Originally Posted by Don S
• More people overcome addictions than do not. And the vast majority do so without therapy.
So a person has better than 50% chance of breaking an addiction? This is good news. Just today, I was wondering about the ratio of persons who break addiction as opposed to those who don't. I was thinking somewhere around 1 out of 10.
Smoking is at the top of the charts in terms of difficulty of quitting.
I often wondered why this is, since the social consequences of smoking aren't as great a motivating factor as with drug abuse. Then, as I was reading through this thread I answered my own question, more or less. Smoking doesn't have the same mind/mood-altering effects as psychotropic drugs! So it kind of balances out.
As someone who has quit both addictions cold-turkey, I can definitely vouch that the nicotine cravings were hard-core, beyond those of quitting alcohol. I had the shakes for awhile after quitting alcohol, didn't eat for two or three days, cried a lot, etc. Still, I wasn't agitated to the point of wanting to cut the cord on the fridge because the humming almost made me insane!
Interesting twist. It seems the detrimental effects of alcohol abuse were more
visible. A lot of my behaviors while drinking were the primary motivating factor for quitting (emotional), while physical/health factors were secondary. The primary motivating factor for quitting nicotine was related to physical factors (lungs hurting in the morning, questionable circulatory function, etc.), while the psychosocial aspects were secondary.
Natural regression is an intriguing subject to me. I gave up three addictive substances within a six-month period of time, and I'm still in the process of making some changes.
Facts! And keep 'em comin'.
