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.
A friend of mine in his 60s has been on a prescribed benzodiazapine since he was a child. He is tapering a microgram per day and struggling with the withdrawal symptoms. It’s going to take him several years at this rate but when he lowers by more it’s debilitating.
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 think what it was, was mostly what the world was. The web as we now know it was just taking off and we were the first. I remember when they made r/DAE because the front page was filled with Does Anyone Else posts. What a naive time. We’ll never see it again.
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.
oh man. that unlocked a similar memory for me. my mother showed me the calluses I was getting from sucking my thumb so I switched thumbs. as I kept getting calluses I kept switching fingers before I finally gave it up