Best or Worst Decision

I’m not an addict. I’m a social user. I can quit when I want. Sure…everyone starts there. Until they aren’t. Until nic has caught you so off guard you’re spending a car payment on a fix that “is what you need to keep you going. Awake. Functional”. After all, it’s not as bad as <fill in the blank> and you’ll quit before <fill in the blank *cough* cancer>. If any of those feel familiar, or you’re too “smart to let big nic do that to you”, consider this your opportunity to wake the hell up.

15 years of social use for me turned into 3 hours after the family went to bed instead of intimacy, sleep, or productivity. 5 years in finance and a hellhole job turned into $400 a month and skimping to pay bills so I could keep dipping.

The cost of “I can handle this/it’s just social/I need it in my life right now for <some bullcrap reason you 100% believe>” is somewhere between “it will kill you while it destroys your financial situation” and a decision. Right now. To quit before it does, before it’s too late. Before you give another penny to an industry that a categorically designed to screw you over, steal your money, corrupt your mind and murder you with a smile. This is your choice, the same way it was mine.

Somewhere in the next few days, months, years, or decades you are gonna have a realization. A gut-wrenching wakeup coming from a doctor, a dentist, an oncologist, someone who tells you what everyone here already knows – tobacco/nicotine is a highway to take your life. We are here…the mentors, the HOFrs, all us addicts who have been where you are to say we are just like you. We were just like you. And there’s a way out…and we want to walk with you, every day. And it’s gonna suck, but it’ll get better.

Welcome to your wake up call, where murder and an addiction war meet the army of quitters in your corner. This is recruitment. This is survival…and we got your back. Welcome to the frontlines of the first day, 10 days, 100 days of the hardest shit you didn’t know you were gonna endure, one day at a time. And Welcome to the first day of the worst or best decision you ever made. Just make it already!

PS thank you to the November nutjobs and mentors that carried us through something I didn’t ever think I’d actually be able to do. You guys are awesome…and it’s saved my life.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan community member countryboy23116