How you stopped addiction?

16 comments

1. The addict has to want to change on their own. Avoid old places and behaviors that enabled the addiction.

2. replaced it with something new and potentially worse

3. The first step of overcoming an addiction is realizing you have an addiction. You’re on the right track

4. If you count soda, meat, and MMO-gaming, I just went cold turkey. Was shockingly easy.

5. cut off all supply to the addiction and be radical. don’t leave a door open otherwise you will get back through when the urges hit

   get an accountability partner.

   get therapy if needed

   find hobbies to distract yourself with

   find ways to express yourself (music, art, journaling, something spiritual like prayer or meditation- whatever works for you)

6. Cigarettes were getting expensive

7. Hookers kept giving me crabs

8. Quitting alcohol saved my life

9. If you take something big out of your life you need to fill that hole with something big.

10. It depends. Some addiction is pretty much strictly chemical (cigarettes, coffee); and in that case you just brace for a pile of suffering with the knowledge that every day that suffering is going to get less and less intense.

    Other addictions (drugs, booze, sex, gambling) are more complicated and psychological. You have to figure out *why* you’re doing what you’re doing. In these situations a person is usually addicted to replace something missing in their life or as a coping mechanism. Since the addictive behavior is itself already a replacement, you have to do something else to take it’s place.

11. Get addicted to healthy stuff and what you call addiction will become pleasure!

12. I wanted to lose weight for spiteful reasons originally. Then I quit drinking and smoking. I started watching my food and I am studying for a new career. There’s say’s I’d love to get high or drunk, but I look at how far I’ve come and tell myself I can do it. If I can do it anyone can do it. I’m 12 days sober, but I have been addicted to drugs and alcohol for 10 years.

13. Cigarettes. Just quit one day. I buy a pack for a friend every month or two. Might have one or two of his on a weekend with beer. But I never picked up the habit again. Been like 15 years.

14. By not having it anywhere near me. Avoid places that have it. I would even go as far as locking myself at home for a month so I can get through that initial phase of withdrawal and start getting into the habit of not having it.

15. Never stop, never quit.

16. Sheer will