My wife and I are going to try and quit vaping this weekend. For an added motivator, if I fuck up I will come back to this thread and publicly shame myself. I have a trove of compromising images with me and various world leaders getting spicy in positions not legal outside of parts of Oklahoma. Never good to have a secret trove of anything.

These will all be made public. I will lose my dignity and my mortgage and my congressional seat but I'm willing to risk this to get rid of this incredibly dumb habit.

rsmurphy wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:28 pmThis past Feb. 19 was my second month being alcohol free, and I'm soon to be coming up on my second month of no smoke, tobacco or otherwise. I've also been going hardcore on intermittent dieting since I gave up the giggle juice last December.
...Going to the gym helps, as well as feeding my creativity, writing songs, jamming, etc.

I think it's safe to say that the healthy activities you are doing play a big role in the ease you are experiencing with sobriety. You seem to be taking a wholistic approach to recovery, which is the way to go. Just *not drinking* isn't enough. Fucking good for you, man!

rsmurphy wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:28 pmNot to make light of how difficult quitting can be, but so far it's a lot easier than expected.

Cleaning up is really not as scary as our addiction tells us! We talk a lot about how hard it can be to quit, but I don't think we talk enough about how easy sobriety is compared to drunk life. So many problems solved themselves when I got sober, and I started feeling good very early on, not just in a "pink cloud" way but in a "I am no longer being poisoned" way. Sure it can be challenging to maintain the willpower not to take just a little drinkywinky here and there at the beginning, but it's nothing compared to the pain of hangovers, withdrawal, regret and shame.

ChudFusk wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 4:31 pm Sure it can be challenging to maintain the willpower not to take just a little drinkywinky here and there at the beginning, but it's nothing compared to the pain of hangovers, withdrawal, regret and shame.

not to mention the mental labor of trying to keep track of all the lies and excuses. When boy scout-types say things like "honesty is it's own reward," I realized this might be what they mean; that the phrase was coined by someone having not been truthful in their life and finding how much easier it is to move forward unburdened by what might be minor transgressions to others but weigh you down like a sack of bricks.