Asklemmy

Sobriety

Smoking cigarrettes. Quit coldturkey fourteen years ago and haven't picked it up since.

sweats profusely in ADHD

I smoked for a decade and have been quit for 19 years.

Facebook (when that was still a platform young people used). I would obsessively scroll through it for hours each day, basically trying to look at and comment on EVERYTHING. On a whim, I decided to take a break from it for a month. By the time the month was up, I realized I didn't miss it at all, and that was that. One of the big takeaways was that I thought that I was forming relationships with the people I'd comment back and forth with, but in reality these were people who I would never hang out with outside of school and barely even talk with in school (if at all); it was all just superficial, and I was better off spending time talking to my actual friends.

It wasn't that bad, but in high school I mindlessly got into the habit of drinking a few cups of Coke each day (I think it started because I would get a 2 liter whenever I'd order pizza). I quit it pretty much cold turkey, and not only did I stop drinking it at home, I no longer order it at restaurants either, which is something I did ever since I was a little kid. The idea of just buying a bottle of soda and drinking it is straight honestly grosses me out now even though getting a can or bottle from a vending machine was something I'd do without thinking. The one exception is when I'm pigging out at the movies with a bucket of popcorn, but that's pretty rare.

I've stopped smoking 3 times

Biting my cheeks, now I bite my lips. Mmmmmm skin

Video games. I used to play 4-6 hours per day (or often more), every day. It was kind of my default activity when I wasn't forced to do something else. If I ran out of steam trying to focus on work or family I would drift into playing a video game. The result was a MASSIVE sink of time into something that left me with little afterwards. I didn't learn new things, I drifted away from my kids, and I didn't take care of my home.

Video games are fine. They're entertaining, but they're also potentially life consuming. I watch people who want to do more with their lives, but instead they just put more time into some game or another.

I managed to kick the habit and it's been a great 10 years since then where I play very little and only in very short, controlled bursts when I can play with my kids for a bit (they usually destroy me these days). With all of that saved time, my career started flying, my home is in better shape, and I actually don't drift away from family events like I used to.

Smoking. Vaped off of cigarettes and then gradually decreased the nicotine levels until I had vaped 0 nicotine for two months, then stopped vaping.

Cigarettes. Went cold turkey every time. 3 time's the charm! It's been 13 years now, but I still occasionally get cravings, and sometimes I dream about having one and then wake up feeling super guilty and horrible about myself even though it wasn't real.

Both alcohol and nicotine. Corona probably saved me with its lockdowns (though I did go back to hard drinking to some degree after). I still have the odd drink and odd cigarette, but neither are everyday things for me anymore and I can go weeks without either (though on days I do drink, it certainly makes me want to smoke).

Currently battling coke zero. I will dehydrate rather than just drinking plain water (carbonated makes little difference) as I just don't want to drink it and forget about it. As a kid, the place I lived had well water that didn't taste great, so that's probably something to do with it. I've managed to somewhat replace it with a zero-calorie sports drink powder that I put in water. Still, it lacks the mouthfeel and satisfaction.

The other current battle is gluten and thus wheat and everything containing it. This is more-or-less impossible here in Japan if eating out (most soy sauce has gluten). The background is that I likely have Celiac's (dad has it with very rough symptoms starting in his 60s, I'm in my 40s and a DNA test already told me I had inherited markers for it was likely to develop it). I was called "the bread kid" as a child because of how much I liked to eat (particularly homemade) bread. Until very recently, I baked bread and stuff a lot. It really sucks because I really miss the texture and taste of good bread. It's also difficult when thinking about what to eat. "Oh, I've got some pasta that will just take a few minutes to cook" is not a thing anymore. I have to make rice or potatoes ahead or have nothing but meat and veg.

Used to drink like, 4 redbulls a day it was bad. Now since February 27th I've had, maybe 2 or 3. (in total)

Nicotine.

I stopped counting when my last nicotine hit was, which I think might be the key here. A couple of years at least.

No urges, never even think about it.

Benzodiazepine addiction. Was abusing etizolam at first then graduated to clonazolam and was getting fucked up and going to work. I have no idea how I didn’t get fired honestly. I have some videos of myself doing things and I’m clearly fucked, but I suppose I didn’t get that twisted for work. My memory went to shit and a bunch of other things did too, because who gives a shit when you’re constantly wrecked. Weight dropped from normal 185lbs to a skinny ass 165lbs. Mind you, I’m 6’3”. It wasn’t a good look.

It took me 2 years to slowly taper down and that still was a pretty shitty process. Now I’m 9 months clean and up to 205 lbs by lifting weights and actually eating.

What a nightmare. Fuck benzos and godspeed to anyone who’s been using them for longer than a few weeks. Even at clinical doses you’re going to be in some shit when you stop. You’ll be glad you did, though. I’m helping a friend quit etizolam after I told him of my problems and he told me of his addiction. He’s doing great and making a lot of progress on the taper. It helps so much to have someone you can talk to.

A less serious answer - Reddit. Fuck em for killing the apps. Lemmy has been pretty great except for a few rare encounters with tankies. I genuinely enjoy posting here, the smallness is great.

I have a big one rather than a small one. 11 years sober off all drugs and alcohol. Took going to rehab and sober living after but I made it.

Smoking. 7 months in, feeling great, not looking back!

Nicotine, and I really think I've totally kicked it this time.

I made the mistake the first time I quit of thinking that cigars and pipes wouldn't be addictive because there's no inhaling. Yeah, I was a moron.

But I know that it's a zero use thing now, and while I miss the ritual of smoking, neither tobacco or more modern nicotine delivery tempt me at all.

I'm sure as hell not paying for some herbal cigarette crap, because those were never worth a damn to begin with. And I can't smoke weed because it fucks with me. So, I won't be dragged back to it that way, even if I wanted to find alternative rituals to do.

It also helps that I can't handle the smell of cigarettes now. It hits my nose, and I'm sneezing for an hour.

I quit right as covid was hitting the news, and after six months, I didn't even have the urge to engage in the ritual after meals or sex.

Also, no smoking = better sex. Kinda difficult to do it right when you can't breathe right and get winded fast.

I'm down to a soda/caffeine drink at most once a day, down from drinking two or more every day.

Reddit

Sugar. Ok, that's a slight exaggeration. I don't eat anything with added sweeteners. (Like, if it has sugar, honey, HFCS, corn syrup solids, cane juice, apertame, sucralose, agave nector, dates, maple syrup, etc, that's just a deal breaker for me.) And I don't eat anything that has natural sugar any sweeter than a tomato, red bell pepper, or carrot.

I've been doing that for the last 15 years at least and made very very infrequent exceptions. (Like, I can literally count the times I remember making exceptions to this rule in the last 15 years on one hand.)

...because any time I do make an exception, I have severe gastrointestinal symptoms.

@tilefan That's weird, it's not that I'm purposefully get rid of addictions, I just kinda... lose interest.

I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I also used to drink a lot. I don't mind a cigarette or a beer or a shot every now and then, if the mood is right and the company is fine, but doing it every single day? Nah.

I used to be an acidic goblin but now I've limited my caffeine intake to 1 soda per day at lunch (for the boost in energy). Proud of that one. Throwing out the vapes next but thats hard. At least it got me off cigs.

When I was three years old I was complaining to my parents about how much my thumb hurt in the winter. They told me it was because I sucked on it and so it became chapped. So I just stopped. Apparently never sucked my thumb again.

I wish I had the willpower now that I did when I was three.

Zoloft and caffeine. Both are very hard, in different ways.

Smoking and drinking. Drinking was hard

• Quit nicotine several years ago and never went back (shisha, cigarettes and cigars).
• Quit porn because it had become a bad coping mechanism (still struggling with it a bit tho).
• Slowly trying to quit my bad eating habit (I see them as addictions). I don’t gain weigh, so bad eating habits happens.
• Slowly trying to quit my soda addiction.

Haven’t kicked them. Stopped using nicotine and alcohol but man is the addiction still there. 🥲