Need help quitting 7 years of drug use

[Caboose128]

Mainly just nicotine at this point. I'll try to keep this thread short to avoid rambling. I find that I spend most of my days just trying to stabilize my mind after all the ups and down due to drugs and stress throughout the years. When I was in high school, before any serious drug use, my parents sent me to an acne doctor who gave me pills, erythromycin I think. Every time I went there he told me I'd probably have to take these until I was 21 or so in order to completely get rid of all my acne. Well, lo and behold, being forced to take these pills completely screwed up my sense of right and wrong regarding drug use, especially pills. I never thought they actually did anything at all, kept repeatedly arguing with my mother over how terrible they are for me and eventually just gave up and quit after over a year of taking these random placebo drugs.

So anyways, fast forward a couple years. Later in highschool was exposed to Vicodin and Weed. First time smoking weed was out of a pop can with a couple of friends, which still bothers me to this day. Ended up smoking weed every day before and after school for about 2 years straight, got introduced to Suboxone by a friend and ended up pretty hooked on that too. Ended up on the Suboxone program for a duration of 2 years after college, thankfully got off of that after a long 2 year struggle.

My roommate in college was a weed dealer so I grew up always just thinking these things were normal. Also tried the therapy and medication route throughout the years but never found it very helpful. Throughout all this I was also smoking cigarettes, which is my main concern now. As with the Suboxone, I just want to quit everything cold turkey and never look back in order to have my best shot at a healthy lifestyle as I can manage.

Any advice on this?
Drugs I have consumed: Nicotine, Alcohol, Weed, Vicodin, Suboxone, Mushrooms, and prescription pain meds.

Longest I've gone without a cigarette in the past 7 years: 2 months
Every time I even think about quitting I can't help but start to feel really paranoid and sick, just imagining my lungs and organs all shriveled up due to all the excessive smoke that's been circulating my body. I imagine it'll take upwards of years of complete soberness to completely recover/see any kind of serious changes. I've been trying to eat healthy and exercise more, but this also worries me as I seem to have trained my body and mind to expect/want food or substance every couple of hours, and don't want to end up just substituting drugs for junk food.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

 

[PotatoMan]

Part of quitting drugs is to WANT to quit. My grandfather has not smoked a cigarette in 33 years due to being diagnosed with Parkinson's. He told me when you wanna stop cigarettes you must drop it and NEVER smoke it again. Easier said than done huh? Well it's practically the only way! There's absolutely no way of cutting back. It never works. You gotta just drop it.

You know what the sad part is though? Even after 33 years of no cigs my grandfather says he feels to smoke every day. He's in his 70s now and that honestly scared me. I've been smoking since I'm 15 and I'm 18 now and I try and try to stop smoking cigs. Knowing that feeling to stop smoking will never go scares me. I know one day I must cease but thankfully ever since this girl said she's take me out to lunch if I quit I tried quitting one last time. The only benefits I received were not feeling to have many cigarettes a day. Like I could go a day without a cigarette, hell even 2! But eventually that feeling comes back and I find myself calmly smoking a cigarette like if it ain't that unhealthy.

I may just smoke 1 a day if need be. I really have never been a chain smoker and the idea of smoking more than 10 in a day sickens me.

I only smoke a lot while drinking or tripping. I may never stop smoking cigs. Maybe I'll get a wife who helps me stop? For now I wouldn't consider it in my experimental phase. There's still much more tripping and drinking to do!

But that "paranoid and sick" feeling sounds like you may be physically dependant? Maybe you wound up smoking a lot everyday that has caused this. I personally have never experienced any bad effects from not smoking cigs. Though my friends have suggested that I can become a little more irritable. But no insomnia or anxiety.

Exercising and eating healthy and keeping your mind occupied and possibly picking up a substitute like Tea can only be helpful. But if you truly WANT to stop then do it. Go for it and never look back bro. It's seemingly the only way.

Good luck! You will also notice an ease of breath which is quite enjoyable!

also a lot of addiction is in your mind. You conditioned yourself into it. Condition yourself out.

 

[Maya]

When I started running/doing cardio workouts it made me stop smoking. It just doesnt make sense to smoke if I have already invested my time and effort in doing the exercises and if I am to continue the cardio workouts I better have a God damn amazing breathing while running. So perhaps this might help you quit