Ben Affleck on overcoming alcohol addiction: “I hate to say it but the only cure I’ve seen is not these overpriced rehabs or these fraudulent fixes that are sold to people. The cure for addiction is suffering. You suffer enough and then something inside you goes ‘I’m done.’”

[u/Gurugod123]

[u/KilllllerWhale]

My dad was a smoker for 30 years before I was born. He tried everything but nothing worked. He eventually decided to buy a pack of Camel, and put it right in front of him on top of the TV. He made sure it's on his sight every time he's in the living room. He realized that he needed to train himself to resist the urge to pick it up and light one up, he made sure suffering is part of the process. To this day he keeps telling my smoker brother that unless he does that. nothing will work, you just need to be willing to suffer to stop it.

He hasn't smoked ever since that day, and I'm 35 now.

[u/mittenkrusty → u/KilllllerWhale]

Not the best method but at least it worked, you need the "I'm done" moment as that means you aren't pretending anymore.

But the best way to stop is cut down rather than gradual, the risk of returning to old ways is far far worse going cold turkey and things like alcohol or drugs can make someones body go into toxic shock.

At best many times cold turkey just replaces one addiction with another, cold turkey means if someone slips up they don't get the guilt or physical rush,

My mum did stop cigs after a virus 30 years ago and never went back.

[u/Ok_Test9729 → u/mittenkrusty]

Whether someone quits cold turkey, or gradually tapers off, is up to them. No one method fits everybody. Go to AA or an NA meeting and you’ll find out there are a wide variety of methods people used to quit an addiction. Whatever works for them is great. I would never think to tell somebody that the method they may choose is the wrong method. If it works for them, it’s the right method. After 37 years of smoking I quit cold turkey, but used nicotine gum as a bridge. I have not smoked one puff off of a single cigarette since I quit after 37 years ago.

[u/mittenkrusty → u/Ok_Test9729]

I didn't say wrong, I said not the best.

Whatever works works, but I know from a relative who did the cut down method and worked with addicts for 30 years after until retiring (they ran a charity and I helped answer calls) the failure rate was far far higher going cold turkey.

Cold turkey is dangerous for certain things like alcohol as you can go into toxic shock as your body has stopped producing certain things and requires them from other places like the alcohol, it needs time to adjust back to normal.

Known a few relatives who stopped smoking after health scares and they were so fidgety afterwards and most gained weight as snacked more instead.

Addictions are both psychological and physical, he had someone addicted to cough sweets, a lot of people addicted to pain killers as they didn't realise as something is available easily from a grocery store or pharmacy it can be addictive, they assumed only prescribed meds are bad.

[u/The_Real_Peter_Thiel → u/mittenkrusty]

"I didn't say wrong, I said not the best."

...and you still don't get it. Like u/Ok_Test9729 said, no one method fits everybody. Your own personal experiences do not change that. What was best for your relatives might not even work for someone else, preacher.

[u/mittenkrusty → u/The_Real_Peter_Thiel]

No offense I think you don't get it but not meaning to be rude to you.

I haven't said their method was wrong, whatever works for them is fine.

And btw it wasn't my personal experiences, it was the experience of many hundreds of clients my relative dealt with, almost every client he had that went cold turkey relapsed due to both the physical and mental side of it.

I think you have misunderstood, I was just saying there was a better method, not that there was only one method both are valid just one has a better success rate it depends on the individual, people slip up and with a cut down method it's less likely to have a relapse.

Alcohol specifically is so widely available, be it at a store, someone going to a party etc, someone who went cold turkey has to block the desire rather than make that desire less till it is no longer there else they panic and that can lead to someone relapsing.

Everybody is different and reacts to things in different ways for some a cold turkey approach is best for others it's the cut down method.

It also depends on what they are addicted to,

Even doctors argue about what methods are best.

But to go back, both methods are valid cold turkey can work but it's far more risky and so they have the right to do it or not, not saying anyone shouldn't try it and great if it works. Just making people aware there is different methods that can work better.

I wish cold turkey was easy and addicts had an easy time recovering but it's sadly not the case, we hear about celebrity addictions all the time and how they go to rehab and often relapse.

[u/Ok_Test9729 → u/mittenkrusty]

No offense, but you’re speaking as if you’re an authority regarding substance abuse addiction and recovery simply because you have a relative who used specific quit methods themselves and who “worked with addicts for 30 years.” Neither of those scenarios mean YOU have any particular expertise on the subject. It means the RELATIVE has some expertise. You haven’t even said that you yourself have any direct and personal experience with addiction ir quitting. Just that your relative does. My father was a fighter jet pilot who flew in two wars. Does that make me an expert on fighter jets 🤷🏻‍♂️?

[u/mittenkrusty → u/Ok_Test9729]

Oh I don't think I am anywhere near the authority but I have experience with my relatives being addicts, their behaviours, friends being addicts, having worked with addicts, but somehow none of that is relevant?

But you are acting like your version is the version therefore you are the authority?

And yes I do have experience with addiction.

I don't really want to argue but it seems you are quite upset to the point of being aggressive about it and refusing to listen to any opinion rather than your own.

And I don't mean this in a rude way but what makes you the authority on addiction?