Down to the last addiction and it's the hardest one

[SlateRDays]

Sometime ago I posted that I had an addiction to caffeine found in coffee and was struggling to break free from that. I finally quit last year and had not picked up another cup of fresh or designer coffee since. It was a hard one to break, but just like this last addiction, it served it's purpose it bringing a type of pleasure. Sort of like smoking for pleasure, but not for stress relief.

It was a relief on my wallet when I stopped and i'm great for the person who suggested Bengal Spice tea. I didn't add milk or extras, but instead drank it plain and learned to use mindfulness techniques in getting used to the flavour with adding extra stuff. Now I enjoy tea, but slowed down for a little while.

My last and toughest addiction, was actually my very first addiction my family introduced me to as a child. Chocolate. Chocolate is the last and hardest addiction to break for me, and I've been doing nothing but slipping, because I haven't found much of an inexpensive substitute. I tried dried and fresh fruit. Gluten free, grain, granola bars, but I find I have trouble stopping at just one and end up feeling a need to eat it all until the box is empty. It really doesn't matter what food it is when it comes to that. If it comes in individuals, and there's a certain number, there's a need to finish it so that it does not and is not in my presence.

So I silently congratulate myself for how far i've come in being almost all of my addictions; energy drinks, coffee, sugar candies (twizzlers, sour patch, etc), chips/crisps, soda. I now drink more water and occasionaly have a juice drink (apple, grape), and chips I eat just a small amount if I ever eat them. But, yes the last and worst is chocolate. Any size, any region, sweet or very bitter. My last battle is chocolate.

Have any of you had this kind of issue and learned how to ease, or cope, or substitute?

[Dena]

I am a chocoholic and I refuse to quit. I use it only at desert time and I keep a bag of Kisses (I am fine with the cheap stuff) in the freezer. When I want some, I grab 4 of them and slowly melt them one at a time in my mouth. This limits my intake of all calories because cookies or some of the other goodies tend to have far more calories and what's life without a few luxuries.

[SlateRDays]

That's about where I have to get to. I usually have to take time away from it. Allow myself to kind of "clear" out and then I can have it intermittenly and enjoy it as a treat. The hard part is getting myself to stop long enough so that I can re-introduce with control. Kisses are def my favourite too. LOL I'm almost at the bring of wanting to talk about nothing but food!

[IdontEven]

I'm in the middle of trying to get control of a lot of things - some are needs that should be wants, others are just plain bad for you. So some of the list I'm working on currently is refined sugar, processed foods and simple carbs, nicotine, alcohol, self-harm/hate, relying on other people to feel good about myself, getting carried away by my emotions. Basically I'm constantly finding things that I need to "get clean" from or some aspect of myself I need to work on, or I end up creating new ones while attempting to fix the old ones.

I actually freaked out pretty bad earlier tonight when something wasn't working out well (I blame the HRT dosage increase I started last week, this one has been a real trip from the start), and part of what I got really upset about was how I'm always struggling to change all this stuff and it goes so slowly that it seems I don't make any progress. Things are way different than they were 6 months ago, but practically indistinguishable from last week. Yet it all takes constant effort day in and day out for such a glacial pace of change.

Some things I've already stopped include caffeine, cigs, various drugs for self-medicating/non-recreational purposes, video games, tv, movies, and the computer as a need, eating to feel fulfilled...possibly some others.

Anyways, I have no intention of living like a monk (like there's -really- any danger of that), so sooner or later I'm going to have to draw the line and just allow myself to have some unhealthy vices and character flaws. Everything in moderation, including moderation!

Oh I almost forgot - I know it's recommended pretty much everywhere, but sugarless gum is seriously helpful for breaking bad habits.

[AnonyMs]

I'm not sure why you'd want to give up chocolate, unless you consume an awful lot of it. Is it that type of addiction?

Coffee I can understand to some extent as I'm usually addicted to it, and it can make me feel quite bad.

[SlateRDays]

Yea it's that kind of addiction. There's a pleasure element to it, like with all food I eat. However, in the case of chocolate I tend to crave large doses and I honestly don't want to keep doing that, because it's ruining my body's natural ability to do the sugar process thing. I don't want to give myself a health issue due to losing control. Once I've gotten the amount or flavour I crave, it goes away for a few days.

For example, I one month craved nothing but almond joys. I would go to walmart and by the budget packed. As we all might be aware of, Walmart is maybe a step or two from being like a Dollar store. Rejected or mismanufactured products that still have a quality to it to be usuable or edible, but with a risk attatched. In the case of almond joys from Walmart, they have too much sugar per piece in them. What the amount is on the package, is not necessarily true, because I can taste the difference immediately if I taste it from a different store I know has a high turnover rate and is fresh as it should be. Unfortunately this means I crave it more. I would end up by the two packs of twelve for a $1.00 a couple times a week or when I was able to get out of the house. This would end happening with other types too. Whatever flavour I'm craving, I have it until I no longer desire to taste it.

Coffee I had to force myself to stop. I was getting something like mini-seizures. I would get tremors which I couldn't always suppress, but I would get like a full body "tic" or shake where I was having trouble picking up something or just couldn't keep my head and body from just wanting to move and shift. I finally forced myself to stop coffee in all forms and i try hard to stick to teas with no caffeine. That means I can't drink Jasmine tea anymore. Any caffeine will cause me to have motor control issues. My parents didn't know about the mini-seizure thing. It wasn't like i dropped or fell, I would just shake to a point I needed to lay in bed or on the floor and let my muscles release that energy. If I could, I would also do yoga, but that depended on if the muscles wanted to remain in more of my control or their own thing.

I still have lingering effects from that as I get periods or motor strangeness, but it is definitely not as bad as when I had coffee or caffeine product in my system. I believe in balance too. i know I won't be perfect, but if I can get a hold of the addiction and wrangle it, eventually i can enjoy it with "needing" it. You hit that point on the head for sure

The other things you've listed I've worked on too. Video games, tv, etc. I actually still miss video games, but I stopped it only to focus on my other issues. Plus money and the fact that games are getting low quality and tougher. I'll come out of retirement if something good is released, otherwise I stick to specific style of games on steam.