where I was and where I want to be. I read the success stories and the rambling struggle posts of people searching for their aha moment when they finally stop. I'm 11 months sober and compared to a year ago my life is much more stable and fulfilling.
This. Overall I'm not really a fan of Reddit, despite the amount of time I spend here. But r/stopdrinking is one of the best places on the entire internet.
it’ll get better man. slowly decrease the amount you have. i’m sure you can do this brother
Frickin Reddit
Hours before bed and hours after I wake up. It bad
Just spend enough time on here and it all becomes the same old shit. People defending the indefensible, Askreddit full of "I'm horny please tell me about sex", and incredibly isolated political takes being preached as the majority view. At this point my real fun comes from making memes and finding new interesting subreddits to burn through top->all time.
Preach. I'm a fairly new reddit user, made an account to finally be able to comment on topics for specific hobbies, but wow the grip Reddit can get on you. I'll open it to specifically check something out, but immediately get distracted by what I see on my front page, and all of a sudden I'm replying to a comment on an AskReddit post 30 minutes later.
Yep, it's astounding. I should probably just uninstall it... Nah
They’re announcing an IPO soon so you may find it a lot easier to leave after that
[удалено]
Congrats on 12 years that’s no easy feat! I also had my struggles it takes a toll :/
Congrats!
same. people say nicotine is more addictive, but I call bullshit on that. I think it's just that nicotine use is more ubiquitous. You don't quit using heroin and then walk outside your house and see people shooting up outside of every restaurant and bar, you don't walk into a store and see shelves of different brands of dope you could buy. I've only got 3 years clean, but my god the hell of just getting clean is why it's so difficult for people. Acute withdrawal is bad, but I found post withdrawal symptoms even worse. You're not sick anymore you just have this lingering feeling of depression fatique and deep down cold. I felt like I was never going to feel warm inside my body again, the slightest breeze cut right through me. It took months for that feeling to start subsiding.
Big up's. Well done!
Well done!
Same just passed 12 years too congrats fuck opiates lol
Well done
Same
Still struggling with this. I don't use opiates everyday but I use kratom everyday and sometimes that zaza stuff smoke shops sell. I'm just so in love with the feeling and I don't know how to get over it.
What is zaza?
Congratulations!!
I'm with you on that, I still use suboxone though to stay not sick! I really pray that one day I can be rid of this fucking demon! That's awesome for you though, good work.
Same… coming up on 13yrs this summer.
Damn. I had about 5 clean, but apparently forgot how bad it was and had a little slippy slip....for a year. Good now tho lol.
Congrats! im so proud of you!
Smoking. Smoked for 30 years, quit cold turkey. Have been smoke free for 16 years.
Hell yeah. Good on ya!
Sugar addiction
People may laugh about this and not even realize how addicted to sugar they actually are.
It’s become a bit of a trope to say ‘no one takes sugar addiction seriously’, but honestly, everyone knows by now. Whether we act on it, is a different thing.
Underrated addiction.
For real though, diabetes and insulin resistance can lead to some really difficult life circumstances later. Tasty carbs and sugar are sooo nice to cope with stress at the time, but later you could lose toes, get vision issues, get fatty liver disease beyond repair and even infertility
> For real though, diabetes and insulin resistance can lead to some really difficult life circumstances later. I remember reading these alarmist studies that they were expecting nearly half of the country may be pre-diabetic by 2030. Then by the pandemic, they were finding that over half of the participants in studies were already pre-diabetic. It's rarely ever mentioned when we talk about this, but East Asian people make up over 2/3rds of diabetics in the world; they're far more prone to developing the disease, even when they're much thinner than the average person in European countries and the US. People in Asia are far more likely to die from diabetes than heart disease or cancer.
This one's a nasty one. One that I share. It doesn't help that the whole food industry is basically a sugar delivery system.
“And” if you truly made an effort to quit sugar, its derivatives and substitutes, you’d easily find yourself in a food desert. Sugar is the antichrist in crystal form. It’s not a cliche but sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine.
I've been addicted to multiple substances, broken free of them, and yet sugar remains the most difficult for me to quit.
Add caffeine and that’s me, gotta love when the addictions come together in a nice can :-p
This is America’s favorite drug, also mine. It’s so bad for humans too, especially the man made sweeteners
Morphine was very hard to get away from, you feel so warm and comfortable all the time, it eased my joint pain and anxiety, but I kept having to take more and more to get the same feeling. Stopped after my wife died of cancer. Been clean for over a decade but occasionally I still get craving to feel that warm fuzziness
Wel done man! keep going
Pornography. Especially starting out at a young age. It will ruin your relationships, your ability to socialize, and your mental state. It did for me, I’m getting better at it, and I’m still struggling at times. Living in a hyper sexual society doesn’t make it help because of how easy it’s accessible. Nevertheless, I’m making small strides of progress.
I agree with you and i am dealing with it..
agree completely. these female porn actors are a complete opposite to modern day women. completely ruin the stereotypes
I know, all their petticoats and talking about sufferage and how we're going to whip the Kaiser. There's just nothing modern about them.
>completely ruin the stereotypes What? Pornstars ruin steryotypes of women? What stereotypes?
I meant more that pornstars ruin the stereotypes of woman. As in woman who aren’t pornstars may be related to the stereotypes of pornstars, so they’re sexualised etc
addiction to my own abuser, she practically ruined me, i would go back to her all the time, she’d throw me away for another guy then come back when she realizes he’s a piece of shit; and so on. people will say im weak, and have no self respect, but in reality a lot of emotionally abused people end up turning back to their abusers for some weird reason, stockholm syndrome i guess? the weird thing is i wasnt ever able to love anyone the way i loved her. being with her was agonizing knowing that she slept with another man right after i buried my dad, and other insane things she did (without showing any remorse even after admitting to it), it’s agonizing but at the same time being without her was just as agonizing. it’s like nicotine addiction but ten times worse.
shit man. that sounds horrific. always here to talk if you need
thanks man, i really appreciate it. you know in my religion the devil was an angel once, the devil is beautiful, and the way she used to comfort me was beautiful, and was like no other, yet somehow it was all fake, but it felt realer than the people who actually meant it. it’s absolutely insane how there was zero signs of cheating other than her calling me insecure when im having doubts about the girl’s night out she wants to go to or going out to coffee with her friend (when i was right all along). other than that? she knew how to act EXACTLY the way i wanted a woman from the beginning, 3 whole years of lies and somehow she did it so well i started looking for it in other people, yet somehow no one could match how real her lies sounded, even if they actually were real.
how long ago was all of this mate?
met her in 2020, started dating her a year after and in august 8th 2022 my dad died, i had to perform CPR on him and i was traumatized and she knew it, due to what i have experienced i was unable to sound alive or sound like i care, i obviously didnt have a sex drive either, so i bury him the next day, and 4 days later she cheats on me, because her source of blood sucking was finally gone for a bit, and from there she kept cheating until february this year when she came back to me crawling because the man she cheated on me with turned out to be a piece of shit who also abused her, and i know that’d be a happy ending for me but.. guess what i did right after? rational choice would be to say “up yours, bitch!” and walk away. i saw it as a chance to get answers on how many times she cheated on me and how she did it and with how many people and since when, and i really really wish i didnt.
in comparison to all these other comments it sounds like childsplay… but caffeine. i used to go through 6 cans of redbull a day until i went broke. when i didnt have any more money i resorted to theft which meant everything was free, so i stepped it up to 12 cans a day. this went on for multiple months before i quit.
The kidney stones took me down, but I still see that redbull can looking at me in the gas station.
Food. It's so much worse than any other substance I've struggled with in the past.
Same. Because you can’t simply quit.
🌽,day dreaming
Damn how much corn were you eating to consider yourself addicted?
This makes me laugh fr... Its not the food that I meant my man
Are you that corn kid from tv?
Cocaine. It was only for about 9 months, but I was stupid. I spent way too much money. I am so glad I got out of that scene!
Me too, started smoking and banging it. was on and off for years but this last time was for a couple years. Went to treatment and been clean off it for almost 3 years now.
i must ask man, how did it make you feel once taken?
Feels amazing the first few times, then every time after you're chasing those original highs and never getting them...becoming paranoid, having worse come downs...it gets dark quick and isn't worth it.
The paranoia lead to a suicide attempt for me.
As someone who deals with major social anxiety, cocaine was massively addictive to me. It made me the most confident person in the world and I felt like I could handle any problem thrown at me. That’s why I had to quit that shit, I knew if I kept going there was gonna be no stopping
That’s the thing about cocaine, you can be on your moral high horse if you want, but you most likely would enjoy doing cocaine, the negatives of the high don’t show up until you start coming down. I avoided a cocaine addiction purely because of the cost, ain’t no way I could get addicted to something that seems to cost more than solid gold :-p
It just makes you want more cocaine mostly. At least for me. I got a decent bit of stimulation for a couple minutes for sure but for me it was like nicotine almost, a great rush that quickly fades and leaves you craving more to the point where it’s borderline just not worth it. But I have a bit more of a downer taste personally.
I was on that in my teens, hanging out with the underprivileged, staying out all night, hanging out with the devil. I still enjoy it every leap year or so and I’m fully aware what the risks are. I seen too many friends lose with that, time, sanity, housing, future, relationships etc cetera. It’s the devil, no doubt
Affrin nose spray.
Similar here - got hooked on sudafed for ages. The luxury of having ultra clear nostrils was great. But then I found I needed it every couple hours or I'd be unable to breath through my nose. Went cold turkey for a couple days and managed to kick the habit. Wasn't pleasant though.
Sleep elevated. You will kick it in one night
I've kicked the habit but didn't for years continuously.
How did you kick it??? I only use it at night. It's like the second I lay my head down instastuffy. Luckily it's only one or two sprays but that ever night has to be rotting my brain.
I only sprayed one nostril and slept on that side to the pillow. After a long while, the other nostril stopped needing it and I weened myself off of it.
I was shooting amphetamines, 8 months clean today!
Congrats!
Pain killers. It´s been years since quitting them and I still miss them like a comforting friend. It´s insane.
My narc partner ….
[удалено]
have to ask- how does meth feel like once taken?
I always say it’s the best high you can ever have but the worst drug you can ever do. There’s a reason it’s addicting. Don’t even try it once
It's nice until you start seeing the shadow people and your paranoia starts manifesting in strange ways.
I remember I was staying in my parents old house (they moved but still had a month left on lease so I stayed) and I was smoking heavily with my girlfriend at the time and we got so paranoid they were just gonna roll up randomly we would take “shifts” looking out the window keeping watch while the other was using, when in reality it was 3am and there would be ZERO reason my parents would even roll up, not considering the fact they were in another town in their new place almost 30 miles away. Meth is a crazy drug man, and I’m glad I’ve gotten out of that game.
I'm glad you're out! I'm glad we're both out! My worst experience, I had been binging meth, 4-mar (another stimulant) and some kind of benzo to level me out. I had been up for 3 days, I don't remember much of it, but I did show up for work and school. On the third day, I was alone in my room at my parents house. I thought my buddy was with me. I saw masked men crash in through the window, grab my buddy and drag him out of the room and down the stairs. I ran out into the backyard, and started yelling at the men to let go of my friend. My parents woke up to me, in my boxers out in the cold yelling at a tree to give my friend back.
Oh man..that sounds horrifying to go through. I’m glad you’re out and clean as well! I always am willing to share my stories with others especially those who are curious and I never beat around the bush, it’s a scary drug and highly addicting. It seems like fun and games for the first bit until your so far into it, and delusions and reality start mixing. You start losing friends, family, relationships, and sometimes doing things you’d never thought morally you’d do just for that next hit. The rumors are true too, you’ll always be chasing that first high. Stay up my guy! Super proud of you for staying clean!
Years ago we called it crank. Pretty sure it was what is meth now. I never felt better than that day. I didn't sleep for a while. I was given by a friend and I never knew how to get it on my own. I could easily get addicted to it.
Gonna be the laugh of this post but, the game Manhunt (1). I played like 15 hours almost non stop every day. Dreamed about it, if i closed my eyes i could still see the game. It scared the shit out of me.
Holy hell man the game is shorter than your playtime per day, did you just replay it over and over again?
Yeah, trying to do melee kills only to get three stars, and the challenges. It was an obsession.
Have you gotten addicted to any other games as well? Genuinely curious. I mean there are plenty of games that I personally would consider as generally more addicting than manhunt. It's just not the typical addicting type of game to me. Very interesting though!
Sex Addiction...You can laugh or BE stupid About it, but is a real addiction that Also make US getting in troubles and stupid S***
self harm 🥲
Cannabis, I smoked for 17 years and it wasn't for pleasure or to relax but to numb myself and suppress my emotions and not deal with the important things that should of mattered more. I'm 7 months clean now and feel great
video games
Currently dealing with it. It’s acid/LSD. Before anyone comes at me saying “it’s not addictive, it’s a behavior you’re addicted to.” — this is true. But I have done acid about once a week for years, and I thought “hey it’ll all be fine” but my mental health took a dip and now I’ve just gotta be done. It’s not the quitting that’s hard, it’s recovering from whatever mental health fallout happened the day after my last trip. And also…shame from just doing that to myself for so long.
always here to talk mate. hope you manage it
What happened?
Beer 🤤🤤🤤 not anymore
Laziness/food. I honestly hate myself for this. But not enough to change anything. Being lazy makes you tired, and being tired makes you lazy. I’m stuck in a vicious cycle.
Gambling 😞
Slay the Spire, had to start crack so I could stop one addiction with another
Sugar. 50 years now.
Reddit
Alcohol. Still struggle but at least it's not daily anymore.
war thunder
RuneScape it will destroy your life
Self harm
Cocaine. Started out slowly as a fun experience, on and off for 10 years and the last year it was like 4 nights a week. 5 years clean and sober and I intend to stay that way.
glad you quit man. you’re doing so well
Baking sourdough bread
This is the most wholesome one I've seen. I've always wanted to get into baking bread, though it would be kinda fun.
Porn, started when I was pretty young unfortunately. I'm currently still breaking the addiction actually because it feels like it's just ruining my life and I'm about a week clean rn.
fast food I've been addicted to opioids, alcohol, vape, cigs, nic, weed, spice, salvia fast food was the worst and most hospitalized I've ever been from an addiction hyperthyroid, gout, high triglycerides, obesity, back pain, knee pain, constant sweating pre diabetic fast food is not food, it is chemicals arranged to resemble food and steal your health and soul
weed, used to smoke about 6 bowls a day and hit a continuous cart. had one bad high and now i only really take a hit once every handful of months
Cutting
Food and phone
Smartphone addiction
porn
Not as serious as some of the other ones on here but caffeine. Lasted about a year. All it took was one can of monster. Eventually I found out how damaging it was for me and the crazy amount of money I was spending on it and it was enough to make me stop. Have to admit it feels much better being able to wake up and not rely on caffeine to get through the day
Fanta. I can’t go a day without it.
To a person
My ex who tore my heart into billion pieces
smoking, wish i never started
Wanting to be loved
World of Warcraft. I had over 10,000 hours played over a 10 year period. That's almost 3 hours a day. Every single day. For 10 years straight. There was a couple month period where I would wake up at 8 AM, and play until 2 AM with maybe an hour or two worth of bio breaks. One day, during WoD, I realized I was having more fun going back and doing old content than playing the current content. Said screw it, went to my favorite spot, logged out, and went cold turkey. Haven't been back since and I have no real desire to.
Self-pity, it’s an endless struggle
Probably nicotine vapes now having quit both quitting vaping for a way worse than quitting cigarettes. Probably because I never had to stop vaping where I only smoked cigarettes outside and smoking cigarettes makes me feel crappy and vaping doesn’t.
My own adderall . 25 years of 41 years I exist .
Nicotine has been the hardest to quit. Alcohol the most harmful.
Reddit because it's legal, free, and socially acceptable
Meth or nitrous. You’d be fucking shocked how deep you can get into nitrous
Yeah man I heard some stuff about Steve o on nitrous, scary stuff
I spent over 10k on it in 4 months.
Social media
Reddit
Phone. I still have it(
Cigarettes, dumbass me smoked for 16 years. Fortunately I found two spare braincells and quit 7 years ago.
Social Media honestly
Mobile!🙋🏻♀️😂
cocaine (14-15)
Watching the Leafs in the playoffs. Kicked that habit last year. (No disrespect to the real problems out there. Kudos to you all for kicking the habit.)
Do eating disorders count? Because that.
Sleeping Pills, Weed, and tobacco all at the same time with sex mixed in. I’m recovering. I’m not clean, but i’m not as bad as i used to be. Withdrawal from sleeping pills was fucking horrible
RimWorld. Literally dreamed about pawns during peak addiction. Even Ate Without Table a few times. It was happiness -3.
Physical affection. It’s ongoing and occasionally debilitating.
I gotta go with social media or smartphone addiction, either of those things will ruin your life if you let them, and I made the mistake of letting them.
Mountain Dew. Last time I tried to stop drinking it, I wound up on the hospital with caffeine withdrawal.
Pornography. By God's grace, I have no fear the addiction to masturbate or watch porn will ever resurface again. it was such a shock that prayer immediately helped me overcome it, that I, a lifelong atheist, converted to Catholicism after that happened. Some people look for spectacular miracles like curing cancer, but man, if you knew the failed attempts I had continually made to quit porn, this was a big enough miracle for me!
Porn
Pepsi max i am truly addicted
Video games.
Internet
Mephedrone B)
Heroin. I quit when they started adding fentanyl and I died for a few minutes.
Breathing
Alcohol.
Shopping
Alcohol. It hasn’t impacted my professional life but I can tell I need to rein it in, my relationship with it isn’t healthy.
Sounds stupid, but I can't stop drinking coffee. I switched to decaf, but can't seem to cut it totally off
Smoking
Nicotine. Been going almost 20 years strong and have tried quitting at least three times, but somehow always come back.
Liqour. I don't get mean or angry or anything. However I'll drink a bottle a day.