This issue goes WAY deeper, and you can have heated arguments over whether there is a meaningful difference or if they are just polite euphemisms(hooker vs sex worker). Addict versus dependent for instance, functional addict, etc
*In 1990, American Health magazine published a study that finally told the public just that.[1] According to a Gallup Poll of a cross-section of the American population, people are about ten times as likely to change on their own as with the help of doctors, therapists, or self-help groups. Among the survey’s surprising findings were these:
Professional help has surprisingly little to do with important life changes, even health-related ones. Doctors helped people change only 3% of the time—while psychologists and psychiatrists, selfhelp groups and religious counselors got the credit even less often. Support was much more likely to come from friends (14%) parents, children, or siblings (21%), or a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend (29%). And 30% of the time, people simply did what they had to do on their own, often with striking success.[2]
In other words, the support that is most crucial comes not from specialized treatments and support groups, but from the people one already knows. And sometimes people simply change when they realize that the time has come. The survey found this to be true even for giving up such tough addictions as smoking or excessive drinking—a majority of respondents described quitting as something they did naturally, on their own.
*
I quit uppers-and-downers all by myself cold turkey. I later found out this is an excellent way to kill yourself, and I was in a very bad way for about six months. So bad so, in looking back, I really don’t know how I survived it.
Don’t know if this counts.
Between various injuries, kidney stones, and whatnot, I’ve built some tolerance to painkillers; I often have to double or more the dosage to get effective relief. However, when the pain is gone, I stop taking the meds and feel fine. I’ve never had trouble stopping pain meds, perhaps because I don’t enjoy them. I don’t look forward to whatever feeling they give some people. I use them to kill pain, then put them away.
I think that I just don’t have an “addictive personality” or whatever it is that makes one more susceptible to abuse.
After a car hit me on my motorcycle, I was injured very badly. After a week in ICU, then a week in regular care, I was sent home with pills galore. 120 mg of oxycontin per day was my standard dose for a couple of months. I didn’t “feel” anything from them, and I didn’t enjoy them. It was just for a baseline of pain control.
One Friday, I ran out of the oxycontin and called my doc. Out until Tuesday for the MLK holidays. Oh well, I’ve got Percocet and other stuff - should be O.K.
Worst 5 days of my life. I had no idea at the time, but I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. On Tuesday when I finally got in touch with a nurse in his office, she told me to get there ASAP. When I got there, she had a pill on her desk waiting for me. She explained that you just don’t stop taking that shit cold turkey. She’s right.
They reduced my dosage over the next few weeks, and then I was able to stop with no ill effects.
I never “wanted” the drug, and never enjoyed it in any way, but my body got used to it, so maybe that’s “addiction”.
Perhaps you can get your friend to slowly reduce his use to the point where things are clearer and he’s able to finally walk away.
This information wasn’t included in your first post. Don’t respond as if it was.
[quote=“ducati, post:24, topic:642764”]
Between various injuries, kidney stones, and whatnot, I’ve built some tolerance to painkillers; I often have ver enjoyed it in any way, but my body got used to it, so maybe that’s addiction.
No, that is dependence not addiction. Dependence is something just about every person who is treated long term with opiates experiences.
Yes and it can be done. I think it depends on the person. I had issues over 20 years ago that I’d rather not get into here but suffice to say, it was something that the majority of people need treatment and detox to resolve. I was able to do it alone. However, it isn’t something a person can “control”; you need to stop. I stopped and have never gone back. The thought makes me shudder and want to vomit.
There are a lot of medications that are supposed to be tapered on and off slowly for just that reason - your body gets used to it, and will be damn sick if you don’t get it. If I miss two days in a row of my SSRI (mild antidepressant), I feel like I have the flu. If I adjust the dosage up or down, I’ll notice some side effects for a couple weeks. I’ve never heard anyone refer to that as addiction, though, just something to be careful about. IMHO, addiction is what’s going on in the mind, not the body. If you can taper off a medication per the doctor’s orders without it being a mental struggle, you’re not addicted.
Edit on preview: what Ambivalid said.
Funny how you mention tapering off…
As it turns out, shortly after starting this thread, I was injured in a car accident – not badly hurt physically, but did wind up spending a week due to “exhaustion” (no snide celebrity-related comments, please!) They gave me tons and tons of Ativan while in the ward, but released me without any followup meds! :mad: So it took a week or two to “taper off” that short-term addiction, but lucky me, I haven’t had a Xanax since yesterday afternoon.
BTW I’m ok, in case anyone’s wondering – wasn’t even my car.
First, glad you are doing well Buddha!
Second, to answer the question, yes. Im not trying to tell you how virtuous I am or how moral (far from it!), just that if I can do it, anyone can.
Cigarettes (after 15 yr pack a day) - cold turkey + Nicorette gum
Benzodiazepines (tapered off after 4 months of escalating daily use).
Sedative/hypnotics of various brands (Likewise: tapered off gradually).
As the OP says, some things you need to know HOW to beat, and cold turkey could kill you. Do your homework first or get professional guidance. The rest is up to you. Good luck!
The key is absolutely WANTING to quit and committing to it.
Smoking - yes. Deliberate OD on nicotene. I no longer give specifics, as I have been told it can be fatal.
Etoh - not so much - I was hospitalized for another reason, and, instead of checking myself out and going home to the Stoli, I warned the folks - I ended up on a benzodiazepine for a week or two, but no biggie.
I’m bringing myself off 100mg. methadone for herion addiction.Tried n.a. & other 12 step’s but although they work for some people, not all.After quitting N.A. I’m doing great and aren’t afraid what every one else is thinking.I quit all shit ‘cept the Met’ (and benzo’s 4 anxiety)but am almost off them too. No therapy,doc’s or counsler’s.Unless he’s “bringing” himself down and he’s not just b.s.ing(all addict’s do bullshit “never trust a junkee”)than sure,pure willpower can work.Gotta repeat tho-N.A is a good tool, I just can’t see spending 32 yr’s as an addict & talking 'bout it rest of my life.
Yep.
And while I know I have to face it eventually, I’ve all but given up on quitting smoking – I was given nicotine patches in the hospital but still had to periodically walk outside and “pretend” like I was smoking…it’s that bad, seriously.
But, if I’m ever faced with the choice of quitting smoking, or giving up my Rockstar Energy Drinks – goodbye, cigarettes. 
What do you mean by beat?
I’m 26.
I took my first recreational opiate when I was 14 or 15. Pethidine (or in America, Demerol) from a friend’s dad. It was the best thing ever, and bear in mind at that age I was occupied with loads of other drugs and learning how to sex.
I constantly took them on and off until my early twenties, sometimes occasionally getting mild withdrawal symptoms… but thinking that wasn’t exactly much of a thing really. Frankly I had contempt for junkies (back then I believed in free will as well). I thought only weak people could get addicted.
Come age 21, I left university and got a ludicrously well paid job. I just quit it and still have some money from it, but back then it was much easier to make money from it and honestly I was making ludicrous amounts. The most I made in a day would approach six figures in dollars. And yet as I say I managed to spend almost all of this. Anyway, amongst the disgraceful things I did, which mostly involved “women for hire”, I also got back to my main love, opiates. But now I was in a position to have them every day.
There was an amusing interlude where now in practice I realise was when I was first addicted. I cannot remember when swine flu panic hit, but for some reason I took it very seriously - not swine flu itself but the possibility of it mutaing, and furthermore if it did mutate I may not have been able to move once I found out as everyone else would have been doing so. So I left London temporarily, after having taken opiates most days for a few months, maybe a year at most (not sure tbh) and moved up with my parents for a couple of weeks.
I then caught swine flu immediately, or so I thought. It was hellish. It is now clear to me that that was my first taste of proper opiate withdrawal.
Anyway, I won’t go on and on about this story as the rest of it is irrelevant. Suffice to say I ended up a total opioid addict, and I never ever saw it coming.
The main point for your OP is that indeed opioid addictions at a low level are EASILY beaten with will power. And the same goes for cigarrette addicitons. Indeed the dirty secret no one will tell you about cigarettes AND heroin, is that at least a third of the users of either are just NOT ADDICTED. I smoke occasionally (although tbh I mostly only smoke tobacco when there be cannabis included) and I find nicoteine a bit rubbish. But honestly, I find COCAINE a bit rubbish. Different strokes for different folks.
So what am I getting at? Primarily, it is that addiction is a spectrum. Firstly, different people are attracted to different drugs. I suspect with most of the common drugs those that get addicted are to an extent correcting imbalances in their brain. I truely believe I have a problem with my endorphin system (which also explains why I hate sport) and that is why I am uniquely susceptable to opioids. Secondly, people can think they were addicted - but until they’ve actually experienced true addiction, they don’t know what they’re talking about. This is a bit like the female orgasm in a way. Thirdly, some people are turely outliers, and your mate may be one of them. But I think my theories make more sense.
You don’t believe in free will anymore, but low level opioid addictions are easily beaten with will power? Can you explain that?
This, I definitely agree with. The belief that it’s all black or white is the main thing that makes me hostile to the entire field. I was thinking about becoming a chemical dependency professional, but as I looked into it more, no thanks. It’s all a big bureaucratic game, as far as I can see.
My mom did it. She was a very heavy drinker while I was growing up.
She never had any health problems from it, but there was plenty of mental disturbance.
But one day she up and quit. She claims she quit because of her Jehovah’s Witness faith. She had to live more in line with God’s principles.
Well, good for her, I say. I’m glad she’s sober.
But why did she quit for God? I find myself asking. After torturing me with her drunken abuse for years as I grew up, she quits to get along better with God?
I have to admit to some resentment on this issue. But it’s too late to be angry.
Point taken about different strokes & all that. I did quit smoking once, successfully, shortly after I first started, and probably wouldn’t have had a problem if I hadn’t stupidly re-started again. :smack:
Who was it who said, Religion is the Opiate of the Masses…was it Nietzsche or Marx?
But I’ve always said, it’s a shame someone like Kirk Cameron got addicted to God, instead of drugs – with drugs, at least you can kick the habit after it destroys your life. Religious Addiction just annoys (and potentially destroys) the lives of others. :mad:
In her mind, God has power over her – she quit to obey a higher power. As a child, you had no power over her. If you could have threatened to send her to hell, maybe she would have quit for you.
I might be inclined to view it this way, if Jehovah’s Witnesses believed in hellfire, but they don’t. 
The typo in the thread title has me pondering a lolcat along the lines of: “I made you a drugz but I eated it.” I am very sorry.
I know one guy who smoked a lot of pot pretty steady for 35 years. He stopped doing it one day because he decided he’d done it enough. Says he just quit. I know another person who did a lot of coke for a year or two and then decided it was time to quit and get on with her life. So she did.
Neither of them have been able to quit cigarettes.
Yes. I quit smoking twice and am in the process of quitting for a third time.
The first time was just flat cold turkey, and I tried to sleep through most of the 3-day physical withdrawal. It stuck, although I relapsed after about a year (after breaking up with the guy I quit for). I would have stayed quit if we’d stayed together.
The second time, I used an electronic cigarette for a little while, then gradually weaned myself off that. I also quit for myself that time, not anybody else. I relapsed 8ish? months later, for 2 reasons: my work performance suffered noticeably, and the money I had intended to save was simply being recycled into my food budget. I’m fat enough as it is. After I started smoking again, my work performance went back up and my weight fell back down.
This time, I’m quitting for a boyfriend again. I’m also using the e-cig again. I don’t anticipate having any trouble staying quit, as long as the relationship continues. The kicker is, I don’t really give a shit if it sticks long-term. I’m ONLY quitting because he wants me to. If I had my druthers, I’d be a smoker forever. The habit just doesn’t bother me “enough” to quit on my own–sure it’s stinky and expensive and dirty, but that’s not enough. All my past attempts at quitting have proven to me that I just can’t stick it unless a significant other requires or strongly urges me to quit.
So if this relationship doesn’t work out, it’s back to the cancer sticks for me.