Addiction and you
- Thread starter Shakey
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Not sure if you just mean us or people we know, or dealing with people we know.
Well, a guy in my eastern religions class said that he turned to Buddhism when he was dealing with some bad drug issues in his life. He seems to be doing alright now, though I don't really know him on a personal level. I don't know if he's had any relapses or is at risk for one.
A friend of mine once explained to us what it was like for him to give up pot for a month. He said that the substance itself wasn't addicting but the lifestyle was. It would be 4 in the afternoon and he didn't know what to do because he was usually smoking at that point. I found this to be somewhat true when I quit WoW, it was hard to find other things to do because I would normally have filled my down time chilling on WoW. This might be part of it with other addictions too. Part of it is just finding that productive thing to do so you can fill in your time that would normally be spent on the addiction.
A friend of mine once explained to us what it was like for him to give up pot for a month. He said that the substance itself wasn't addicting but the lifestyle was. It would be 4 in the afternoon and he didn't know what to do because he was usually smoking at that point. I found this to be somewhat true when I quit WoW, it was hard to find other things to do because I would normally have filled my down time chilling on WoW. This might be part of it with other addictions too. Part of it is just finding that productive thing to do so you can fill in your time that would normally be spent on the addiction.
That's what I'm taking about. What filled the space. Reading, games, magazines, whatever.
he picked up a game called Go and is actually pretty good at it now. He also continued to read a lot and started taking some classes.
When I gave up WoW I switched to other games, but much less stimulating ones to still give me something to do from time to time but ultimately start getting away from the computer.
When I gave up WoW I switched to other games, but much less stimulating ones to still give me something to do from time to time but ultimately start getting away from the computer.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Addicted to Coke. The normal kind, Coca-Cola Light tastes like ass.
B
Biardo
cigarettes, I'm actually trying to stop now but don't have much motivation except I'm doing it for the money, and I guess it's nice to have 20-30 euros more every week
That's a terminal condition called "being a guy"!
D
Dusty668
Used to be hooked on cigarettes, quit by using the patch and persistence. The hardest part was the steeringwheel reflex, get in car, fasten seatbelt, reach for shirt pocket. 11 years later still do it from time to time.
Cocaine-It wasn't me addicted. I loved her very much but we came to a point where it was me or that life. So I left it. Huh, 21 years ago, you'd think that sentence would be easier to write.
Cocaine-It wasn't me addicted. I loved her very much but we came to a point where it was me or that life. So I left it. Huh, 21 years ago, you'd think that sentence would be easier to write.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Sounds like a guy I knew back in the army. Three weeks without leave, with only us guys in an ass-smelling barracks, and it was a hot summer...
By the second week, someone coming up with a porn magazine had him so riled up he tried to schtoink a table.
Addicted to every kind of coca-cola or pepsi. I prefer Coke zero, Pepsi Max and Pepsi Light withput caffeine ("for those nightly times")
B
Biardo
well that didn't last very long
S
SeraRelm
I used to smoke, then I was like "why am I doing this?" and threw them away.
I don't think I've ever been really addicted to anything that I couldn't give up at a moment's notice.
I don't think I've ever been really addicted to anything that I couldn't give up at a moment's notice.
T
The Pumes
I have the most pointless addiction ever and it's not something I can even enjoy at times. I have this compulsion to complete sets of anything, if I buy something like a Radiohead album, I then feel the compulsion to buy every single one of their other albums for no reason whatsoever, even if I hate the album I will try my hardest to like it. It has seriously drained my wallet at times.
T
ThatNickGuy
Comic books. I've spent way too much time and money on them in my life. And continue to do so, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be ($30-40+ per week a few years ago).
W
Wasabi Poptart
Caffeine. I have tried to stop drinking coffee. It lasts for a few months, but then I break and have just one cup. I replace coffee with soda or chocolate when I decide not to drink coffee anymore. It's not like I've given up any caffeine really. I just cannot kick it. It's not hurting my health. I don't drink more than 2-3 cups a day at the most (usually I'll have one big cup at breakfast and no more), so it's not like it's a big deal.
About 15 or 16 years ago, some friends of mine got into cocaine, and I gave it a try at a party.
I didn't think it was that big of a deal, really. Perked me up a bit. I thought "Wow, this'd be better than coffee in the morning." So I bought a 'sixteenth' (nearly 2 grams) for $40.
I'd get up for work..tired, like most people. Do a little 'bump' (that's cocaine slang) and by the time I got out of the shower, I was wide awake, perky, and ready for the world. I didn't seem to have any crash. I didn't have any cravings to do it more often. I just used it as a morning pick-me-up. $40 worth would last me nearly a month...it was even cheaper than starbucks!
That didn't last, of course. After a while. I'd find myself doing a bump after work because I was tired. After a few weeks of that, I got brave enough to take it with me to work, and I was doing it on my lunch break, too. Then, I was doing it on my smoke breaks--I smoked cigs back then. I even started sneaking bumps at my desk.
If you've ever been around the cocaine culture, you'll be familiar with the 'bullet'..it's a little bullet shaped plastic cocaine delivery system.
http://www.elephantos.com/images/colored cocaine sniff bullet.gif
You put a little cocaine in the glass bottle..maybe a gram or two will fit. It has a tiny knob..you can turn it, get about a line's worth of coke in a little internal cup, and sniff it. Makes portable coke use easy.
I lost the bullet under a co-worker's desk once, while fixing her computer. Totally freaked me out. Luckily, i found it later. You'd think that might have been a wake-up call, but it wasn't, really.
I eventually got to where I was buying an 8-ball (3.5 grams. 1/8 ounce) every 2-3 days. That was at $60 a pop. So, let's say nearly $180 a week, or nearly $10,000 a year. I was only sleeping a couple of hours a night. I lost a job opportunity for failing a drug test. I once woke up with my face lying in a huge pool of blood that had come from my nose. My cocaine using friends were getting into more and more drug culture drama: stealing, kiting checks, etc. I luckily never got into that crowd, and didn't get sucked into that kind of thing. A female friend of mine once told me how awful it was to find herself in the back alley behind a dance club, giving some total stranger a blowjob. But then she brightened and said "Score! Free coke!" Uh, that wasn't free, hon.
I recognized that many of my friend's lives were self destructing faster than mine was, but I saw that I was headed down that same path. So I quit....cold turkey.
It wasn't easy. I would occasionally find white cigarette ash flakes on my desk or around my room, and think "I wonder if that's coke", and snort it. It was pretty pathetic. It took a long time for the cravings to go away. I didn't replace my coke usage with anything else. I stared it down, for a long, long time, until it went away. It was tough as hell.
A few years later, I quit smoking cigs, using the Nicoderm CQ patch. It was a fuckton easier than quitting coke.
I didn't think it was that big of a deal, really. Perked me up a bit. I thought "Wow, this'd be better than coffee in the morning." So I bought a 'sixteenth' (nearly 2 grams) for $40.
I'd get up for work..tired, like most people. Do a little 'bump' (that's cocaine slang) and by the time I got out of the shower, I was wide awake, perky, and ready for the world. I didn't seem to have any crash. I didn't have any cravings to do it more often. I just used it as a morning pick-me-up. $40 worth would last me nearly a month...it was even cheaper than starbucks!
That didn't last, of course. After a while. I'd find myself doing a bump after work because I was tired. After a few weeks of that, I got brave enough to take it with me to work, and I was doing it on my lunch break, too. Then, I was doing it on my smoke breaks--I smoked cigs back then. I even started sneaking bumps at my desk.
If you've ever been around the cocaine culture, you'll be familiar with the 'bullet'..it's a little bullet shaped plastic cocaine delivery system.
http://www.elephantos.com/images/colored cocaine sniff bullet.gif
You put a little cocaine in the glass bottle..maybe a gram or two will fit. It has a tiny knob..you can turn it, get about a line's worth of coke in a little internal cup, and sniff it. Makes portable coke use easy.
I lost the bullet under a co-worker's desk once, while fixing her computer. Totally freaked me out. Luckily, i found it later. You'd think that might have been a wake-up call, but it wasn't, really.
I eventually got to where I was buying an 8-ball (3.5 grams. 1/8 ounce) every 2-3 days. That was at $60 a pop. So, let's say nearly $180 a week, or nearly $10,000 a year. I was only sleeping a couple of hours a night. I lost a job opportunity for failing a drug test. I once woke up with my face lying in a huge pool of blood that had come from my nose. My cocaine using friends were getting into more and more drug culture drama: stealing, kiting checks, etc. I luckily never got into that crowd, and didn't get sucked into that kind of thing. A female friend of mine once told me how awful it was to find herself in the back alley behind a dance club, giving some total stranger a blowjob. But then she brightened and said "Score! Free coke!" Uh, that wasn't free, hon.
I recognized that many of my friend's lives were self destructing faster than mine was, but I saw that I was headed down that same path. So I quit....cold turkey.
It wasn't easy. I would occasionally find white cigarette ash flakes on my desk or around my room, and think "I wonder if that's coke", and snort it. It was pretty pathetic. It took a long time for the cravings to go away. I didn't replace my coke usage with anything else. I stared it down, for a long, long time, until it went away. It was tough as hell.
A few years later, I quit smoking cigs, using the Nicoderm CQ patch. It was a fuckton easier than quitting coke.
W
WolfOfOdin
Well, let's see if I can up Tin and make myself look like a lunatic at the same time.
Heroin/Opium.
I started using end of high-school, first year of college with my then GF Sofie. Started out as just doing a bead of opium on a bed of pot and eventually went from there. Sofie's the one who actually got me into the horse, as it was. We'd shoot up and pretty much go to insane dream-land for a bit, and the sex was fantastic. Eventually I'd spend all of my extra cash (beer/smokes) on H and be the annoying "can I bum a smoke dude?" guy on campus, lost weight till I hit about 119 lbs at 5'8 of height due to not eating and sheer inactivity, or panicking if I couldn't get a hit within a decent amount of time or a dealer got busted. I always had money coming though, so that wasn't a problem till it'd be gone in a day.
What helped me quit? Sofie's first OD and the sheer insane grief and panic that came with wondering if she'd live or die. She lived, and something in me just kinda...broke in the good way.
Detoxing was a fucking NIGHTMARE. I didn't sleep for a few days, I'd get violently angry at the drop of a hat and at night it felt like I had live eels in my skin instead of muscles. It took the better part of a year and a half to finally be done with it, and part of that entailed leaving Sofie, because she continued using and I simply couldn't be around that anymore.
Heroin/Opium.
I started using end of high-school, first year of college with my then GF Sofie. Started out as just doing a bead of opium on a bed of pot and eventually went from there. Sofie's the one who actually got me into the horse, as it was. We'd shoot up and pretty much go to insane dream-land for a bit, and the sex was fantastic. Eventually I'd spend all of my extra cash (beer/smokes) on H and be the annoying "can I bum a smoke dude?" guy on campus, lost weight till I hit about 119 lbs at 5'8 of height due to not eating and sheer inactivity, or panicking if I couldn't get a hit within a decent amount of time or a dealer got busted. I always had money coming though, so that wasn't a problem till it'd be gone in a day.
What helped me quit? Sofie's first OD and the sheer insane grief and panic that came with wondering if she'd live or die. She lived, and something in me just kinda...broke in the good way.
Detoxing was a fucking NIGHTMARE. I didn't sleep for a few days, I'd get violently angry at the drop of a hat and at night it felt like I had live eels in my skin instead of muscles. It took the better part of a year and a half to finally be done with it, and part of that entailed leaving Sofie, because she continued using and I simply couldn't be around that anymore.
C
Chibibar
my addiction?
Fun. I like having fun. I hate not having fun. I try to make everything I do fun to do or I won't do it.
Yes. I make my job fun.
Fun. I like having fun. I hate not having fun. I try to make everything I do fun to do or I won't do it.
Yes. I make my job fun.
Cajungal
Staff member
My godfather was an alcoholic. It was really sad seeing him kind of waste away physically and mentally. He felt guilty because of my godmother's suicide and just kind of went self-destructive. He was a sweet man, but he had a lot of problems. Finally, a couple of years back, he got pneumonia. Hid body was so weak and destroyed from all the alcohol that he just passed away.
I hope he didn't die with regrets. He loved him children and grandchildren, but out of shame, and probably for other reasons, he rarely saw them. My cousins tell me that he smiled at everyone in the room seconds before he died--a big smile that reminded him of the old Greg. Part of me wishes he could have pulled through it. The other part of me is a little happy. I think that he and Aunt Karen are happier now than they were in life. What I mean is... I think he's at least at peace now. I still miss him, and I wish my cousins had a parent left.
---------- Post added at 07:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------
Tin, Odin, Bowie... damn... well done. That sounds frighteningly difficult. I'd glad you both pulled through.
I hope he didn't die with regrets. He loved him children and grandchildren, but out of shame, and probably for other reasons, he rarely saw them. My cousins tell me that he smiled at everyone in the room seconds before he died--a big smile that reminded him of the old Greg. Part of me wishes he could have pulled through it. The other part of me is a little happy. I think that he and Aunt Karen are happier now than they were in life. What I mean is... I think he's at least at peace now. I still miss him, and I wish my cousins had a parent left.
---------- Post added at 07:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------
Tin, Odin, Bowie... damn... well done. That sounds frighteningly difficult. I'd glad you both pulled through.
North_Ranger
Staff member
L
Le Quack
I don't think I'm addicted to pot, but I might be.
I don't smoke everyday, or spend a whole lot of money on it.
Maybe 60$ every 2-3 weeks.
I'll smoke a bowl or two every 2-3 days, but nothing serious. I have been noticing that I've been getting addicted to not going to class though. I've skipped a class for two and a half weeks straight. Still making A's, and not skipping to smoke pot.
I don't smoke everyday, or spend a whole lot of money on it.
Maybe 60$ every 2-3 weeks.
I'll smoke a bowl or two every 2-3 days, but nothing serious. I have been noticing that I've been getting addicted to not going to class though. I've skipped a class for two and a half weeks straight. Still making A's, and not skipping to smoke pot.
K
Kitty Sinatra
I'm addicted to love. There's been nothing I can do about it but face it.
Also, bad jokes. I'd use a patch, but then I couldn't breathe.
Also, bad jokes. I'd use a patch, but then I couldn't breathe.
I don't think a compulsion is the same as an addiction...
Cola. Of any sorts.
Me and a friend once did a noda to soda month as we called it because we both recognized that we were putting back cola at an insane pace, between 6-12 cans a day. I don't know what actual withdrawals are like, but that month was one of the worst of my entire life. Food tasted like shit without washing it back with an ice cold coke so I pretty much stopped eating. I was misreable, had massive headaches, was so irritable no one wanted to be around me.
I'm better now then I was then, but I still drink far too much fizzy shit.
Me and a friend once did a noda to soda month as we called it because we both recognized that we were putting back cola at an insane pace, between 6-12 cans a day. I don't know what actual withdrawals are like, but that month was one of the worst of my entire life. Food tasted like shit without washing it back with an ice cold coke so I pretty much stopped eating. I was misreable, had massive headaches, was so irritable no one wanted to be around me.
I'm better now then I was then, but I still drink far too much fizzy shit.
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