How did you quit your addiction?

Lemmy@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 85 points –
60

Girlfriend was thinking about breaking up with me because of it. She never outright said it or threatened it but I could feel it yk? The worried comments were becoming more like requests. I'm lucky I wasn't in too deep, addiction has just begun to settle in so breaking out was too difficult.

She has admitted to me since that she did come very close to ending our relationship. Glad it didn't come to that

After a lot of struggle and multiple failed attempts, I quit drinking

The first attempt I got sober for the sake of someone else but never addressed the cause of my addiction. So when they died I fell off the wagon really fuckin hard. (This was also the only attempt at sobriety where I experienced withdrawal symptoms)

The second attempt I tried to get sober my life had gotten so much worse by that point and I didn't have any idea of healthy coping mechanisms so that one failed after a month.

The third attempt I had addressed some of the issues but I didn't have a healthy friend group that could accept me for being sober. So that attempt failed because I didn't want to lose my friends that I had gained.

The fourth attempt came after my doctor told me I would be dead before 30 of I didn't stop. My current friend group (the one from attempt 3) weren't supportive of my plans to get sober. And even told me to find a new doctor as my was apparently "too stupid". I was beginning to show signs of liver damage pretty bad at that point so I made the call and cut them out of my life.

I got sober for me, I went from a fifth of at least 100 proof alcohol every night to zero. I quit cold turkey.

It was so fucking hard. It was literally months before I no longer had to fight the urge to suck spilt liquor off the floor when I smelt it. It allowed me to face my mental health head on and actually deal with my problems.

And over the years it has only gotten easier to stay sober.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Wow. Quite the story. Thanks for sharing. Really glad you were able to do it. I have a friend whose hopelessly addicted to alcohol, and your story is spot on the troubles he faces to quit. I don't think he ever will. Very very happy for you.

Cold turkey. You make the time to quit "now" and not a later that never comes. It worked for cigarettes and fast food. From that point you live with yourself.

Warning though for my advice. I care little for my own happiness, quiting those were not a pleasant experience. I did not strengthen my resolve to overcome weaknesses, in bouts of depression I discarded things that made me happy for my health.

I went to work for a MS only company and had a work issued laptop.

Helped a lot with my addiction - at least for a while.

I have relapsed though and have a rack with 3 2 unit servers running that OS that I shall not mention and countless VM/Containers and docker images - I also have several VPS in data centers and run a small Lemmy instance, Blog, online shop...

Um, I think I need help again.

Replace it with another not as self harming addiction.

Which addiction?

For Adderall, Vyvanse, Dabs, Alcohol, Benzodiazepines, and meth I went to rehab and learned why I used the dopamine inducing substances, to really get to the root of the problem. Honestly it’s been a world of difference and if anyone is struggling feel free to reach out. Childhood trauma is a bitch.

For vaping I am currently using nicorette until I run out and then it’s cold turkey!

For energy drinks I looked up how bad they were for the body and heart specifically every time I wanted one.

The biggest thing for me that has helped is getting the idea in your head that you’re not currently “quitting” but instead you’ve already “quit”. It’s more of a finality of a statement and helps reinforce no relapse. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever go back in a moment of weakness, however. What’s important is to not turn a lapse of willpower into a total relapse.

Hey, I’m struggling and I’m intrigued by your first paragraph.

Hey, please reach out to me. I’m here for you and I’m an open book. Any questions, any concerns, and any advice you need I’m right here with you. I am here for you and I am judgement free. Anything I can do to help let me know even if you just need someone to talk to in recovery.

I quit smoking via vaping. I started out vaping high nicotine and then gradually decreased the concentration until I was vaping nic-free and then not at all. I haven't smoked OR vaped in the over 3 years since.

I'm not sure it would have been possible for me without flavored vape juice, though: vaping a good flavor that's very different from tobacco flavor helps by making real cigarettes taste absolutely awful in comparison. Like "the first cigarette you ever smoked" awful if not worse.

Vaping tobacco flavor makes it much harder to not backslide since normal cigarettes won't taste awful to you and will deliver not only more of a nicotine kick, but also several other addictive chemicals that aren't in e-juice.

In conclusion: banning flavored e-juice, which was already illegal for children to buy, will lead to thousands if not millions of people dying from tobacco related diseases because the most effective smoking cessation product was made much less effective for no good reason.

Went through the same path and managed to stop vaping at 0mg after a while. Tried many times to stop smoking, and vaping was the only thing that did it. I'm guessing vaping flavor ate mostly illegal because governments weren't maming enough money out of it.

Yeah, sounds like I had about the same experience as you: before successfully quitting via vaping, I had been trying basically every other method including prescription medications for 10 of the 18 years that I smoked. Nothing worked until vaping.

I'm guessing vaping flavor ate mostly illegal because governments weren't maming enough money out of it.

More a case of Big Tobago still having a lot of politicak influence (read: give out a lot of bribes to politicians) AND normally benevolent organizations such as the main anti-cancer foundation here in Denmark rely on sales of traditional cessation products for significant portions of their funding.

The latter is even more fucked up than the former IMO: organizations whose sole purpose is minimizing and researching cures for cancer were the main opponents to the best tool to eliminate the most common cause of cancer.

They indirectly CAUSED cancer because otherwise they'd have less money to do their great work of helping PREVENT and treat cancer.

If only they and vape makers had agreed to the same profit sharing deal as the traditional cessation product makers, vaping would probably be fully legal for adults with no unreasonable restrictions AND more effectively kept away from kids like the traditional ones are. Might even be the most used method, since it's the most effective one.

Vaping is mostly illegal because tobacco companies have to switch. They have a lot of production facilities. Those need to be tuned down, closed or converted. That would cost them a lot of money. So it's best to slow that down with laws.

Tobacco companies make the laws. If anything related to them is outlawed or regulated or taxed, it is because they want it that way.

Things that are outlawed become regulated. Things that are regulated can be made expensive. It takes money to compete in a regulated market. It's a long-game. And tobacco knows how to play a long-game.

My guess: They'll wait until more small companies pop up, then buy them all, and then kill tobacco, which is much less profitable than producing vape stuff. And then they'll triple the price.

Was severe albeit functional alcoholic til age 40. AA never worked. What finally worked was harm reduction, moderation management. Medical marijuana became a thing, and just one hit of a pocket pipe of medical grade indica... good for hours. No longer needed to drink a case of beer each night.

1st few years... I'd say, I'll let myself have 8 beers this year. Next year was 6. Year after, 3. By then, triggered addiction cravings stopped happening.

So weird, how overpowering the addiction felt when I was trapped in it.

I never did, i replaced them often tho.

Binge Eating, Cigarettes, Drinking, smoking pot... dropped all that tho when i got hooked on a cocktail of Tramadol, Hydromorphon, Lorazepam and Fentanyl through my doctors because of chronic pain. started abusing that stuff and had a few close calls. I tried quitting cold turkey but wasn't strong enough.

Forged a pact with my doctor, deposited my pain meds at his place and saw him 3 times per week for my next dose for over a year, but i couldn't stop abusing my meds.

Finally last year with the help of my therapist and a program for addicts transited over to suboxone.

i'm still addicted, but it's not self destructive anymore. When i'm feeling ready, i will slowly reduce my substitution over months, but even if i'm never ready for it, at least i do not damage my personal relations and my health anymore, i'ts just a pill in the morning to keep the cravings away.

The important part was putting my addiction on the table. Addiction thrives on feelings of shame, and i went through a lot just to hide my vice from my partner. Putting it into the open enabled me to get help - first in therapy, then with my doctor, and then with my partner.

Tl;dr: Get Therapy, start talking about your addiction to get rid of the shame, many addictions can be replaced with less damaging / health-neutral options if you're not ready to leave your crutches behind yet.

Stopped smoking cold turkey and it was hard as f*ck. Thirteen years ago and haven't picked it back up yet.

17 years and sometimes I still crave one

Good for you! That is a long time. Yes it happens to me too sometimes, but then again I just laugh because now I find it disgusting and the smell is awful but then there is that part of my mind that associates smoking with some pretty good times in my life, not because of the smoking per se, but the reminiscence and nostalgia of it all.

I'm on month 4 over here. Do the cravings ever stop being daily?

You got this! Yes, but in my case they came and went on waves. Certain places or activities triggered me more than others so I avoided them until I felt I could master it. It will get better!!

smoking: I decided it was disgusting. it was like a switch flipped and I had no desire to do it anymore.

and it helps that it actually is super nasty (I can only imagine how I used to smell), and ruins everything; I just had to realize it.

Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

For anyone who might want to stop smoking, just grab a used copy or download it somewhere

Indeed. I was really skeptical but to my surprise, it really works! Maybe not on everyone but I suspect it does for a high proportion of people.

I quit alcohol, carbohydrates, weed, porn and tobacco two and a half years ago at age 42, a few weeks after breaking my clavicle in complicated ways, and while checking for additional damage, a fatty liver was identified.

I never picked up alcohol, weed, porn and tobacco and reintegrated sugar in reasonable amounts, like at social events.

I did it cold turkey. One day to the next. It was absolute hell for three days. I was sick, had a fever and malaria like sweats. Then it was a psychological shitshow for two weeks.

I was overweight, so I fasted completely for six days to withstand any temptations. Only had salt and water / electrolytes. After six days I had eggs and sardines for two weeks or so. Didn't poop for almost a month, even had a colonoscopy to check. Everything was fine. Just adapting.

Then I did keto for a few months, found that to be too complicated, and then went carnivore with social-event exceptions, and never looked back. Keto was fine, but being a carnivore changed everything. All my little ailments went away. Skin issues, scalp issues, rashes, moodiness, sleepiness, urges and cravings, all of it.

Lost 12 kg in those first two weeks, barely slept, but was energetic like hell, only skipped work when having the fever and sweats.

Two weeks of hell, half a year of experiments and two years of a new life. It is like being 20 years younger. I haven't been sick or ill since, either.

Good luck to you.

Isn't carnivore just keto but on hard mode? How was that doable but not keto?

For me, it was the plants and the fiber. They made me groggy, sleepy, and constipated. The word antinutrients is slowly becoming an item; And for me, it's true. Without them, I instantly felt better, stronger. And I had a much bigger will to live.

Keto to carnivore was as big a difference as standard diet to keto.

I would call it keto on easy mode.

Smoked for about 15 years, tried a few times to stop, never worked. Made myself a promise to stop once I get a dog. Got a dog and stopped smoking with no problem.

Possible contributing factors:

  • When it was time to stop I was already pretty disgusted by smoking. I just needed a last push.
  • My mind was in a more positive state after I had a deep depression for a few years. I was also more conscious about my health because of that (see previous point)
  • My friend group and work place used to be full of smokers and somehow that changed over time, so I was often alone with my addiction

I quite smoking. Much like another post. Swapped to vaping then lowered nic levels to zero. Then I also played a game with myself. How long can I go without vaping. Never told myself I couldn't. Id just want it more. But just told myself. Can I wait 10 minutes. Pushing it a little longer each time till I was going hours then days. I don't remember the last time I did it. It just merged into not needing it. I still get cravings at times but I think I just kinda tell myself can I wait an hour and then I forget about it or the cravings is gone.

The thing with the cravings is that the frequency lowers the longer you've quit. They still occur in force, but longer apart

Medical emergency, months of painful rehab, permanent disability.

Still trying. 😞

Dependency, reverse engineering, or heroin?

It's heroin isn't it. 😔

But in all seriousness and to actually add to the topics discussion, Suboxone and methadone are the 2 options. Suboxone for a quick taper. Quick tapers don't usually last for addicts, unless you can build stability (unlikely, addicts are often addicts because they're unhappy from a period of instability, or mental illness which is worsened by instability...) by the time you are done with your taper. But methadone has changed my life. Although I'm still on it, so technically I'm still on an opioid, but at least I can be productive and have periods of stability.

I... read a book?! A friend told me about "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking". I was more then skeptical but ended up reading it and, well, it worked! I had been a heavy smoker for 15+ years at that point. Made me realize you can actually use mental suggestion to change some habits.

What I’ve often found is that even seemingly harmless addictive behaviours leave lasting impressions on my personality. My two addictions I’m trying to quit are porn and nicotine gums.

Porn was just taking up too much of my time and energy. Especially since I was working from home. I’d be in meetings with my camera and mic off browsing some weird nsfw on reddit. Stopped cold turkey and it feels amazing tbh

Nicotine gums stay on for now. This is one addiction which has actually provided me an unintended benefit. My jawline improved drastically over a year! But I hope one day I can be comfortable sitting with myself idle not wanting to compulsively do anything!

It depends on the addiction but for me it's improving everything else. Bad mental health makes it very hard to deal with addiction. Here's a couple of things to try:

  • Proper sleep. Don't sacrifice sleep unless it's really important (e.g. feeding baby).
  • Exercise
  • Eat more healthy. (If not sure where to start then stop eating sugar, limit flour, alcohol and processed food).
  • Socialise at least the minimum you need. (Your milage and methods may vary).

It my experience the above plus a reason to quit does the trick. Weekly yoga classes, regular 8h sleep and not buying sweets is the easiest way to meet the criteria I know about.

I did an ayahuasca ceremony and asked for guidance on how to quit smoking and never start again.