The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: Have you ever been addicted to anything, and if so, how did you quit? (drugs, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, caffeine, etc., etc.)
Talk about it….
32 comments
yes. Online gaming. Quit for 6 months but I live alone sooooooooo. Im back.
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Please define what constitutes an addiction.
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Quit smoking twice. Was always a light smoker, …5 to 8 a day.
First time quit when daughter was 3 years old in 1985.
In 1995, managed a rock band, and started again.
Quit March 2021. The secret was to keep my hands & brain busy.
Thank You Simonpure for the encouragement. 🙂
Well Done, Roz!
It took me about a dozen attempts before finally quitting smoking.
Good work! Not everyone can quit on the first try. At least you tried again and made it work.
Yeah, drinking.
Eventually I joined the Kaiser treatment program. Then AA as well. both are really strong in the East Bay, you’d be surprised how many good groups and good people are out there helping with this tough issue.
If you have Kaiser they have a great team in Walnut Creek in a pretty nondescript building on Broadway where they have different options for people depending on how tough your situation is.
Biting my nails, Nurse Ratchet had some pretty colored pills and a nice canvas jacket with backwards arms, worked great.
I did stop doing caffeine for about a year when I was 30, withdrawal symptoms were horrible, no joke there.
I was spending a lot of time of Reddit … more than I wanted to. Even today I regret the time I wasted scrolling through the posts. As with other things I have wanted to quit doing, I started cutting back and, a little at a time, completely stopped. When it came to smoking, l started paying particular attention to every single cigarette I lit up, and did nothing else but smoked that cigarette while it was lit. It had my complete and full attention while I smoked it. I discovered that I really didn’t enjoy it. It just didn’t hold my attention the way something I enjoyed would do. It was also boring just standing there smoking a cigarette. It took up valuable time and I had to drop everything else in order to do it. The desire to smoke this way, not in an absent-minded, not-thinking-about-it sort of way made it very unattractive way to spend my time. I spent less and less time doing it until, eventually I stopped completely. I had tried several times to quit before, in a lot of different ways, but this way worked for me. I guess it was a form of “mindfulness” … actually paying attention to what one is doing.
@ GITTYUP ~
Yeah!!
Totally agree with your method of quitting smoking.
How long has it been?
Back when I was smoking, there were very few restrictions on where we could smoke. I went cold turkey off of two and a half packs a day.
@ COWELLIAN ~
Holy Cow!
I think you have totally improved your Health & Life with that move 🙂
Life. But I’m not quite ready to quit it.
I quit smoking too. I started when I was about 12 and quit the day a pack went up to 45 cents. At the time, the thought of paying 45 cents for a pack of cigarettes seemed ridiculous, so I quit. I never liked smoking right after brushing my teeth, so I began brushing after every meal, and any other time I craved a cigarette, I’d brush my teeth. It worked for me. I was never addicted to drugs or booze, but I did my fair share of partying when I was younger, I gave that up too. I enjoy having a clear head, and facing reality.
Dawg, l think we are the same generation, l too did a fair amount of partying, in fact l think l have used up my partying and having fun quota. When l got married it was different kind of parties, dinner parties, cocktail parties, etc. I still like to have fun ( laughter is the best medicine), but uch more low key, which is fine
Stopped drinking 40 years ago and world became a little bit safer place.
@Roz Congrats to you on quitting, Roz. Continued success to you. You know, I’m not sure of an exact date. It’s been something around 22 years ago I think, but I can’t be sure about the date. I can hardly remember anymore when I did smoke.
I would have to say coffee, in that, if I do not get a cup of coffee, I get the caffeine headache, so physiologically, there is some addiction to it. I did quit drinking coffee many years ago, for about 2 years. All things being equal, not a significant vice to be addicted to.
When I was in the Navy, coffee was what we drank. We could finish a cup just before hitting the rack and still sleep soundly. I still enjoy coffee and drink lots of it. If I have to avoid coffee for a medical procedure, I have enough caffeine stored up that I don’t get caffeine headaches. I don’t know if that’s considered an addiction, but I have neither the desire nor intention to quit. Like you said, it’s not a significant vice.
@Cowellian
Like you, I enjoy coffee, 3-4 cups a day. Also, studies have shown that it may help prevent Alzheimer’s and heart disease, especially in women. More coffee? Yes, please.
I’m currently addicted to a few things, none of which I want to quit.
I’m addicted to Claycord.com. I have to get my fix daily.
Friend chicken and dirty women! No intentions to quit
Yes!….Sugar………haven’t quit yet…….been to Overeaters Anonymous 3 times……….I stop eating sugar for a month or so and then I think “It’s only sugar….geez!” and then go back on it again.
Olive Garden’s endless bread sticks
This is somewhat tongue in cheek, good looking men, and when I got divorced at almost age 40 good looking younger men, how did I quit, age. Although I did a fair amount of partying in my younger days, and even not so young, which involved drinking, I still always showed up to work on time (except for once or twice in my twenties I think) and I never had a problem not drinking when I stayed home. I don’t party much anymore, but do enjoy a glass of chardonnay most nights.
Not sure this is an addiction, but I’m absolutely fascinated by true crime stories, and love to watch those stories on TV. Right now I’m following the story out fo Moscow Idahoe. Other cases that stand out: The Scott Peterson case. Chris Watts who killed his wife and 2 little girls in Colorado a few years ago. Also the Yosemite murders, Cary Stayner killed Julie Sund, her mother and her friend. Besides that I have read many of Ann Rule’s books, The Deliberate Strangers about Ted Bundy, and Small Sacrifices about Diane Downs, who tried to kill her 3 children, one died, 2 survived. Several other of her books are fascinating if you are into that sort of thing.
P.S. To be perfectly honest I’m a little addicted to playing solitair on line. I use to play it with my grandmother, and then I would play it of and on with playing cards, but you have to have the cards and space. On line is so much easier, when I get home from a long day at work, it is somewhat mindless thing to do. I usually do the one with 3 cards turning over, and it is harder to win, so I become obsessed with winning, and if I don’t I keep going to I do, and I like to win a few games before I give up.
Cocaine, I’ll have 37 years clean and sober the 23rd of this month, long journey but a good one for sure. 30 years off cigarettes this last November. NA & AA worked for me plus a 30 day rehab at Mt Diablo Hospital 1986.
I can see getting addicted to cocaine. Although I was young and single in the late sixties and early seventies I always stayed away from drugs, I did try pot, but it didn’t do anything for me. However, when I started to date after my divorce and I was about 40, a guy I dated introduced me to cocaine. Have to say it was an incredible high, I did it off and on for a few years. However, usually when someone else had it, paid for it a few times. I think had I tried it in my twenties I might have become addicted, in my forties, I was more careful and determined to not get depending on anything.
I am a square. Never smoked, never drank never did drugs. But I did used to love Coca-Cola. Two 20 ounce bottles a day when I was younger. 20 years ago I quit completely from caffeine. It was hard, but it was the best thing I ever did. Now I drink only water.
Haven’t quit coffee but I do need that one cup in the morning. Never was that much of a drinker but no longer have more than a glass of wine at holiday dinners.
But quitting smoking was hard. I did stop the first time but only because I had been in the hospital for over a week. Didn’t feel the need to smoke again until an uncle died and I helped clear up his apartment. Started smoking again as soon as I left that building. But a few years later a “Quit smoking at work” program that I joined. That worked and my quit (over 30 years ago) helped my brother and sister-in-law decide to quit as well.
I have to say, the addiction to cigarettes can still come back and bite you. Even after all this time if I am working on something at my desk I sometimes find myself trying to reach for a cigarette that isn’t there anymore.
I’ve been addicted to many illegal substances at once.
I quit when I realized the cost of what I managed to lose was more expensive than drugs. (Aka priceless)
To anybody who is dealing with addiction
And has managed to get recovery : you’re inspiring and don’t give up
I’ve never been addicted to anything (yet) but the addicts I really feel bad for are food addicts. You can’t stop eating the same way you’d stop smoking, drinking, doing drugs, gambling, etc. etc. etc. How do you eat in moderation if you’re addicted while other addicts stay away from whatever they’re addicted to? I guess that’s why the obesity rate is so high, and even those who lose the weight – most of them gain it back. Kudos to those who lose a lot of weight and keep it off, keeping in mind the addiction will always be there.
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