Old 08-07-2011, 10:46 AM
  # 1 (permalink)  
danielleinto
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: ontario
Posts: 78
Why is quitting drinking so difficult? I'm a non Alcoholic

Why is it so difficult to quit drinking? What do you go through - how does it feel?

My husband is an alcoholic and I'm done and done but I really need to know why it's so hard to quit - is this different from other addictions? I've gone through withdrawal from quitting ativan after 20 years of use. If I'd done it in hospital they would have had me in restraints. It was hell but after a couple of months off I'm doing well. I smoke and I'm thinking this is more like quitting drinking. The brain needs that hit every 1/2 hour or so. It's psychological mostly - it's how I cope with alot of things. I'm bipolar and doing well now but when I quit smoking I felt like I do off my meds. Went back to it and was fine within a couple of days. I stayed off cigs for a month and was still not feeling better and figured that I'd rather die of cancer than insanity.

I know that many RA's smoke. Is quitting smoking harder than quitting drinking? I know that the success rate for staying off alcohol is really low. Why is that? What is it about alcoholism that keeps people going back?

I have used alcohol in the past before learning how to cope with severe anxiety - I self-medicated. I wasn't addicted and very fortunate because it is in my family.



I have one more question which doesn't have to do with the above. I read a post on the forum yesterday. The poster listed the drugs he'd taken. One was mda. I took alot of mda when I was a teen. I've googled it and cannot find any info on it. Hopefully that poster reads this. Does anyone know what mda stands for? Is it another term for ecstacy?
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