When I smoke, my body works — but it’s destroying me
Hey everyone,
I’m writing here because I honestly don’t know what else to do. I’ve been struggling with addiction and compulsive habits for years, mainly smoking, but also other things that make me feel trapped in a cycle I can’t break.
I take meds for psychosis, and since i started those meds everything went downhill, I’ve tried to quit smoking, but every time I do, I crash hard. My thoughts get heavy, I get scared, and I end up lighting up again just to feel normal. I’ve tried walking, mindful drawing, even cutting coffee — sometimes it helps, but only for a while.
I really want to break these patterns, calm my nervous system, and actually heal, but I don’t know where to start.
If anyone’s been through something like this , especially people who deal with both mental health meds and addiction — I’d really appreciate your advice or even just hearing your experience. How do you regulate your body and mind without falling back into old habits?
Thanks for reading.
Hello, 😊
Good for you for writing about addiction, that's often a hard thing to bring into the light. We are often used to to hiding it.😕 not sharing it keeps us trapped in a never ending cycle we don't want to be in. Makes sense.
I have had psychosis and been on meds and was a smoking junkie. 😫 like you said quitting then crashing mentally, so then smoke again to stop symptoms, then be mad at self again. I only was able stop because I had covid really bad for ten days and I was through the worst of the crash. It is so infuriating!
I think you have taken a huge first step in trying to recover from addiction. You told the truth. Addiction hates that, it wants to be sneaky. You told on it!
If you wanted to, one idea could be to keep talking about it anywhere you can. Keep bringing light to it. I journal on here, really helps.
All easier said than done. 💜
Hey! I’m sorry about my bad english. I wanted to let you know how brave it is of you to write about this. A lot of people prefer to keep it to themselves, but letting it out is a really good starting point and what can really help to stay clean.
I was addicted to a lot of things too, including smoking, drinking and even sh. And I want to remind you that you’re not alone. Gratefully, I could overcome them.
To stop it, i used the method of the rubber band, that its basically just hitting your arm with a rubber band. It worked at first, but then the urge kept escalating and then i tried to stay calm most of the time, even if I had to go out and try to be as far away as possible of my cigarrettes. Then, I would just say “10 more minutes” and often try other things, everything, just for my thoughts to stop. Mostly I tried to learn new things, because that kept me distracted.
And the most important thing that helped me to get rid of them was to remind me every day that it was okay to relapse and that I have to be patient. A lot of people are most likely to judge but the majority of them didn’t go through everything the people who have an addiction went. It’s okay to want to go back, but after all, it’s just me against the addiction. I tried to learn more about smoking too, and to try to think a lot of my future and my dreams, because every time i wanted to relapse i would say “smoking takes away my future”, of course with a lot of things in the middle, but something like that.
And remember, if you want to talk, im here💜 sending hugs
Thanks for writing it here it's meaningful for me being new there
Thanks for writing it here it's meaningful for me being new there
@Eucaptus THE STRUGGLE IS REAL AND ALL THE BEST.
