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Up and quit. It works if you want it to. But you have to want it to. Of course this is only for mental addiction. Chemical addiction is another matter entirely and one I have no experience with.
Up and quit. It works if you want it to. But you have to want it to. Of course this is only for mental addiction. Chemical addiction is another matter entirely and one I have no experience with.
I smoked for 5 years heavily when I was younger (2-4 packs a day, don't ask). I "up and quit" in one day. However, I had good motivation, saw a doctor and my health was all messed up so I got somewhat of a scare. I was intelligent enough to heed the early warning and scared enough to quit
Long time ago, when I got sick with something like the flu, it hurt to try to smoke although I also had no desire to smoke when ailing. So I quit. It was quite easy since the first few days when I was sick, I pretty much could not inhale without pain and cough and after recovery, the craving was behind me for the most part and the 'habit' part was broken up too.
Most people don't have addictions per se. They have repeated patterns of behavior where the motivation to stop is less than the motivation to continue. A person who claims that stopping a behavior is impossible because they are physically addicted is much more likely to be using the WORD addiction as a crutch to allow them to continue. There are people who have an actual dependency - example: I have a dependency on a small thyroid supplement that could be called a lifelong physical addiction, since I don't function well without it and choose to continue using it. Drugs that change mental state may be TEMPORARY physical addictions if the mental state is not able to balance naturally. Anti-psychotic drugs may or may not be addictions. The root of common addictions may not be physical.*
Desire is not addiction. I could desire to have a cigarette, and a number of years ago I would from time to time. For whatever reason, the pattern of smoking behavior never became so figural that I could not stop at will. I used to drink alcohol regularly, in part because the statistics show that those who do live longer. My doctor said it was beginning to affect my liver, so I stopped on the day of the appointment and still have a full liquor cabinet. My mind is much stronger than my casual desires. I am not that unusual.
There are desires and addictive behaviors that few people would recognize as negatives without a little prodding. The requirement of paying a monthly recurring charge for a service is a red flag for me. It indicates repetitive behavior that may have more cost than value. It is also a MAJOR business model. Some people are "addicted" to living in a costly house that straps them for money. Young adults used to be famous for doing the same thing with cars. In some cases, insurance is an addictive behavior. "I can insure that $50 saw you just bought for only $10 for 3 years" plays to the addictions of the risk averse. House insurance that is a yearly fee of over 1% of replacement cost is a play to addictions - first, the fear of loss, and second, the fear of losing a costly house that would otherwise be beyond the financial means of the individual. The monthly cell phone bill may indicate an addictive behavior. I pay $10 every 3 months to feed MY addiction for an emergency phone.
Peer pressure plays a large part in addictions. When insurance got too costly on our place and I dropped it, there were choruses of "you can't do that!" Why yes I can, and I just did. Your fears are not my responsibility. When I stopped smoking and someone offered me a cigarette, I just said "no thanks." NOT "no thanks, I'm TRYING to quit" but more along the lines of "no thanks, I'm not interested."
* In support of the idea that addictive behavior may be more of an imbalance, I ran across this article:
"The rats with good lives didn't like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did. "
1. Don't buy it. I will never buy into the disease model of addiction bc you have to be a huge participant. I do think some people may have different brain chemistry, are more socially susceptible, etc. But if you have to put on pants, get your keys, drive somewhere, and slap cash down to get something... gimme a break.
So don't buy it.
Then it won't be there.
Works for junk food in my house.
And liquor.
And cigs.
2. Be a person who doesn't do it.
I don't drink soda. I didn't quit soda. I don't say, "Oh, I CAN'T drink soda." I just decided I am not a person who drinks soda.
This is useful when everyone around you is chugging it down.
Over time, I lost interest.
Now I literally have ONE coffee and the rest of the day water.
Oh..a third. Build new rituals.
Now instead of a beer when I get home from work, I take a long, hot shower.
Location: Approximately 50 miles from Missoula MT/38 yrs full time after 4 yrs part time
2,308 posts, read 4,121,934 times
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Started smoking in 1949 (age 17)...........QUIT COLD TURKEY in June 1970--NEVER touched one since.
Drank Soda Pop (Coke, Pepsi etc) probably started approx 1946.......Quit COLD TURKEY 1980.
Have consumed some alcholic drinks (socially) since 1951.........go sometimes 3 months without having one.
Last time I really "let loose" and "hung-one-on" was (on Kodiak Island) Nov 17th 1991---The "Day I harvested (at 40 yards) a KODIAK BROWN BEAR (GRIZZLY)" after ("glassing" for 4 hours) & a 4 hour stalk, up a mountain side, in a Snow storm at age 59 & 7 mo.
As far as "Patterns-of-Behavior"........yes, I am still guilty: "Acquisition of Firearms"..........If I see one that "strikes-my-fancy"...........I will buy it!!................Not to say, that ten weeks or ten years later I may sell it!
Thank God we are all different-------------What a Boring World we would have to live in, if we were all the same!
You most definitely must want to quit before you will successfully quit. You must derive no enjoyment from the experience of using. The pain and or fear must exceed the pleasure each time you use. It's then a matter of deciding to no longer hang out with users (even though they are friends) and consciously exploring and finding alternative ways to spend your time now that you aren't spending it scoring & using.
If you haven't reached that point where using is more painful or problematic than it is pleasurable, then stop messing with thinking about quitting. Enjoy yourself. Practise moderation if you can. Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think---and this place is Hell. Is it therefore deserving of sobriety & denial of desires just because SOME or even MOST people say it is unhealthy & naughty? We live in Hell. Do we really wanna worry about prolonging our existence here? I say, SMOKE 'EM IF YOU'VE GOT 'EM! And ditto for drinking & snorting & and all the rest.
No one gets out of this life without loads of illness, injuries, misery, and pain. The clean & sober "healthy" people don't really have it any easier than anyone else. They still get ill. They still get betrayed. They still go into debt. They still get injured and they still die horrible deaths like everyone else.
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