Addiction & Recovery

It will prolong the difficulty, and usage will creep back up. You think not? It will creep back up to the level that prompted you to quit. Guaranteed.

If you have a problem, you have get rid of the problem. A "little bit" of pneumonia does not solve a lung problem.

I cut back to one pack per day of cigarettes a dozen times. I was always back up to four packs per day before I knew it. I quit smoking in 1984. Cold turkey. Quit. It was hard, you bet. I am alive today because I quit smoking. If I had continued the up and down of "cutting back to one pack a day" I would probably have died twenty years ago.

I cut back on drinking even more times than that. I would, I said, just have two beers. (Haha, I always told the cops I only had two beers. Never tell a cop you only had two beers.) I would only drink beer. I would only drink beer on weekends. Somehow weekends lasted seven days and beer came in whiskey bottles. I quit drinking in 1982. Cold turkey. Quit. It was hard, you bet. I am alive today because I quit drinking. If I had tried to keep "drinking only beer and only on weekends" I would probably have died thirty years ago.

If you have a problem don't just reduce the problem, solve the problem.