Chapter 2: Habits & Sobriety
The first and most difficult thing I decided to give up was the nicotine addiction. In the 5 year span of being addicted to vaping, I had attempted to quit 3-4 times and kept failing. I tried vaping juice with lower nicotine amounts as well as nicotine gum but those led me to only dose more and more until I got my nicotine fix. The method that finally ended up working for me was nicotine patches. I needed to be able to consistently control and monitor the doses of nicotine in order to properly taper off. I had heard that there have been people who have worn nicotine patches and then decided to cheat the process and smoke while wearing a nicotine patch. This had caused them to have a heart attack and die. This fear is what prevented me from ever cheating once on the patch. It took me 3-4 months to get through the cravings but finally I made it out! When the options are to keep fighting through the cravings or risk death, it makes it easier. Death is a hell of a deterrent.
The next thing I decided to get rid of in my life was alcohol. I strategically decided to plan the last day I would drink which turned out to be New Years Eve. I had a couple friends over to celebrate with me who knew this was going to be my last hurrah with alcohol. I purchased a bottle of white grape Ciroc which I thought seemed appealing at the time but then ended up tasting like rubbing alcohol. My friends and I got drunk that night but could not finish the entire fifth. Knowing I had taken my last shot, I was prepared to pour the rest down the drain and proceeded to do so. After realizing the strength I had to kick nicotine and no longer felt any residual cravings, I was motivated and used my newfound confidence to abandon my dependance for alcohol. Alcoholism runs in my family so I knew if this habit went unchecked, it would've ended up becoming far worse for me.
The last habit I kicked was smoking weed or more specifically "dabs" or "wax". I left this one to be last because I considered it the easiest to kick and least addictive of the 3 habits. I liked how I had very memorable dates for the last times I consumed each substance. The stoner holiday 4/20 was coming up, so I saw this as a perfect day to be my last hurrah with THC as well. I found that the withdrawals were very minor if present at all from the alcohol and weed. By comparison, the nicotine was by far the harshest in terms of withdrawals. Make nicotine your top priority and use the others as crutches in the meantime if you have to. Once you quit nicotine, you have unlocked the strength to let the other addictions fall like dominos. Take things one step at a time. With each little victory, you gain the confidence and strength to defeat the next task even more easily.