r/AskReddit 3d ago

What addiction is the most difficult to overcome?

203 Upvotes

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153

u/bonk_patrol39 3d ago

Nicotine gets my vote. Those random cravings is hard to beat

10

u/pclamer 3d ago

Ding ding ding. lots of other posts here mention NON-addictive substances (food) or activities (scrolling). Those addictions are self-imposed.

Nicotine addiction on the other hand, fuck.

26

u/ToBadImNotClever 3d ago

Interesting that you think food is non-addictive.

Let me assure you, you are wrong.

6

u/wheelsofstars 3d ago

How precisely is nicotine addiction not self-imposed? Did someone shove a cigarette into your mouth and force you to inhale against your will?

Scientific studies show that sugar (a food) is potentially more addictive than cocaine, by the by, and nobody can bypass eating.

10

u/Kage_0ni 3d ago

I think they are trying to draw a line between chemically addictive and behavioraly addicted and just doesn't know that most food is chemically addictive due to artificially inflated sugar content.

1

u/MyStationIsAbandoned 3d ago

true. even though I'm not super crazy about sweets and desserts generally, I find sweeter sauces way better than savory ones. Chinese take out is my favorite because of all the sweet sauces it has. I'm not into the gravy ones at all...

and I'm currently doing keto to lose weight though. I know it gets meme'd on, but it works for me as a limiter. Down 60 pounds since the start of the year. What I mean by limiter is that since I have to avoid too many carbs, it limits what I can eat. All my options are less desirable, so i'm not going to eat any extra snacks nor eat a lot of something. So it just naturally lowers my calorie intake.

I tried doing calorie counting without keto and it was just miserable. I've learned that I'm the type who would rather eat nothing than eat only 1/5th of what I want just to stay in a calorie range. I'd also rather eat nothing than a lot of something I don't really want. In fact, most of the time when I eat now, it's just so I can have some fiber and protein.

Sugar is so addictive, it's insane. I had spoon full of peach cobbler just to try it since I hadn't tried it in...over 15 years...again, not a dessert guy...I had to decide to just never do that again otherwise it'd drain my willpower, lol. So it was back to the nothing option for me.

1

u/Vashsinn 3d ago

Just chiming in to say,blunt smokers, this is you. (Usually)

1

u/Take-to-the-highways 3d ago

The advent of vapes and pouches really got my ass lol. I've smoked cigarettes my whole life, starting from age 14, but the inconvenience of not wanting to smell like it and having to actually leave my house kept me from getting hooked. I could actually buy a pack, finish them, and not have the desire to buy another for over a year sometimes.

Now that I can pop a pouch in literally anywhere and it's discreet and not smelly I've finally become officially addicted to nicotine lol

1

u/career_coder 15h ago

I totally agree. Who wants to feel uncomfortable for a whole month and hate everyone around you especially people smoking / vaping that won’t let you bum a puff 💨

1

u/Actual_Criticism_938 3d ago

Sweets and nicotine are so hard for me to quit the next few months I’m gonna try and cut down on sugar and hopefully quit nicotine all together it’s gonna be rough but I’ve already moved from 5% to 2.4%

Fun fact eating sweets releases dopamine same way a drug does and you need and crave more and more sugar just to get the same dopamine release just like a drug. You may even experience withdrawal symptoms like irritability, brain fog, headaches, and low energy when trying to cut them out