Thank you very much! Know that I really appreciate your help, even if I can’t Thank you individually!
Was a serious alcoholic for 12+ years.
I do things the hard way. I lost apartments, jobs, girlfriends, etc over and over again for years, scraping by at rock bottom. One DUI wasn’t enough, I had to go get another several years later. That’s the one that pushed me truly past the edge to be ready to quit. By that point, I knew very well how awful my addiction was for me. There was nothing romantic about drinking anymore. Just pain and shame. I harnessed my guilt, depression, and self-loathing and turned it into absolute, seething hatred for alcohol. Otherwise I’d fail, again, and swing through a gas station for a 40. I couldn’t be around people drinking anymore. I started buying cigarettes from places that didn’t sell booze. I started painting miniatures for DnD and Warhammer 40k to keep me busy at home, which worked really well for me. I didn’t go to AA, but I had in the past (and I had the nerve to pound a beer beforehand and then insist - to other alcoholics who clearly knew better - that I was sober, to my unending shame).
Addiction is insidious. It talks to you in your own voice, all the time. I had to drown that out with hatred. I started replacing “alcohol” with “poison” in my thoughts. I watched drunk people downtown with absolute disgust, mostly at myself for having acted like them. And I set goals for myself, because a large part of why I drank was out of despair. I went back to (trade) school. Met a great partner. Anything and everything I could do to keep myself moving. I used to just lay in bed, drinking and watching Netflix on my phone, so I forced myself to at the very least get up and dressed and spend my days off in the living room instead. Breaking patterns, you know?
It’s a lot. Sometimes, 6.5 years later, I still find myself thinking a beer would be nice. I have to shut that shit down hard. A year after I dried out, my mom passed from alcohol-caused organ failure. It was a sad, painful end for her. That memory helps keep me on track.
Find something to do. Find lots of things to do. Rewrite the way you think about your addiction and turn it into a conflict you’re dedicated to winning. That voice in your head isn’t your friend, it’s The Enemy and it Wants You Dead.
This is how I quit smoking. Not comparing the two but you need to not be around it, if you are around it admit you are NOT in control and have a trusted friend help you (easier to not be around it).
Everyone says replace it with something healthy. No, replace with absolute hatred and loathing.
People underestimate how powerful anger yoked to the proper cause can be.
It depends on the addiction and the individual, some may need help, others don’t.
Personally, I reached a point where I was feeling so terrible (and was undergoing a battery of medical tests to find out why) that I just felt like I couldn’t keep on drinking. So I stopped.
I was able to quit drinking 10 months ago thanks to the piss water know as Miller Lite and the ready availability of delicious Nonalcoholic IPAs. Thought I would be a drunk till the day I died. I slowly stepped down from drinking everyday for over 10 years by starting with 2 Miller lite tall boys and slowly stepping down to 1 then a smaller tall boy, and then finally the smallest tall boy. I had previously quit a year before and had terrible night terrors, then i relapsed aftet my father unalived himself. Still can’t believe I’m sober, recently went on antidepressants and have gone over a week without smoking weed because i guess i had a severe serotonin deficiency which the antidepressants fixed. Its crazy being sober and I like it. Highly recommend reading Epictetus’s Discourses or other stoicism to help you build up the mental fortitude to quit. It ain’t easy, but if i can quit anyone can. You got this shit OP!
The antidepressants are so key to quitting. Most of us were just self-medicating with our addictions. Take away the depression and it is a lot easier to give your addiction up
125% i used to have to be stoned as a mountain goat all damn day just to feel normal, and now I have a normal baseline and only dry vape a little weed on the weekend as opposed to doing dabs all day. Its nice to use weed recreationally again and not use it just to feel ok.
Got a friend off Meth with antidepressants and adderall prescription recommendations. Turns out they had ADHD and self medicated to get their executive dysfunction to function again. They had been using for like a year so I think bamboozling their brain to the safer option was the key.
Also fun fact, lead was banned from gasoline in commercial cars in 1996. Lead also has developmental defects on growing embryos, of which ADHD is common. Like a 60% chance with toxic exposure, the rest of the % is Autism and Cerebellar Hypodysplasia (undersized cerebellum).
I used to smoke. Roommate and i quit at the same time and kept each other honest. It worked out really well and we’re both still grateful to each other a decade later.
To get off of alcohol, I sat in the house and smoked pot heavily for a month. To get off of weed I just stopped. To get off of nicotine I smoked CBD weed heavily for a week and then stopped smoking weed again. I smoked regular weed on for a random week because I found out CBD could cause false positives for THC on a drug test, then I quit again.
Alcohol free: 306 days
Weed free: 25 days
Nicotine free: 50 days
So you’re saying that weed is a solution to evrry addiction. Nice.
Jk lol congratulation on your beinf drug free!
