insurgentrat [she/her, it/its]

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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: July 18th, 2024

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  • Not the poster but jellybeans were great for me. Just a pure sugar hit to self sooth. It’s ok to have a vice for a while as you quit.

    Also, you reminded me that one of the biggest hurdles I need to get over personally is not completely giving up after the first slip.

    This is a huge and necessary step mentally. It’s not a given you will use the drug again, but you might. If you do there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. any break is progress and helps to decondition your brain. Stumbling is part of life, we learn to walk by figuring out all the different ways to fall over.

    Even if the worst happens and you resume the addiction, take a compassionate and critical eye. What worked? what didn’t? how can you do better? You’ve got some past attempts under your belt already and those are not failures they are valuable lessons. You know yourself better, you know some of your triggers, you will do better this time.




  • Oh also with your upcoming new lease on working lungs take up running. It’ll help them heal and it is such a psychologically awful activity for the first 15 minutes while your body goes “ok we are doing this I guess” that it makes for a personal Mount doom to melt down all the emotions and stresses you don’t want to handle.

    I jest a bit, but some sort of intense exercise that gives you a reward for not smoking (you can do it now), a chemical buzz, and a way to work out the nervous energy or stresses that lead to you taking up a drug habit initially can be good. For me that is running because it’s cheap (shoes, optional), I can do it whenever I feel ansy, and I get a hit fast. My mate stair climbs, my wife lifts weights. It’s good to have a way to release happy chemicals and something to say “Ok yeah I got a pang of nostalgia and a craving but I will have to give up my hobby of X if I start smoking again” which helps move the needle against it a tad.