A question about addiction?

[hopefulwife]

Can Quiting one addiction make someone more likely to pick back up a recent one?

My husband and I have quit smoking and I am worried that he will go back to P. He has only been P free for about 6 weeks.

[debv]

Many P addicts are also substance addicts. My PA quit drinking a few months after he quit P, no evidence that he had a drinking problem, but his mother was an alcoholic and he was afraid that with that history and his own addiction history with P that he would be prone to alcoholism. So he decided to nip it in the bud. I commend you and your PA for quitting smoking, but I'd advise him to watch because he may want to turn to P or other substances as a replacement.

[JenMac]

HI Hopeful Wife,
I really have no idea but I have heard the saying 'trading one addiction for another'.
I remember when I quit smoking, I said, "I may not be a smoker but I could become an alcoholic!" This was simply because when I didn't have my cigarettes to have I would drink my drink a lot faster. It is the same when you turn to food as a replacement.
But those particular things are all to do with taking something orally, does that make sense? Is the P addiction on a different field altogether? I don't know.
Trying to overcome 2 addictions at the same time could be difficult, I would think. Your H is the only one who could really say.
I find in overcoming any addiction, habit etc. that the key is replacing the behaviour with something else, hopefully something positive and with moving yourself away from triggering situations, especially in the beginning.
Wishing you guys the best in working this habit out of your lives.
It was the best thing I ever did!
Jenn

[OpenEyes]

I would like to share my perspective, if I may. A large part of PA is about isolation and emotional distance. Any activites that substitue for this, when quitting P may delay or impede the eomtional work needed for progression through recovery. I was a "gamer" and a PA. During lulls in my years of PA, I would game much more (MMOs). When I quit P, I also abstained from gaming to make sure that I was working on the behavior changes with my whole attention. The behavior changing can lead to uneasiness which can then give the PA a sense of needing a "fix".

PA does have a "chemical" side as well. The brain gets to a point, it needs it's fix. When quitting, most of us go through a big time withdraw, mostly with the psychological reasoning of "I need my P, No reason I should not have it, a little won't hurt,.." etc. It is all justifying slipping back to the old patterns to get our fix. Can drug use take off and become addiction as a PA quits his P? I have not heard of it, but I can really see it happening.

This is just my understanding on the subject so far, but I believe it to be fairly accurate. I hope it helps.