tigerlover

So i'm 4 months sober next week. But now that im not constantly wanting to drink I find myself now batteling other addictions. Like sugar. I think about it all the time and the rush it gives you when you eat lots and lots of chocolate!!!!!!!! i have to skip certain isles in the stores. then theres the tobacco addiction. Everytime i see someone smoke, i bum one. I can't stop. I don't know it i can beat allll these addictions, that might take a really long time. just need some advice. Thanks guys

Onewithwings

It takes time. I have a bit over 3 months and have barely even tapped into my issues. I am dealing the best I can. Staying clean and sober stays first, but I have other "addictions" (in the sense that, I can't stop them on my own will, and that I use them to fill a void) and have slowly given many of those up with my higher power's help. Sugar is hard because you HAVE to eat something, and its hard to abstain from sugar completely.

TheJungianThing

I came into sobriety and I gained close to 35 lbs my first year. So much for Hungry Angry Lonely and Tired. lol. I've yo-yo'd over the past several years and have determined that ultimately, some form of lower carb diet and exercise discipline is best for me. Diabetes runs in the family, I do believe I am what they call "carb sensitive". I don't find it coincidental that sugary food or white carbs cause a craving for more and my alcoholism although I'm not sure if there's a scientific correlation.

I dipped Kodiak Wintergreen tobacco. Quit for a year and started. The scary thing was that it was on a resentment and a lame excuse. I had to work several weeks double shift due to an error - not mine - and resented it. My wife's reaction was telling - "If you can go back to that, I'm afraid you'll go back to drinking". I told her, I was too and that's why I still go to meetings and work steps. I quit the dip about 8 months ago but am doing lozenges and I'm hooked. Stress of school, work, and three kids under 3 is my excuse. I'll quit "when things are settled down". Of course that's the delusion.

Another addiction - The Internet. Outside of AA I do wish to engage in controversy and engage in political debate too much to feed the old ego.

My sponsor says, "In the order in which they'll kill us". Basically we get to these things in the order in which they'll kill us - if we get to them. Booze was first.

I haven't gone to jail for eating too many cookies, dipping Kodiak, or arguing on the internet (yet) lol.

There's a lot wrong about this alcoholic about which a lot must be done, I'm working on it.

billsaintjames

I'll be 4 months sober next week as well, so we're at about the same point. My sugar intake has gone up too, and I virtually never ate sweets when I was a drinker. My craving for marijuana has also been through the roof. Part of me wants to test the waters of MJ again just to give myself some relief, but I want to give myself more time of complete sobriety to see if, as you have questioned, the addiction ends.

BackToSquareOne

Tigerlover, I believe that many people have an addictive nature. It's kind of an all or nothing at all way of thinking, if a little is good a lot is better.

This way of thinking can get carried over to our recovery process. We often try to change everything all at once instead of focusing on the important stuff. I believe we can actually get addicted to recovery!

I know that when I first quit drinking I thought why not go all the way. I decided to quit smoking, go on a diet, start an exercise program, get rid of all my bad habits and emotions all at once. I wanted to become the quintessential archetype of being all that I could be and I wanted all these changes now!

Unfortunately I discovered that change is a slow process, its the work of a lifetime, so work on the big stuff first and don't worry about the little things. Chocolate isn't all that bad!

WritingFromLife

I have way overdone sweets lately--alcohol is loaded with sugar, and when you cut it out, could be your body is still looking for it in other places? When I quit, I noticed I was craving sugar around the same time I would've been drinking (ie, 6pm, or whatever). I'm just gonna keep putting good stuff in and hopefully all will level out!

Bikeguy

I always look at how long I drank (20 years) in comparison to how long I've been sober (104 days) and then remind myself to have some patience. I feel I've got a pretty good handle on the not drinking part now and am starting to work on the the other things, like eating better, no tobacco and cutting down on the caffeine BUT if I feel any of these get in the way of my sobriety I will put them back on hold. I figure this is not a race, but slow, steady perseverance will get me to where I want to be.

jamdls

My first year of sobriety I gained 25 pounds as I replaced the wine with chocolate, massive quantities of chocolate; I had also quit smoking a couple of months before I quit drinking but when I had to quit drinking I started smoking again. By 3 yrs sober I'd lost all the weight I'd gained and was working out regularly and I just quit smoking again 6 weeks ago and find myself going back to the chocolate and gaining weight ....it's always something but like a poster above said I havent' gotten arrested for eating chocolate or smoking cigs and I don't embarass myself by doing either 1.../

Soph

Book: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction" by Gabor Mate, MD. Go to Amazon.com and read his brief letter to readers about this book he has written.

Highly recommend.

carrswholesale

I had the same cravings as most of us do. The craving for sugar ended about the 6th or 7th week. Our body was so used to the sugar in alcohol, we try to replace it. Pretty normal so i hear. Good luck.

loveon2legs

My first few months of sobriety sugar was my thing...at 16 months I'm still finding the extreme enjoyment of sugar! but I've learned to control it better...I've gained some weight, but I would rather be a little heavy than alotta drunk!!! All things eventually even out...try not to be hard on yourself....I still smoke, and drink coffee but eventually I will cut the smoking out...one day at a time!!

yeahgr8

I'm almost 2 years sober and still have to keep an eye on addictive tendencies...it's not just the obvious substances e.g. sugar, cigs etc it's the whole package...i know old timers of 25 years who have to do the same but have a program in place, like me, to deal with it so no it never goes but you can live life as if it had:-)

TwelveSteps

I smoke and have had a lot of people tell me not to even think about quitting until I have a good handle on my sobriety. I think that's been good advice -- not drinking is my priority right now, and sometimes if I have an alcohol craving it really helps me to have a cigarette instead. As my best friend put it, "You're never going to smoke too much and black out, or crash your car, etc..." LOL, so true.

GG

Nevertheless

Chocolate is a rough one. I very seldom ate chocolate when I was drinking. But once I stopped,it really has been a problem. When I was drinking and the question was how many of those are you going to drink, the answer was simple. ALL OF THEM. It is the same way with chocolate for me. I can eat a whole chocolate cake in one sitting. The solution is the same as drinking for me.
Just don't take that first bite. It was unreal the first year. But as I always said after eating half of a chocolate cake,a beer just doesn't sound good.
I have been sober over 2 years now,and I feel I have chocolate whipped. LOL
Luckily I quit smoking long before I quit drinking.

The first year I put staying sober priority one. Nothing else mattered as long as I stayed sober. But I guess I am lucky because with all that chocolate I didn't really gain that much weight. But I am very active.
Fred

TheEnd

Once you stop the alcohol or drugs your addiction may come out in other forms such eating, exercising, gambling, sex, etc...... Addiction is a disease and drinking is only a mere symptom.

lizisme

holey moley ive packed on the weight with my sugar addiction!! its out of control! Im very aware of my (not need) but that thing in me that has to be addicted to something. Dont even put me near prescription drugs...forget it, I know ill abuse them. Im thinking of getting cosmetic surgery which I can already feel myself going 'o and I could do this and this and this' when there is absolutely nothing wrong with me in the first place! There are a number of other things I feel myself drawn to being obsessive about, I just try and keep them in check and try not to fill that hole that alcohol left. Im desperately trying to fill it up with 'normal' stuff. Im nearly 8 months sober and I dont expect any of this to happen soon, its a journey...that much ive learnt :-)

P.S WELL DONE!! 4 months weeeeeeeee go you :-)

Toronto68

Tiger, I have had a similar experience. I think I was doing my best when I made sure I ate more than 3 meals a day (smaller ones) and maintained a good variety of eating and physical activity. I notice I am back to 2 or 3 nowadays, and I notice it, so I want to change it. I overdo the tea-drinking, the smoking of cigarettes, crisps (chips) and ice cream. (What a kid on the last two.) I am seeing myself having a little less of the last two lately though, and I can work harder at it; at all of them. Obviously things aren't as bad as when I would eat just one clump of a meal midday, followed by nothing at end of day while drinking alcohol. I think there's something to be said for looking upon these minor drugs (the pacifiers) as a problem, but that we should also remind ourselves they're not the same as our "real drug" (like alcohol was for me). Other people might have a different experience and there might be a stronger link between all these things. I guess what I am saying is that it doesn't help me to see constant damnation everywhere. It helps me to see the difference between what I used to do and now. From there, I can make improvements. That's how things are for me now, and I am at a year and half.

Toronto68

I came back to this because this topic has been on my mind the last couple of days. A year ago I quit smoking for a week and then caved. I just dropped it the day after I wrote this post above. I can't believe how I managed to do that all of a sudden, because I am so addicted to smoking. I am finding what is bothering me is not so much the lack of a cigarette to make use of but the THOUGHT itself of reaching for one or wanting to have one popping into my head. It's crazy the number of times it does come into my mind.

The other thing is that I reduced the caffeine intake by 90%. A surprise there too.

Those two are the worst of the substances I mentioned in my earlier post on pacifier addictions, because they're not only drugs, they're not even food of any kind.

It shall be interesting to see if this goes past a week. I have never gone for longer than that when it comes to smoking (once last year, once 15 years before that, and once 7 years before that, the year that I came up with the ingenious idea of starting smoking).

I could have posted this in the nicotine section, but I figured it belongs here because the conversation has to do with how addiction goes on in life (or does it) after quitting the main addictive problem we have. I suppose I am demonstrating that it does through this post, even though I didn't really answer the question last time. It's just a very different kind of addiction to deal with.