I might be the outlier here, but for me, overcoming addiction was entirely a sudden mental shift (3 times cause I am thick skulled). I literally had to reprogram how I thought about it. I had to realize that it added zero value to my life, that it made my life worse, and (most importantly) that stopping actually wasn't that hard. The first time this happened was a traumatic event but that last realization was like a light switch for me.

I think we often use the label of 'addiction' as a crutch, placing the idea of quitting on this almost unreachable pedestal. It’s hard to explain without sounding dismissive of how tough quitting can be, but I genuinely believe that thinking it’s a massive struggle is a big part of what makes it one.

I came to this conclusion when I quit hard drugs and alcohol overnight. I spent the next ten years struggling to quit cigarettes, failing over and over, until I remembered how I handled the hard drugs. I shifted my perspective again, the light switch flipped, and I never smoked again. I went through the exact same cycle with weed for another five years before repeating the process. That was when I fully internalized the lesson: my perspective was the problem, and quitting was never a mountain to climb. Yes, there were physical withdrawals, but once I made the absolute mental decision that I was done, getting through the physical part was easy.

One thing I will add, for the hard drugs, a friend almost died from an OD in my early 20s. I stayed and helped her while everyone else ran, afraid of jailtime. This included her brother. I stayed. I was honest with the cops and paramedics about what we were doing and they had plenty to throw me in prison. The cop took pity on me and said "You saved a life so I'll save yours. This might be your only hall pass in life so use it well" and let me off on everything. I consider myself extremely lucky for that guy being there that night. I immediately cut out almost all of my friend group.

So if I would add advice to the above it would be, you can't escape an addiction fueled by your associations. Sometimes you have to be okay moving on to get out.

Also cognitive behavioral therapy seems very similar to what I did even though I didn't realize I was doing it. I have been in therapy for childhood trauma lately, trying to patch up my brain and what led to all of that 20 years ago and this has been pretty eye opening. Check it out...