Post: #1

Recently I've been struggling with an addiction (wanking) - actually, not just recently, but for at least four years - and I've thought of a way to disincentivise it. This applies to any addiction in which there is a tangible way to know you have relapsed, e.g. blowing your load, smoking 1 joint, smoking 1 cigarette (or just smoking at all during the day), etc.

Every time you break, you help a stranger out at a small cost to yourself. Example: go to the nearest bus station/train station/whatever and hang around the place where people buy tickets, and pay for the next person's ticket. If they ask why, tell them you're trying to drop a bad habit, and every time you go back your old ways, you buy someone a train ticket.

I realise many of you, unlike my 17-year old self, consider the cost of a train ticket to be chump change. Perhaps, then, if you're serious about quitting, you could pay for 3 tickets per relapse, or 5, or something bigger like someone's grocery shopping of the week.

This is beneficial because you have to spend money and time, and because (you imagine that) you get funny looks or you're being judged, when in fact this is just insecurity that you are desensitising yourself to. This is especially useful if you haven't started cold approaching in public yet.