I've Overcame Some Of The Most Difficult Addictions

Lust, Marijuana, Pain Killers, Cigarettes, Food, You name it. I’ve overcame some of the most hardest addictions to overcome.  Now it still is a struggle but I found out alot about myself over the last couple of years.  I’ve been on what most would consider a self-discovery adventure over the years.  I’ve found out alot of my willpower and how much self-control I truly do have.  Now i’m not going to act like a saint and act like its still easy.  Because there are some that I still deal with.  Maybe not as intense but it’s easy to replace an addiction with another addiction.  Alot of times its just doing everyday stuff that we all do.  Reading Dopamine Nation has def made me more mindful of this.  We all have an addiction of our own, its all about how you handle it.  Obviously some bigger than others.  But if you have a problem and its affecting your everyday life or relationships, then you better get on top of it sooner or later.

Cigarettes was a hard one to get over but for me, I knew I had to stop.  The price kept going up, I just knew it wasn’t sustainable.  (I can only imagine how expensive they are now)  It came to a point where I would chainsmoke or smoke every time I did something like after I ate.  I was at a point where I was smoking atleast half a pack or pack a day.  Horrible habit, I’m just glad I was able to stop.  For me, my social anxiety played a roll.  I just hated going outside to smoke a cigarette and have awkward encounters with strangers or my neighbors or tired of my clothes always reeking of cigarettes.  That was enough for me to really want to stop.  So I went to go seek help. I tried nicotine gum but that did not work at all for me.  I did get lucky and was prescribed Chantix.  At first I had little hope but after the 1st month, I noticed I stopped smoking less.  It was by the 2nd or 3rd month that I completely got rid of the urge.  Not everybody gets this lucky but for me that’s all that it took.  You have to really want to stop smoking if you ever plan to make this work.  If you need help, seek it professionally, I highly recommend.

Now pain killers was by far one of the most difficult addictions to ever get rid of.  I was in a car accident.  (Got hit as a pedestrian) I broke both of my legs.  This was back in 07.  Painkillers were getting prescribed like crazy to everybody back then so for me I was getting them on the regular.  I couldn’t even walk, my legs were broken but I didn’t care, as long as I had my painkillers.  That was the one thing that I looked forward to every day.  Eventually I stopped getting prescribed them so I started getting Perc 30s off the street.  Still to this day, I consider it one of the best high’s ever but that stuff is bad news.  Stay away from it because those are some of the worse, most intense withdrawals that I ever went through.  I remember not being able to move.  Sweating profusely.  They started to get hard to find, not only that but the price on the streets kept going up.  The people who I would get pills with, started doing Herion because it was cheaper.  It was then when I realized that I needed to seek help immediately which i’m glad I did.  Ended up getting prescribed Suboxen and my cravings went down immediately.  I was able to stop that habit and eventually was able to stop taking Suboxen all together.  For me what it took was cutting off literally everybody who was a bad influence on me.  

Now I overcame those two. Not realizing how strong my willpower is.  But of course like any other former addict, I do what they do and replace another addiction with another addiction.  For me, I went to food.  This addiction lasted for years.  Of course, I didn’t even realize that I used it as a replacement.  It wasn’t until 2024 where I really found out about my will power.  I learned about intermittent fasting.  I learned about the benefits to it, and my whole perspective changed when I realized that, not only can I lose weight from this but there are also health benefits to it.  Not only does it reduce inflammation but it also improves insulin sensitivity, reduces blood sugar levels and lowers cholesterol.  For me, that is all I needed to know to want to change.  I started seeing results immediately.  I got to the lowest weight that i’ve been in since high school.  Not only that, I felt the best that I ever felt in my life.  I didn’t realize it now, but if you can have self control over food, then you can literally have it over everything.

Now lust was by far one of the hardest ones to get over.  I didn’t think i’d be able to overcome it because if i’m being quite honest,  I was absolutely hooked to porn and looking at girls on social media.  For me what it took was, me taking a deep dive.  Looking back how its affecting my life.  How it has made me become weak minded, how it has hurt my relationship in many ways.  Not only was it doing damage on myself, it was doing damage in my relationship.  So I knew I had to come clean and stop.  Like I said, if you can have self control over eating, then you can literally have self- control over everything.  But it’s not easy and its a journey.  Don’t be like me and get to the point where it just makes you numb and does nothing for you anymore.  I had to delete instagram to make it work or else It would have never have worked.  Also I had some sort of mindset change.  Going to church and having faith has made me realize that i’ve been sinning this whole time.  Not only that but learning how weak minded lust made me.  I’ve never been able to think more clearer in my life.  Even before when I would go out in public, lust was a challenge but now, I have a certain sense of ease.

At the end of the day, it all leads back into a perspective change.  It may seem impossible but once you realize we are capable of being resilient, that changes everything.  I had a complete mindset change and there is no way that I can look back now.