For me, it wasn’t a substance, it was a person. Letting go of someone who felt like home, even when they were bad for me, was harder than anything else…
As someone who’s been addicted to like… everything up to Fetti… for me it’s been nicotine. I haven’t touched it In 2 years and I think about it every day. When I think about another substance I’m like nah I’m good but, I could go for some nicotine in literally any form…
The withdrawal from methadone is so gnarly but I’ll literally try and justify using stuff like that to avoid nicotine lmao. Everyone is different l, I dunno why it’s been that hard but yeah it’s been that hard.
The most difficult thing is to get rid of emotional dependence on a person. This is not about some kind of passion-face from movies, but about when you already understand with your head that a relationship is toxic, you feel bad, you suffer, but you still reach out to this person.
You’re waiting for a message, even if you know there’s going to be a fight after it. You hope that he will change, even though he has proven otherwise a hundred times. You catch the crumbs of attention and think, “Well, then it’s not that bad.” But inside, it’s empty.
And the hardest part is letting go. Not because you’re weak, but because your heart, like a fool, clings to illusions, to memories, to “what if everything can still be saved.” And you’re not just struggling with feelings—you’re learning to be yourself anew. Without him.
This is the most difficult addiction to get rid of. Not from cigarettes, not from sweets—from a man you loved, but who didn’t love you the same way.
Sincerely? Love addiction. I’ve gotten through a few of the others, but losing the girl I loved with no contact was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.
I’ve got an addictive personality so I’ve been addicted to a lot of things, but man is sports betting hard to shake. Ive always loved watching sports. Even growing in an athletic family, playing multiple sports. I always enjoyed watching sports more than playing, I was never competitive. Gambling however starts off like all other addictions, innocent in the beginning but it quickly spirals. Five dollar bets turned into a cycle of losing hundreds a day, then you make it back in a day or two, plus some. Just to blow it all again. Don’t get me wrong there’s been times where it’s paid for my nights out or trips, but the worst part is trying to enjoy a game you once enjoyed without betting. Knowing you could’ve hit on a certain outcome is pretty demoralizing, but then again so is asking loved ones for money. I’ve been off for 2 days now, apparently it takes 2 weeks to break a habit.
Opiates. Hands down. Nicotine, alcohol, and all other drugs I quit cold turkey, no problem. Opiates took me a long time with many relapses. Clean about 8 years now and I’ve informed my wife that no opiates are allowed in the house or at the very least I don’t want to know they’re in the house because I will seek them out like a rabid dog. That’s how strong that addiction is 8 years later.
I’ve been, and continue to get, addicted to anything I remotely like. I’ve kicked nicotine, pain pills, alcohol, Xanax, and more.
Getting off Xanax was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Felt like I was losing my mind, wanted to crawl up the walls. It took several months to feel somewhat normal again.
Steroids can be hard cause you look great on them and get so many compliments. When you stop you lose most of the gains and people think you stopped training and look ill. Also you feel alpha on them but when you stop you feel the opposite very depressing.
For several years after quitting smoking I would have dreams that I was smoking again. When I woke up I would wonder if I had actually started smoking again.
Definitely porn addiction. With how readily available it is with the internet there’s a limitless catalogue of fantasy. Your mind will continue to warp from the exposure to it. The sad part is once your brain stops making the happy chemicals from sexual interaction in reality it’s damn near impossible to ever recover that.
Benzodiazepine (Xanax, Klonopin, etc) withdrawals are absolutely torturous. High rebound anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia, and even seizures. They can be fatal.
If quitting high benzo doses you should go see a doctor and evaluate if you need to taper. This also applies to similar drugs such as etizolam or clonazolam.
I am currently having a very hard time quitting Marijuana use. I have been trying for 3 months now with no luck. It might not be chemically addictive, but it’s definitely psychologically addictive and habit forming. Does anyone have any advice on how to quit? Or at least a success story about somebody that quit and feels great now? I need a ray of hope.
For me it was gambling. I think what makes gambling and food addictions uniquely difficult, is that you still have to deal with the substance every day. You can stay away from nicotine (also crazy hard to quit), meth, drugs etc…but you need money and food to live.
Especially these days with access to sports gambling im your pocket. Thank god that wasn’t my bag or a big deal at the time I quit (3 years ago). Can you imagine being a recovering crack addict and you having to walk around with a bag of crack in your pocket? I feel bad for the teens getting into it. Seems like it’s a matter of time before we start seeing regular news reports of gambling suicides.
Well I had DTs , Hallucinations, panic attacks, thinking I was going to die coming off Alcohol. Alcohol and Benzos are the only ones can be fatal..so I’m gona say the Devil’s piss !
I actually talk about this a lot in my music that I make. Its been very therapeutic and helpful for me to let my pain out through my music.
I’m 33 and Opiates have had a hold on me like I didn’t know was possible.
I was in 2 really bad car accidents. First in 2016, I was on oxy until 2021 when I finally recovered.
Getting off was hell and such a mental battle but I finally was clean.
30 days later, someone ran a red light and almost killed me. Broken neck, shoulder, and more. I’ve had so many surgeries since and am on a decent amount of opiates (90 mme equivalent) daily. It isn’t close to enough to manage my pain but is the clinics maximum where I go.
If I don’t have these pills, I can’t work, I can’t play with my daughters. Hell, I can’t even get out of bed without them.
I’ve had to go without them a few days at a time on really bad months where I had to take more than my daily dose and those few days are a hell I can’t even describe. I’ve been on xanax and gotten off of it and it doesn’t even touch what I go through without opiates. I feel like they are ruling my life. I hate it so much but without them I am in an indescribable amount of pain.
Cocaine was the drug I was most addicted to, though I had all sorts of substance abuse problems and several other addictions as well. I definitely have an addictive personality in more ways than one.
With cocaine, I was going through almost an oz a week at peak (although admittedly I would share a lot of that with my girlfriend and friends), beating the addiction was difficult, but my path to recovery turned out to be pretty straightforward and very different than other people. I tried rehab and 12 step programs and they all lead to me simply relapsing the second that I could without consequence. What worked for me was simple willpower. I actually kept a small supply of cocaine in my house. I made it difficult to get to, but not so difficult I didn’t feel like I had access to it. For various reasons the comfort of knowing that I COULD do it again if I wanted to made it actually much easier for me to quit than when I didn’t have access. It helped too because then whenever I actually encountered it in real life, I didn’t feel the fomo need to try some. This was especially important because when I encountered it in real life it was usually when I was drunk and/or tired and my inhibitions were low. I could tell myself “nah, you’ve got some at home you could do at any time if you wanted” and then I would be able to take the time to remember why I had decided to quit and how much I had accomplished by going as long as I did.
I also arguably became an alcoholic at a few points. Alcoholism runs VERY strongly in my family, where I only can think of one male relative on my paternal side who didn’t have a severe alcohol dependence. When I drink more than 4 drinks in 2 hours it becomes very difficult for me to stop, so I found by limiting myself to 2 drinks in 2 hours, and 4 drinks in a night (with very few exceptions) I am good.
I had a really bad video game addiction and sex addiction too.
I still struggle with caffeine addiction and reddit addiction (seriously it’s worse than you’d expect, I am genuinely avoiding getting important work done right now by writing this comment).
All of this and my time in various rehab programs and 12 step programs have taught me the following:
There are different forms of hard to quit and it is not as straight forward as any one being harder universally than any other.
Opiates have one of the most painful withdrawals, you can literally die from withdrawl if not carefully managed. But once you do quit it’s not like it’s everywhere. There is a process required to relapse in most narcotics of needing to actually source and purchase the drug. That works as a type of barrier.
Alcohol is really rough because the withdrawal can be really bad for that too. In fact just like opiate addiction, severe alcohol withdrawal can kill you. This is only in really extreme cases, but it does happen. But also alcohol at least in most western cultures is EVERYWHERE. It’s socially conditioned and part of many traditions and social protocols. Alcohol relapse in that sense is worse.
But then let’s go a step forward, there are some addictions that you actually can’t quit. Food addiction for example. There is a reason why so many people struggle with weight, and perversely the more you try to control it the more you can end up causing unhealthy eating habits. I think in a sense this can be one because it requires a lifetime of struggle.
One of the other things that makes certain addictions really tough to quit is the belief that the addiction is actually making your life better. My cocaine addiction definitely fell into this category for me, especially as someone who struggles with severe ADHD. Work, success, even exercise can all be serious addictions and you can easily deceive yourself into believing they are not. You are often encouraged to work and praised for success. But having known some very wealthy successful people in my life I absolutely can tell you it is a real addiction for many of them and they can’t quit. My dad was one with both a work addiction and an exercise addiction. That exercise addiction might be hard to believe, but especially now that he’s in his 70s he has a tendency to exercise to the point of serious health risk. He’s recently forcibly retired, so the work addiction isn’t there anymore, and now he basically spends all day in the gym, on bike rides or swimming. This only is interrupted for him to drink in excess. He’s dangerously underweight, and has been passing out during exercise on an almost monthly basis.
Ultimately if there was one thing I learned from my own struggle with addiction, it’s almost pointless to try to say any one addiction is better or worse than others. Different addictions have different challenges associated with them that can be more difficult for different people.
Comments
Heroin
Nicotine
For me, it wasn’t a substance, it was a person. Letting go of someone who felt like home, even when they were bad for me, was harder than anything else…
Sugar
Alcohol was a huge pain in the ass for me to quit.
As someone who’s been addicted to like… everything up to Fetti… for me it’s been nicotine. I haven’t touched it In 2 years and I think about it every day. When I think about another substance I’m like nah I’m good but, I could go for some nicotine in literally any form…
The withdrawal from methadone is so gnarly but I’ll literally try and justify using stuff like that to avoid nicotine lmao. Everyone is different l, I dunno why it’s been that hard but yeah it’s been that hard.
Being a jerk on the Internet. For sources, see: Reddit
Caffeine
stress eating
Food.
You can abstain from other addictions. Food is sort of non negotiable.
nicotine for the physical aspect, alcohol for the mental.
The most difficult thing is to get rid of emotional dependence on a person. This is not about some kind of passion-face from movies, but about when you already understand with your head that a relationship is toxic, you feel bad, you suffer, but you still reach out to this person.
You’re waiting for a message, even if you know there’s going to be a fight after it. You hope that he will change, even though he has proven otherwise a hundred times. You catch the crumbs of attention and think, “Well, then it’s not that bad.” But inside, it’s empty.
And the hardest part is letting go. Not because you’re weak, but because your heart, like a fool, clings to illusions, to memories, to “what if everything can still be saved.” And you’re not just struggling with feelings—you’re learning to be yourself anew. Without him.
This is the most difficult addiction to get rid of. Not from cigarettes, not from sweets—from a man you loved, but who didn’t love you the same way.
League of legends
Porn
Any of them, if quitting is somehow being forced upon them. Free will and choice will make a huge difference to how hard this has to be.
A ruined dopamine cycle!
Food,it makes you feel loved but it hurts in the long run
Smoking.
I have quit coke and meth and drinking and painkillers and all the rest of it, but good lawddy smoking is tough. I’m at 28 days now. Is a killer
Gambling especially high stakes
I’ve never tried to kick any addiction except sugar.
It’s legal, it’s cheap, it’s everywhere, its health detriment is sneaky.
I’m sure kicking drugs is harder, but sugar is the one I fight the most.
Gambling
Fake love
Ambien
Sincerely? Love addiction. I’ve gotten through a few of the others, but losing the girl I loved with no contact was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.
Probably the ones that are socially acceptable bc you can always find it and it’s not illegal
Gooning.
Social media scrolling
I’ve got an addictive personality so I’ve been addicted to a lot of things, but man is sports betting hard to shake. Ive always loved watching sports. Even growing in an athletic family, playing multiple sports. I always enjoyed watching sports more than playing, I was never competitive. Gambling however starts off like all other addictions, innocent in the beginning but it quickly spirals. Five dollar bets turned into a cycle of losing hundreds a day, then you make it back in a day or two, plus some. Just to blow it all again. Don’t get me wrong there’s been times where it’s paid for my nights out or trips, but the worst part is trying to enjoy a game you once enjoyed without betting. Knowing you could’ve hit on a certain outcome is pretty demoralizing, but then again so is asking loved ones for money. I’ve been off for 2 days now, apparently it takes 2 weeks to break a habit.
Opiates. Hands down. Nicotine, alcohol, and all other drugs I quit cold turkey, no problem. Opiates took me a long time with many relapses. Clean about 8 years now and I’ve informed my wife that no opiates are allowed in the house or at the very least I don’t want to know they’re in the house because I will seek them out like a rabid dog. That’s how strong that addiction is 8 years later.
I’ve been, and continue to get, addicted to anything I remotely like. I’ve kicked nicotine, pain pills, alcohol, Xanax, and more.
Getting off Xanax was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Felt like I was losing my mind, wanted to crawl up the walls. It took several months to feel somewhat normal again.
Masturbation
Heroin got me pretty good. Would not recommend.
Eating Disorders
Steroids can be hard cause you look great on them and get so many compliments. When you stop you lose most of the gains and people think you stopped training and look ill. Also you feel alpha on them but when you stop you feel the opposite very depressing.
Social media/phone addiction, considering it’s pretty much the only way to stay in touch with people these days (especially when you live abroad)
For several years after quitting smoking I would have dreams that I was smoking again. When I woke up I would wonder if I had actually started smoking again.
The mental programing / thoughts / fears / resentments / guilt / that actually fuel the physical addictions.
Definitely porn addiction. With how readily available it is with the internet there’s a limitless catalogue of fantasy. Your mind will continue to warp from the exposure to it. The sad part is once your brain stops making the happy chemicals from sexual interaction in reality it’s damn near impossible to ever recover that.
Drugs
Alcohol
Smoking
Porn
Self-harm
Sugar
Talking to yourself in a shitty way.
Benzodiazepine (Xanax, Klonopin, etc) withdrawals are absolutely torturous. High rebound anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia, and even seizures. They can be fatal.
If quitting high benzo doses you should go see a doctor and evaluate if you need to taper. This also applies to similar drugs such as etizolam or clonazolam.
Benzos bar none for me. Been off for 9 months and am still completely broken
I am currently having a very hard time quitting Marijuana use. I have been trying for 3 months now with no luck. It might not be chemically addictive, but it’s definitely psychologically addictive and habit forming. Does anyone have any advice on how to quit? Or at least a success story about somebody that quit and feels great now? I need a ray of hope.
Was a coke dealer. When you try the pure shit, until you ruine your life. You do NOT stop.
Porn
Anything related to procrastination
The one you currently have
For me it was gambling. I think what makes gambling and food addictions uniquely difficult, is that you still have to deal with the substance every day. You can stay away from nicotine (also crazy hard to quit), meth, drugs etc…but you need money and food to live.
Especially these days with access to sports gambling im your pocket. Thank god that wasn’t my bag or a big deal at the time I quit (3 years ago). Can you imagine being a recovering crack addict and you having to walk around with a bag of crack in your pocket? I feel bad for the teens getting into it. Seems like it’s a matter of time before we start seeing regular news reports of gambling suicides.
In a practical sense, Booze & Benzos. If you just go cold turkey you can die.
I’m talking about serious addicts here.
Well I had DTs , Hallucinations, panic attacks, thinking I was going to die coming off Alcohol. Alcohol and Benzos are the only ones can be fatal..so I’m gona say the Devil’s piss !
Coffee/caffeine. Didn’t know how bad it was until I tried to stop at my Doctor’s suggestion. Had to slowly ween by mixing decaf over time.
Kratom. It’s the fucking devil.
Caffeine. I really love my energy drinks.
Sugar
Sugar
benzos
Tramadol, what a shit journey !
I gave up addictions to meth, then Coke, but cigarettes was a bitch. Stuck to it. Never thought I could give up sugar, but going on 12 days now.
I actually talk about this a lot in my music that I make. Its been very therapeutic and helpful for me to let my pain out through my music.
I’m 33 and Opiates have had a hold on me like I didn’t know was possible.
I was in 2 really bad car accidents. First in 2016, I was on oxy until 2021 when I finally recovered.
Getting off was hell and such a mental battle but I finally was clean.
30 days later, someone ran a red light and almost killed me. Broken neck, shoulder, and more. I’ve had so many surgeries since and am on a decent amount of opiates (90 mme equivalent) daily. It isn’t close to enough to manage my pain but is the clinics maximum where I go.
If I don’t have these pills, I can’t work, I can’t play with my daughters. Hell, I can’t even get out of bed without them.
I’ve had to go without them a few days at a time on really bad months where I had to take more than my daily dose and those few days are a hell I can’t even describe. I’ve been on xanax and gotten off of it and it doesn’t even touch what I go through without opiates. I feel like they are ruling my life. I hate it so much but without them I am in an indescribable amount of pain.
I’m a former addict.
Cocaine was the drug I was most addicted to, though I had all sorts of substance abuse problems and several other addictions as well. I definitely have an addictive personality in more ways than one.
With cocaine, I was going through almost an oz a week at peak (although admittedly I would share a lot of that with my girlfriend and friends), beating the addiction was difficult, but my path to recovery turned out to be pretty straightforward and very different than other people. I tried rehab and 12 step programs and they all lead to me simply relapsing the second that I could without consequence. What worked for me was simple willpower. I actually kept a small supply of cocaine in my house. I made it difficult to get to, but not so difficult I didn’t feel like I had access to it. For various reasons the comfort of knowing that I COULD do it again if I wanted to made it actually much easier for me to quit than when I didn’t have access. It helped too because then whenever I actually encountered it in real life, I didn’t feel the fomo need to try some. This was especially important because when I encountered it in real life it was usually when I was drunk and/or tired and my inhibitions were low. I could tell myself “nah, you’ve got some at home you could do at any time if you wanted” and then I would be able to take the time to remember why I had decided to quit and how much I had accomplished by going as long as I did.
I also arguably became an alcoholic at a few points. Alcoholism runs VERY strongly in my family, where I only can think of one male relative on my paternal side who didn’t have a severe alcohol dependence. When I drink more than 4 drinks in 2 hours it becomes very difficult for me to stop, so I found by limiting myself to 2 drinks in 2 hours, and 4 drinks in a night (with very few exceptions) I am good.
I had a really bad video game addiction and sex addiction too.
I still struggle with caffeine addiction and reddit addiction (seriously it’s worse than you’d expect, I am genuinely avoiding getting important work done right now by writing this comment).
All of this and my time in various rehab programs and 12 step programs have taught me the following:
There are different forms of hard to quit and it is not as straight forward as any one being harder universally than any other.
Opiates have one of the most painful withdrawals, you can literally die from withdrawl if not carefully managed. But once you do quit it’s not like it’s everywhere. There is a process required to relapse in most narcotics of needing to actually source and purchase the drug. That works as a type of barrier.
Alcohol is really rough because the withdrawal can be really bad for that too. In fact just like opiate addiction, severe alcohol withdrawal can kill you. This is only in really extreme cases, but it does happen. But also alcohol at least in most western cultures is EVERYWHERE. It’s socially conditioned and part of many traditions and social protocols. Alcohol relapse in that sense is worse.
But then let’s go a step forward, there are some addictions that you actually can’t quit. Food addiction for example. There is a reason why so many people struggle with weight, and perversely the more you try to control it the more you can end up causing unhealthy eating habits. I think in a sense this can be one because it requires a lifetime of struggle.
One of the other things that makes certain addictions really tough to quit is the belief that the addiction is actually making your life better. My cocaine addiction definitely fell into this category for me, especially as someone who struggles with severe ADHD. Work, success, even exercise can all be serious addictions and you can easily deceive yourself into believing they are not. You are often encouraged to work and praised for success. But having known some very wealthy successful people in my life I absolutely can tell you it is a real addiction for many of them and they can’t quit. My dad was one with both a work addiction and an exercise addiction. That exercise addiction might be hard to believe, but especially now that he’s in his 70s he has a tendency to exercise to the point of serious health risk. He’s recently forcibly retired, so the work addiction isn’t there anymore, and now he basically spends all day in the gym, on bike rides or swimming. This only is interrupted for him to drink in excess. He’s dangerously underweight, and has been passing out during exercise on an almost monthly basis.
Ultimately if there was one thing I learned from my own struggle with addiction, it’s almost pointless to try to say any one addiction is better or worse than others. Different addictions have different challenges associated with them that can be more difficult for different people.
I’m really struggling with nicotine these vapes are diabolical
Nicotine.
Nicotine. It hooks you fast and lingers for years.