Bad Habits You Can't Shake

Off Topic
21

[quote]XanderBuilt wrote:
Thanks for the insight Cortes.

  1. What was it about diet coke that you felt you needed to quit?
  2. What kind of habits/addictions lead to dopamine response? My main one I guess is sugar and that’s lead to not maintaining my diet or emotional responses as a result of falling off the wagon. I read your last post on planning ahead and will implement that more seriously. Also to write what I want to do in the positive.

I have others which I’d rather not bring up here, would it be okay to PM you? [/quote]

!. I was drinking 6 or more Coke Zeros a day. It was stupid and terrible for my teeth.

  1. Although I suppose many habits involve a dopamine release, I’m talking more about the kinds of things we generally view as real addictions: Nicotine, alcohol, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine. Internet porn is not currently seen as a serious addiction but I strongly disagree. I may be mistaken about some of these problems and their relation to dopamine release, but in any case they need to be handled in a more aggressive manner.

PM function doesn’t work but have a look in my hub. Not sure how much help I can be, but I can maybe point you in the right direction.

22

Cortes, can you recommend any sources for learning proper visualization? I have Psycho-Cybernetics, which has proven to be an excelelnt source so far.

23

I love weed. I really do. I’m not HEAVY smoker but immediately after work I take a toke off my one hitter and continue a mild buzz until I go to bed. Been doing that for 2 years now.

My worst habit is negativity, I find it nearly impossible to be positive. I have periods where I really put effort into it and then I just fall off track again.

One habit I’m managing to break however is aggressive driving. I’ve been in my winter beater for months and have been practicing just being patient. I can only hope I can continue the trend when I bring my summer whip back out. The power is just too tempting not to use.

24

I wouldn’t call this a habit but it kinda fits the thread.

I can’t throw out old underwear.

You see, the thing is I get undressed at the end of the day and throw the undies in the laundry basket. I don’t really look at them, I just take 'em off and throw them in. In the morning I grab a clean pair and notice they are all tattered and worn but I say to myself “they’re clean, they went through the wash and the dryer, you may as well wear them one more time. But you will forget to throw them out when you take them off later. But I can’t just throw them out when they are clean”. And so goes the never ending cycle.

25

[quote]on edge wrote:
I wouldn’t call this a habit but it kinda fits the thread.

I can’t throw out old underwear.

You see, the thing is I get undressed at the end of the day and throw the undies in the laundry basket. I don’t really look at them, I just take 'em off and throw them in. In the morning I grab a clean pair and notice they are all tattered and worn but I say to myself “they’re clean, they went through the wash and the dryer, you may as well wear them one more time. But you will forget to throw them out when you take them off later. But I can’t just throw them out when they are clean”. And so goes the never ending cycle.[/quote]

Seek help.

26

[quote]Rattler wrote:
I love weed. I really do. I’m not HEAVY smoker but immediately after work I take a toke off my one hitter and continue a mild buzz until I go to bed. Been doing that for 2 years now.

My worst habit is negativity, I find it nearly impossible to be positive. I have periods where I really put effort into it and then I just fall off track again.

One habit I’m managing to break however is aggressive driving. I’ve been in my winter beater for months and have been practicing just being patient. I can only hope I can continue the trend when I bring my summer whip back out. The power is just too tempting not to use. [/quote]

Aggressive driving is much funner when it’s snowy.

27

[quote]on edge wrote:

[quote]Rattler wrote:
I love weed. I really do. I’m not HEAVY smoker but immediately after work I take a toke off my one hitter and continue a mild buzz until I go to bed. Been doing that for 2 years now.

My worst habit is negativity, I find it nearly impossible to be positive. I have periods where I really put effort into it and then I just fall off track again.

One habit I’m managing to break however is aggressive driving. I’ve been in my winter beater for months and have been practicing just being patient. I can only hope I can continue the trend when I bring my summer whip back out. The power is just too tempting not to use. [/quote]

Aggressive driving is much funner when it’s snowy.[/quote]

I used to winter drive my Camaro before I sold it. I’d just drift the shit out of it, a long ass boat sliding over the snow. Too much fun

28

I smoke weed after I workout. It gets you super fucking hi if you had a decent workout…

  • Chicken tastes better.
29

When I use the bathroom at my gym, I take special note as to who washes their hands and who does not.

I don’t have an issue with someone who sweats from hard work, but what in the blue fuck is up with guys taking a piss (or heaven forbid a shit that would make a T-rex proud) and not washing their hands ?

30

I am terrible about biting my nails as well. Always have been.

Also roadwarrior looks like a jacked Viking. You should definitely start posting more.

31

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]on edge wrote:
I wouldn’t call this a habit but it kinda fits the thread.

I can’t throw out old underwear.

You see, the thing is I get undressed at the end of the day and throw the undies in the laundry basket. I don’t really look at them, I just take 'em off and throw them in. In the morning I grab a clean pair and notice they are all tattered and worn but I say to myself “they’re clean, they went through the wash and the dryer, you may as well wear them one more time. But you will forget to throw them out when you take them off later. But I can’t just throw them out when they are clean”. And so goes the never ending cycle.[/quote]

Seek help. [/quote]

WHAT THE FUCK.

32

this helped me quit articles.elitefts.com/features/iron-brothers/don’t-you-dare-quit-advice-from-the-addict/

33

[quote]Tim33345 wrote:
this helped me quit the gay
http://articles.elitefts.com/features/iron-brothers/don’t-you-dare-quit-advice-from-the-addict/
[/quote]

That article is totally dead on. That’s exactly what I’ve been saying about addictions. The addict will never quit, will never be able to give up his addiction, until he learns to hate it. And he needs to hate it in at least equal degree to how much he once loved it, which is the really hard part.

36

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:
For habits that are not strongly connected to a dopamine response (unfortunately both of yours appear to be), I have found that the best way, for me, to completely rid myself of a habit is to NOT quit it. What I do is WRITE DOWN my conviction first to just keep away from the object of my desire for 30 days. Recently I had a terrible addition to Red Bull. Before that Diet Coke. In both cases, I wrote something to the effect of: I will drink only water or juice for the next 30 days. (You should write in the positive, not the negative, so don’t write: I will NOT dip for the next 30 days).

As far as dopamine related addictions, the solution is not always so easy, but, again, it requires first visualizing yourself as someone who would NEVER indulge in such habits.

There are a couple of very, very good threads here about quitting internet porn. I highly recommend you read them. [/quote]

Don’t tell me you cut out caffeine for good!?!?

That would be my vice. TV for sure as well. I’m real good about the TV thing when I live on my own but when there’s other people in the house that watch it all the time it’s hard not to. And when you try to leave the room to be productive somewhere they always try to guilt me and play passive aggressive and tempt me. This is family I’m talking about.

I used to smoke a ton of pot, but when I had a really good reason to quit which is looking for a real job it wasn’t all that hard to stop. It sucked the first few weeks. To be totally honest I still crave it from time to time but it passes fairly quickly at this point. [/quote]

I didn’t cut out caffeine at all, which I’ve never really felt to be a problem of mine, but all the HFCS and the unnecessarily high expense of the Red Bull needed to go.

When from about 17 to 19 or 20 I smoked more weed than Snoop Dog. My best friend and I used to go to his house for lunch, take a bunch of hits off a bong and then stuff our faces before heading back for classes. Then came home after and got high twice more before any given day was over. Pulled all A’s this entire time, but I was getting deeper and deeper into a lifestyle and peer group that was unhealthy, to say the least. One day, we were smoking at some guys apartment and, while high, I had a stunning, almost blinding moment of clarity. I looked at the apartment, the stupid Bob Marley posters on the wall, the brain dead people I was with with the contents of their skulls oozing out of their ears as they vegetated in front of a TV screen, and I have always hated TV, sorry Fletch (^^)v, and I just heard the thought, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU, in my head before feeling the most intense paranoia and agitation of my life. After that moment, I could never again smoke weed without that feeling of paranoia, stress and general unease. It went from my favorite pastime to the most hated feeling I could imagine. After a couple more attempts at getting high, I just quit forever. All my friends, the non-loser ones, I kept hanging out with, and they kept smoking weed, and they just couldn’t understand it. They would offer me read every single time I was around for the first few months or so, and they just couldn’t understand that I just could not even imagine smoking anymore after that. After a while they got used to it and they started to get used to the fact that I could still enjoy myself without being high.

After my moment of clarity with marijuana, I later quit drinking, and the way I quit drinking (which I have explained here a few times) was very very similar to the way in which I quit smoking weed. And also similar to the way in which I quit smoking cigarettes. In every case, it involved pretty much a single moment where I went from intensely desiring thing, to not having any more desire for the thing at all. It was almost an overnight transformation. In cases such as these, I think the first, most important aspect of the quitting process, is that the person who is quitting has to truly, seriously, intensely desire to be free from the slavery of addiction to that drug. Anyone who doesn’t quit an addiction, never reaches this point. This point is the most important point in the process of quitting, and freeing oneself from addiction.[/quote]

Sounds like for you it was a suddle deep shift in something… even having an intuitive voice… very wise… I wish my brother could hopefully find the same soon, on a side note some of your posts indicate to me that you are pretty well connected to something, maybe you are like the buddha and don’t even know it lol [/quote]

One of my biggest “secrets”: Deep, intense, prayer. [/quote]

Which some might say is a variation on deep, intense re-imaging, which I’ve had a bit of success with.[/quote]

They are certainly related. I won’t discourage anyone from anything which helps them free themselves from slavery or achieve a better life.

38

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

They are certainly related. I won’t discourage anyone from anything which helps them free themselves from slavery or achieve a better life. [/quote]

I’m coming to really respect your koujoushin.[/quote]

I still think he exhibits behaviors of a self realized person lol. Goes deeper then self image or self improvement… More on terms of an intense energy or strength deep inside that everyone in every culture can access and eventually embody, a direct connection to that and the infinite.

39

[quote]Rico Suave wrote:
I always bite my fingernails…I’m working on it though, slowly but surely.[/quote]

I’m in the same boat. I’ve tried multiple times to quit. Stress doesn’t trigger it… I just bite. I wouldn’t be surprised if i did it in my sleep.

40

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

They are certainly related. I won’t discourage anyone from anything which helps them free themselves from slavery or achieve a better life. [/quote]

I’m coming to really respect your koujoushin.[/quote]

I still think he exhibits behaviors of a self realized person lol. Goes deeper then self image or self improvement… More on terms of an intense energy or strength deep inside that everyone in every culture can access and eventually embody, a direct connection to that and the infinite.[/quote]

Wow, cstratton, I am genuinely flattered. Thank you so much. I must humbly disagree, though. If anything, I’m probably MORE flawed than most people. I just know how bad it sucks to be a slave to addiction and I don’t want anyone to have to suffer through the hell that I’ve suffered through, if they don’t have to. Particularly if they are looking for a way out.

Again, though, thank you very much for the kind words.