Are you coping with addiction? Did it solve anything for you after quitting?

[SomeDude]

I was addicted to many things, things wich I used to cope with some trauma and my current life situation. Like a distraction. I removed almost all of those bad habbits (I restricted myself to only drinking, once or twice a week, nothing else anymore). People always tell me "You will feel better after you removed all your addictions" but its a few months now.. and yes I some things feel better, especially health related things and I dont want to go back to that place but I still dont feel happy.. what am I missing?
Did you guys feel better after quitting your addictoins? What is your experience with those things? (I mean media & porn addiction, drug abuse, etc.)

 

[thelostautistic]

Firstly I want to say that I'm very proud of you for removing your addictions. That's huge

For me quitting certain things like smoking, starvation, alcohol ( early days for this one ) have made me feel physically better which is great. When it comes to how I feel mentally after quitting it gets complicated. I was using alcohol to bury/numb my sadness. So stopping means I'm having to face it which is really hard. I don't feel better mentally right now. I don't think stopping any addictions will automatically lead to immediate happiness. The happiness is something I imagine we'd have to work towards after quitting?

 

[FoxSauce]

Im still coping with cutting been a few months clean

 

[rotthjärta]

I was addicted to many things, things wich I used to cope with some trauma and my current life situation. Like a distraction. I removed almost all of those bad habbits (I restricted myself to only drinking, once or twice a week, nothing else anymore). People always tell me "You will feel better after you removed all your addictions" but its a few months now.. and yes I some things feel better, especially health related things and I dont want to go back to that place but I still dont feel happy.. what am I missing?
Did you guys feel better after quitting your addictoins? What is your experience with those things? (I mean media & porn addiction, drug abuse, etc.)

I don't thinking cutting back on addictions would make you feel happy overall, theres likely things you haven't gotten to resolve especially if its things that are going on internally. I cut back on a lot but It's mainly cause I don't have access to it and Im an adult so I can't go around stealing. I would say yeah def cutting back on things helped a lot for me, I wasn't making a fool out of myself and I get to wake up without passing out. Addictions happen for a reason, weather its because you can't control your consumption or you feel like shit so you grab anything nearby, but now you are going to have to look inward into those issues now just don't tackle them like you used to before.

Sorry If I sound preachy but wanting to be happy and to fix yourself up it is a process, but hey you are able to cut back on things so congrats that takes a lot! Try to build yourself some good daily habits now, for me it's the most basic shit like brushing my teeth, drinking a water bottle everyday, or eating a meal, something small. Don't overwhelm yourself.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I'd say I've had borderline eating disorders in the past. Mostly- binge eating. A food addiction I find especially cruel because- it's not like you can just give up eating and, so many foods can trigger it. That said- I haven't had an outright binge in a long time and yes- I do feel better without it. I used to have awful anxiety around food. I could feel the cravings to binge creep up and- even if I was strong enough to resist one day- quite often, I would relent a few days later. Which would then make me want to binge the next day and so on. So yes- I'm relieved to (mostly) be free of that- while at the same time, knowing how easy it would be to slip back into it.

The other one for me was limerence- which I would class as an addiction. I would obsess over my crushes pretty much every waking hour. That also drove me stir crazy so- I'm glad I've gotten that more under control. Again- I can find myself slipping back into it on occasion- but, I'm good ar recognising that now- and reminding myself what it is and where it takes me.