You left off gambling. I am not an addicted gambler although I was in the casino trade.
I had a bad 8 year addiction with crack cocaine. I have not touched the drug in over nine years. The reason I haven’t is that I left the USA to take a job in a country with strict drug laws. “Geographic cures” do not work, but it did to me.
When I drink alcohol, I tend to get drunk. I do not get drunk everynight because of the hangovers. I get drunk about once per week, but lately my behavior has been hostile and loud, so I am cutting out the public boozing for the mean time. I am rather enjoying not being hungover, but about once a week, I want to get fucked up. That’s my nature and I am not going to break it.
I smoke marijuana everyday. It calms and relaxes me. I enjoy the feelings of ease and comfort. I am very resentful of the fact that this is illegal and I have to hide in a dark corner to use it while Uncle Drunkie is dancing on the tables naked. My wife doesn’t know I smoke, but I think she suspects it. I used to drink mostly everyday, since I switched from the bottle to the bong, my mood is much happier and friendlier. Even when I am not “high”.
I have done meth two times, once back in 1993, and the other time in 2007 or so. I didn’t like that shit. Made me paranoid. The rush was fun for a few minutes but then I realized that I am not going to come down and here I am bouncing all over the house for 12 hours, with panicky paranoia, looking through my peephole outside and afraid people were going to come into the windows. No, thanks, I’ll pass.
I rarely smoke cigarettes sober. Maybe once a day or less. I don’t smoke tobacco after I eat, nor do I do it after sex, or when I wake up in the morning, or really anytime. However, if I am on the booze, I smoke like a chimney. It’s a cross addiction. Doing one thing makes you want to do another. I lot of cocaine freaks do Xanax to get them back to normal. Drunks smoke.
I have done AA and 12 step groups which I found after careful study to be mostly nonsense. I also hate the part that one must admit to “powerlessness”. They believe that one needs to find a “God of their own understanding,” a Seinfeldian theology of “a faith about nothing.” Even though you can choose a God, eventually they will tell you that there is one God. I found the experience “cultic” in nature. I am also annoyed by the fact that drug treatment centers mostly all fall back to 12 steps instead of exploring deeper in the psychology of an addict and possible medications to ease cravings for the addictive drug.