u/Entire-Election-6408

After 7 years of smoking, nearly two packs a day, another two failed attempts + active alcoholism I finally managed to stay sober for the longest I've ever had.

This time around I approached the situation completely differently than the last two times.

I encourage all of you to go study the psychology behind addictions and how our brains trick us. STAY WITH ME. It sounds boring to some, but once you learn it everything might change.

What did it for me:

- learning how to stop merging my identity with the addictions (I'm a smoker/ I'm an alcoholic)

- learning how to recognise patterns of self sabotaging thoughts. (Why would I stop? Everyone does it anyway/ X person smoked and still lived till 83/ how else am I supposed to relax?)

- accepting that I have a problem and sitting with those uncomfortable thoughts, it really helps a lot.

- acknowledging what's lost, taking a deep breath and looking forward. Don't beat yourself over how long or how much you smoked, shaming yourself into quitting will work till next time your brain tells you that's your identity anyway :) this one applies even more for alcoholics

- begining to look at other people with addictions and observe how they behave in regards to their addictions, you'll see that all addicts seem like they have the same brain, same excuses, same thoughts, same denial. That's a crucial moment that made me understand my own behaviour so much better

There's probably more, but that's all I want to see for now. When you have time, Google it, discuss with someone, talk to an AI, whatever's accessible for you. Unlike my first tries my cravings are almost zero now, I haven't dreamt about smoking since week one and my mind has never felt clearer. It's still early for me, but I hope this new mentality i built will help me to continue as efficiently as I have so far. 💪🏻

Hello everyone. I, 20 F, have been smoking since the age of 13. I never really wanted to quit because I enjoyed this habit but my life plans changed and I want to quit.

I do want to mention that I did another attempt some time ago that lasted a month and throughout it all I had continuous dreams about smoking. Now, only 2 days into the second try they are right back. I already had shitty sleep because of cigarettes/caffeine/alcohol, usually not sleeping more than 5 hours a night, now even those hours are spent feeling internally guilty for something I didn't even do 😭

People say the dreams disappear after a few days/weeks, yet in my first attempt they didn't. I'll mention that I do not have severe cravings or withdrawal throughout the day which makes me handle it pretty well. Have any of y'all had such dreams? When do they stop?