Whats been the toughest addiction to beat for you?
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Porn and weed.
I've no doubt there are people that can use it moderately, but my brain just keeps wanting more. I quit cigarettes with no issues. I went from drinking a 6-pack a night to barely drinking at all. But those two really are hard to escape. Every time I kick weed I always have a night where I'm relaxing and I go and get a preroll - then end up getting more and smoking for the next few days before I realize what I'm doing. Same thing with porn. I can smoke a hell of a lot of porn.
But seriously, it's hard to quit. And I think that part of the reason is due to my inability to label either of those things as "real addictions" in my head. Neither of those things are demonstrably decreasing my quality of life, at least not the way cigarettes and alcohol did, so I'm having trouble contextualizing them as harmful. Porn is easier for me in that regard, since it definitely subconsciously affects my views on the human body, and noticing that more is helping me shake the habit.
For the record, I do think weed is a lot less harmful than booze. But there's a right way and a wrong way to use it, and I've been using it the wrong way for so long that I don't think I can use it the right way.
To quote one of the great philosophers of our times:
"Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorism, but, well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored, and it's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you aren't good at anything."
Now, I don't necessarily think all of that is true. Plenty of people are creative and innovative and also smoke pot, but it does make you content with doing nothing. Very relaxing in the moment, until you realize, after a few years of daily smoking, that all your friends have been learning new things and growing and you've been sitting on the couch watching TV the whole time. It's totally fine to use every now and then, and by no means should be illegal, but we do need to start being realistic about how daily cannabis use quells that burning desire to be active and improve ourselves.
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Since covid, there's been a lot of food in the house. Something about not being able to get it when we wanted made us buy more, more often and stockpile. Of course, food expires and throwing it away means that it was a bad decision to buy so much, so eating it is the only financially responsible thing to do, right?
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Quit drinking and you will crave sugar like crazy. When I was in the navy, I'd start craving sugar about a day and a half after getting underway. Then we'd pull in somewhere, I'd get hella drunk and not crave sugar, go underway, rinse/repeat.
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You and I have extremely similar experiences. Nicotine for me was super easy, though—one day I had my morning cig and I felt like DOGSHIT. The next day I tried again and I just felt horrible, debilitated. Stopped smoking habitually that day, no cravings. I think I got lucky.
Caffeine now makes me feel like an anxious mess. This happened almost overnight.
I miss weed so much, but it ALSO makes me an anxious mess. I still try it occasionally but maybe one in four times it actually is fun. It’s been months since I’ve touched it.
Alcohol… I drink with my partner every evening. It makes everything more fun. We’re trying to cut down/stop, but is it ever damn difficult.
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Absolutely same. I woke up one day and cigarettes felt horrible. Quit easily.
Alcohol… I’m trying. It just makes everything so much more fun. I hate it. I love it.
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Caffeine I have quit a few times and that has the worst physical withdrawal of anything I have quit (hard drugs & alcohol I have never used enough to become physically habituated). Speed probably the most difficult emotionally/psychologically.
I don't worry about caffeine anymore, just maintain the habit.
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It makes everything seem more fun.
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That’s the same thing.
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No, it really isn't.
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Doom scrolling. The thing is though when I take time off work I don't touch the internet at all for days on end. I work on my hobbies instead. It's when I only have a day or two of free time (even less when you account for having to do chores) and not enough time to finish whatever I'm working on along with whatever I have to come back to next Monday weighing on my mind that I just turn to my phone instead. That's only working 40 hours a week too. There are people in far worse situations than me.
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Alcohol. I never drank until I got an IT internship and the boss was big into craft beers. I started drinking craft beer every night just to have something to bond with him through to try to turn the internship into a full-time job. I did get the job, but then struggled for years with alcohol dependence.
After my dad died I nearly drank myself to death and managed to quit for an entire year. Then I got cheated on, and home was no longer a safe space, so I hung out at the bar every day instead. It's been 6 months and I've gone from ~75 beers / week to ~24. Just tapering myself off slowly. Wegovy helps - I can't have more than a few drinks without feeling super bloated now.
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Born in 80, so a similar vintage to you; and yeah, we have connections and information now, but I feel like we should have stopped some time around 05, before smartphones really took hold.
I'm absolutely willing to accept that I'm wearing the highest grade rose tinted goggles, but not having to do everything online certainly felt better than whatever all this is. gestures broadly
I remember what it was like before I could stave off boredom at any time, but even then I don't think the convenience outweighs the problems. Though in fairness it's not really the phones, but the companies who make billions from us using them. But those companies had nowhere near the same amount of power, and I can't help thinking that was a good thing.
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I quit heroin and other heavy opioids just before fentanyl really hit the streets. Quit cold turkey after losing a few friends and realizing that I could get a bag cut with fent and die, and I couldn't do that to my siblings; they're a lot younger than me and really idolized me at the time.
When I was well enough to get to a store without shitting myself or throwing up bile everywhere, I went and bought a handle of the cheapest vodka I could. I continued that every day until 4 years ago.
I have cirrhosis, and my liver could shit the bed at any time, but I'm alive and I'm clean (for the most part) and sober. I work in recovery and am working to become a Drug and Alcohol Counselor now.
I quit smoking about 6 months ago. I went to the store, didn't have quite enough for a pack, and just haven't bought another. Tobacco has been the hardest for me by far. Alcohol withdrawal almost killed me - I had to be hospitalized for near a month - but I was on high doses of benzodiazepines so I don't remember much of it. The cravings for a cigarette are intense. They've gotten better zand they will continue to do so, but damn, it's rough.
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240mg oxycodone, unknown amount of fentanyl towards the end there
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Weed was easy. Don't even think I was addicted. For me, I've been struggling for with sleeping pills lately. Might go back to the weed but just do oils before bed for sleep. I'm a shift worker in a high stress job so I need something at night to calm the nerves sometimes.
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When I was assessed for (and diagnosed with) ADHD when I was 39, 5 years ago, I asked the psych whether my obesity was perhaps linked to it. He replied that, "no, probably not. Most of the people I see are thin".
This had the double whammy of making me doubt my diagnosis and consider that I'm just an irredeemable fat cunt.
Which was nice.
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Ozzy Osbourne called it the hardest drug to quit and that man has done many drugs
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Fiction. Written. Scifi mainly.
When I can't get the good stuff I use the bad stuff. But I'm always using.
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Being too damn nice.
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I am confronting the fact that I have lost the ability to just be bored. I need to get that back.
