Whats been the toughest addiction to beat for you?
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Tobacco. 10,000%.
I smoked 3 packs a day. for 25 years.
Then when vaping appeared on the scene, I switched to vaping - HEAVY vaping, loads of nicotine (you could buy 100mg/ml nicotine base by the gallon for a few bucks back when it was still free). For 10 years.
Then finally I quit vaping. It's been 5 years.
I'm finally free of tobacco. And it's entirely thanks to vaping for me. I tried a million times and only vaping finally peeled me off tobacco (and then it took me 10 years go peel myself off vaping, but that was easier). That's what it took and how long it took me to get off tobacco.
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Nicotine. No cigs anymore but never got off the vape.
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Excessive amounts of food. I have to eat, but cutting back to the amount I should be eating for my age and physical activity is so tough.
The cause is binge eating in my youth when I was extremely active but didn't eat three meals a day due to adhd absentmindedness. Frequently I would only have one or two meals a day, but eat two or more meals worth of calories at a time and burn it off in short order.
Now with family and a desk job with a scheduled lunchtime it is basically impossible to eat when I'm hungry instead of when it is 'time to eat' and portion control is a struggle. Quitting smoking required buying a house and quitting together with the wife, at least that had a cutoff date that I could say "I haven't smoked since moving in". Eating less is something I need to do every day!
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Nicotine. I was able to quit for about three months last year. Going to give it another try tomorrow now that I've run out of patches.
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Alcohol. Nicotine was a walk in the park.
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Not to claim equivalence or anything, but smartphone and the internet (ironic saying so here I know).
I’m a xennial … old enough to remember living without all this and the middle time where computers were either games or just useful tools.
For me, and I’m pretty sure many others, I’m pretty convinced it’s better that way.
I’d really like to get away from these things, at least just to relearn older habits.
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did vaping make it easier to taper off?
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I never tapered off. I replaced hard smoking with hard vaping almost overnight - and when I mean hard vaping, I mean big mods with big drippers, tons of power, tons of clouds, tons of nicotine.
I calmed down a bit with the vaping over the years because I didn't feel I needed as much. Then one day, I simply left the mod at home one morning and stopped vaping cold turkey.
Vaping had two functions for me:
- Inject nicotine into my system in a safer way than tobacco
- Reassure me that no matter what happened, as long as I had a mod nearby, I never needed to touch a cigarette again. And my most pressing source of anxiety was to want to smoke again.
After 10 years of vaping, I really felt like tobacco was well and truly alien to me at that point, so the "crutch" aspect of vaping disappeared. As for the nicotine, I figured I could always smear some nicotine base VG onto my gums. So I quit vaping but I left home with a bottle of nic. But I never needed it.
That's my tobacco cessation story. Everybody's is different
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Nicotine by far. I quit doing most other drugs (except I still enjoy smoking weed), but I just cannot quit smoking. I’ve tried several times, and even if I go a month or two, I still can’t resist.
I think the reason for this is because I actually enjoy smoking quite a lot. All those other drugs eventually became more of a living hell than they were fun, so quitting them was easier.
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Porn I’m afraid. Starting as a way to combat boredom and loneliness and anxiety as a preteen has turned in to a fifteen year long struggle and descent in to various medications and treatments that only impede my ability to develop healthy intimate relationships. Nofap, yorubrainonporn, abstaining, none of it has been effective for more than three weeks of it. Even being a pen tester when the compulsivity hits, it’s me versus my skills. And it’s always a losing demoralizing battle.
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Social media. I'll close the app and put my phone in my pocket, done with scrolling, then immediately take out my phone and open an app.
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I have quit sugar, caffeine, nicotine, weed, and am trying to get my alcohol consumption under control.
Sugar was almost automatic. I just don't have much of a sweet tooth, so consciously avoiding sugar was really easy. I can't say I've noticed much of a difference since, although overly sugary things like Coke now taste disgusting, and I can immediately tell when something has been sweetened with sugar, even if it's really subtle. It's like a 6th sense. You'll be surprised at the stupid shit people put sugar into. Pickles, mustard, tomato sauce... these things do not need sugar!
Caffeine had the most intense withdrawal effects. The caffeine headache is unlike any other headache I've ever had, and I'm a migraine sufferer. The brainfog was horrible too. Coming out the other side is great though. Plus having a coffee from that point on is a fucking glorious experience.
Nicotine took me years, and I wouldn't have accomplished it without switching to vaping first. I've written about this before but that makes it sound easier than it was. There were many many many failed attempts before I put down the vape for good. This one has had the best benefits though. You don't realise how good breathing is until you're fully quit for a while.
Weed was really not my choice. I really really overdid it, and I now can't touch the stuff. I've tried, and it's always a terrible time. I just withdraw inwards and become an anxious, paranoid mess. What's worse is it takes me days to recover as well. Doesn't matter how little I have or how "no really this weed is super mellow dude" it is, I consistently have a bad time now. I miss this one the most. I used to really enjoy what it was like in the beginning.
Alcohol is my fucking kryptonite. I cannot get it under control. I think my only option at this point is really to go teetotal. it's not really bad enough for me to what to be so drastic with it though. I'm not an angry drunk, I don't spend more than I can afford on it, it's not really negatively affecting my life... I just drink too much and too often, and I worry for my health.
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best wishes to you! you got this.
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I’m slightly younger (born in 86) but went through a similar thought process a couple of years back. I remembered being an avid reader as a kid but could barely make it through a book or two a year, and struggled to maintain any form of attention span. I forced myself to read more for about the first month, then I got addicted to it again and ended up reading 42 books that year. I’m very conscious now about pretty much always having my devices in some form of focus mode/app time limits and prioritizing focus/reading time. I feel much better.
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What is a pen tester?
I'm sorry to hear your problems and hope you get better soon -
Isolation.
God.... apparently it's "healthy" for me to go out and socialize and talk to people.
I don't want to. I have no desire to maintain relationships. It'd be nice, but I'm too flaky. I want to be left alone.
I have no desire to talk to anyone irl. Don't want to. Want to be by myself and do whatever I want.
God..... I don't want to.....
It's a... strange addiction.
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New things. I simply can't stay with anything. Makes it basically impossible to have any decent job, because people want and expect you to be an expert at what you do.
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I do red team cybersecurity. Basically I try and break in to systems. Putting blockers up in my place is always a challenge as I break through the, by sheer skill.
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I know it doesn't help you, but weed really helped me curb my alcohol use. I'm in the same boat. I self medicate and drink too much. I'm worried about my liver, but I don't drink and drive and only drink beer.
I stupidly have given myself a nicotine addiction with sachets recently that I need to fucking stop. I noticed nicotine makes me grumpy, which is a drastic change for me.
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I’ve been starting to think that it’s something us older millennials can actually do for our younger friends … remind, demo and teach what a less tech ruled life can look like, how tech can be treated as more humane and not a necessity.
