Oh, soz - forgot the other info I meant to post - below is an idea of the kinds of drugs I've been involved with, roughly in order of how much I like them:
1) Psychedelics - These are the 1st drug group I was interested in. Organic psychs are generally my favourites (I rank cannabis generally as a fairly mild member of this group despite its range of effects) although not exclusively so. My use generally averages out at about once monthly. I have never really felt out of control with any of these drugs thankfully. That average does include many months in which I haven't used before (for a variety of reasons - I've never specifically banned myself before) so I know it can easily be done. The temptation to go get some weed and skin up a joint will be strong by mid-month and easy to argue for "it's only a bit of pot...." but I'm aiming to be as clean as possible and swapping one substance for another would be all too easy with my personality. All psychs are gonna be off limits for the month at least. Whether I
want to quit 'em completely in the longer term is doubtful, I shall have to see. At least a month without will provide space for reflection on my long term use of drugs in general.
2) Opiates. Originally prescribed for lower back pain. I fell in love with the opiate experience and got hooked, getting whatever I could from whatever sources - not just the doctor. Eventually got completely clean of them and since have just used one of my least favourite (Dihydrocodeine) about 1-2 times per month as a "reward". This is what really convinced to take part in Octsober since I increasingly view this state of affairs as a mug's game and I have found it annoying having to still consider myself actively addicted over such a pathetic amount (which as a realist I must). I was posting in a different thread the reasons why I thought this habit would not escalate and should prove easy to quit and heard my conscience say "prove it then"! Originally I was going to rule out any opiate/opioid use at all during the month but then I was scheduled for surgery on the 5th and so had to rethink and allow for
strictly therapeutic doses as prescribed by a doctor (as allowed under the octsober rules)for post operative pain. I'll try and avoid this by using alternatives but if I really need it to keep myself comfy then as long as use, not abuse, 'em then I won't count myself as having failed. Included in this group by me for its similar effects is the atypical analgesic Tramadol. I am one of the (lucky?) few who got heavily addicted to this stuff. It made me ridiculously high and was harder to quit than Morphine. No, seriously! As a result I won't be risking taking any even for the pain. There are always other analgesia options available as long as the doctors don't suddenly get awkward on me and I have a list of "symptoms" of other typical Tramadol side effects to excuse my not wanting to take it.
3) Benzodiazepines. Originally prescribed for anxiety, insomnia or as muscle relaxants. I started to self-medicate with this drug group, for similar symptoms and also if I'm strictly honest sometimes out of plain boredom. I quit for a while after falling in to almost daily use since I didn't want to develop killer tolerance and/or get physically hooked. Since then I've resumed occasional use for the above symptoms even though I developed ways of handling all three without drugs. Just laziness and liking to take drugs I think. Bit pathetic really. No dose tapering should be needed but due to the dangers of benzo withdrawal I have kept some small doses in in case of physical withdrawal symptoms. These shouldn't be needed and I intend to get rid of 'em as soon as it's obvious that they're not. This group should just need a bit of effort to quit.
4) Booze. I have never been a particularly big drinker but I have often found myself drinking more than usual in order to relax when other recreational substances are unavailable. Twice I've had to rein myself in to avoid developing problems. In the interests of not swapping a bunch of minor, left over addictions for a worse one I and to do my bit to support all the posters above for whom alcohol is their main demon, I won't be drinking either.
5) Stimulants. I have experimented with stronger stimulants when I was much younger. I'm not really in to them now. The only purely stimulant drug that I take regularly is caffeine. I drink 4-5 cups of medium black coffee and 1 or two caffeinated sodas over the morning and first half of the afternoon. To be honest I've never found my caffeine use a problem (although I do monitor it to make sure it isn't increasing) and therefore, simply because I'm already quitting so much and I don't wanna overload my willpower over something minor, I've decided to allow myself caffeine. I am going to continue to monitor my intake over the course of the month to make sure I don't just guzzle too much coffee in "compensation" for the other drugs I'm missing but it should be ok. Also a stimulant, but given a category of it's own here as it's the most annoying pointless habit of all (and it turns sedative at high doses):
6) Tobacco. Yes I could've fitted this in to the other categories but it's best dealt with alone. I've been smoking for about a decade, since I foolishly started while sharing a student house with 3 smokers

I really want to quit, and a few years back I managed it for 3 whole months (which is past the physical addiction stage for crying out loud!!) but slid back in due to too much stress and not enough support. Since then I've never managed to stay stopped for longer than a week. I still have 4 years left on the target I gave myself to finally quit by but it's not a deadline I intend to run close. I was gonna use Octsober as a launchpad for a serious quittage attempt but post-surgical mobility issues have forced me to rearrange my first two appointments with the Stop Smoking Service counsellor. I am lucky to have found a very good one but unfortunately I know without her help I'm very unlikely to succeed at the moment. If I tie Octsober in with the quit smoking attempt and fail at that then I know I'll be tempted to use it as an excuse to say I've failed overall and I might as well take the rest as well. Better to smoke just a bit longer than to ruin all my other plans I feel, so I've deferred quitting smoking for a month. Hopefully success in Octsober will provide me with inspiration and techniques to overcome addiction and will make stopping smoking easier when it does come. My only goal with tobacco this month will be to cut down some more, hopefully this will be possible.
So to sum up, my goal for Octsober is to abstain from all psychoactive drugs for the whole month with the only exceptions being:
i) Coffee
ii) Cigarettes
iii)
Therapeutic doses only of opioid analgesics if really needed for post-op pain.
and to use the time to reflect on my drug use and, towards the end of the month, hopefully to take some positive decisions about the future.
I will be ecstatic if I can reach these goals

Damn, if it wasn't for my operation being moved forward it woulda just been the coffee. Never mind, I think it's more important to be realistic about what you can do than aim at targets you know you're unlikely to hit, which is too discouraging. You can always use where you are as a stepping-stone to somewhwere else too whichever direction you're heading in.