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Yea I have no idea how much psilocybin it actually has and I don't like taking large doses because I find it traumatic. I've tried everything you listed except for oral GABA. Nothing knocks me out cold for 6 straight hours besides weed.
I also almost went to the hospital this summer taking lithium orotate. I almost lost consciousness walking in the park because I was either dehydrated or super low on salt. There was also a post about orotate being mutinagenic so be careful.
@Frankdee20, I was a heavy drinker and substance abuser for a long time. Also was severely depressed and suicidal for a long time. Never really acted on it although once when a teenager cut my wrists (the "wrong" way across) and did some weird s*** like put my gun in my mouth when it got really bad. I thought about suicide multiple times per day for a couple decades.
Lithium I think was very helpful to me, but be careful with it in any form...can affect your thyroid. Even 5mg/day affects me negatively, although a short 2-week course of 5mg/day lithium orotate did me a lot of good when I first started taking it. Guess I might have been deficient and then got topped up at about the 2-week mark. These days I use a very small amount (mcgs) per day in my water. Seems to be fine.
IMO/IME getting comfortable with and getting control of the demons that drive us to abuse is essential to quitting any form of substance abuse. Means taking a deep look inside at things that make us very uncomfortable...IMO most of us abuse substances that change our mental states because we can't face things. Intense self-examination and self-honesty is a key. It's hard. For example, I had to come to grips with the fact that I really hated myself, which was tough. The term "low self esteem" is part of the popular vernacular but that's a mild term for the visceral feeling I had about myself and my own life. Then I had to parse out all the reasons why this hatred might have come to pass, etc. It was very tough to admit some of the stuff, then it was very tough to start not hating myself, etc., etc., It took years. The journey is still ongoing. Probably never be over, although thankfully I just don't feel the need to abuse alcohol or any drugs any more. I can say without any fear of recidivism that my addiction is over. I can have a single drink, or two, and then stop. Mostly I just don't want even one. Same with painkillers if I have to take them for a medical problem. A couple days to overcome the acute pain and I just don't want them anymore.
Some people find therapy helpful for this process of rooting out the demons. I didn't find therapy particularly helpful over a long term, because IMO many therapists will try to make us feel better about ourselves when sometimes we have to get down and wallow in it a while before we can get up and move on. However, I've found therapy very good as a short term sounding board and getting some fresh insight into the gazillion thoughts circling around in my head.
I found the 12 steps somewhat helpful as well, although they mostly gave me food for thought, as I never worked them completely. I found the structure of a 12-step group very confining, and some of the social dynamics in some of the groups I attended kind of weird. 12 step group members on TV are mostly normal but troubled people...but in real life it can be a little different. LOL
But IMO the first 5 steps are IMO crucial to anyone attempting to recover from anything, and what I said in the preceding two paragraphs is a lot about the "searching and fearless moral inventory" (can't remember which step that is, but is one of the first five). But it wasn't jus about figuring out the moral failings as evidenced by my actions towards others, it was also about figuring out what I had internalized from other's unmet expectations and negative perceptions of me (even things they perceived as negative that were not negative in my view), and why I had externalized other's perceptions to the extent I had, yada yada.
The other psychological thing I did that really helped was "aversion therapy". I deliberately and purposefully associated drinking with automatically feeling like crap. For a while, every single time I took a drink I would imagine in vivid detail the worst hangover I ever had. The projectile vomiting, the headache, the time lost to feeling like crap, etc. I would also imagine in detail the headache I would get the following day from the current drinks I was taking, even though they probably wouldn't amount to the worst hangover I ever had. This was very helpful, and it's part of the reason I don't drink often and that I'm able to moderate my alcohol intake on the odd occasion I do decide to have a drink. I still think about the potential headache with every drink I take. If that sounds like a "drag"...it really isn't. Trust me. And the good news is that I seem to have recovered to the point where I can overindulge and not suffer the consequences, as long as I don't do it as a habit. I "accidentally" got quite hammered at a wedding back in March, and I only felt a little tired and "off" the next day. But it's taken me years of lifestyle and metabolic clean up to arrive at that point.
I quit smoking cigs like that, too.
Anyway, as useful as aversion therapy may be, IMO rooting out the demons is the key to getting rid of the *urge* to drink on a regular basis. I just don't get the urge any more. The only time I even consider taking a drink is when I'm at a social occasion that calls for it. No urge to drink at home, or to go out specifically to drink. And most social occasions I just don't want it then, either. Has to be a very special occasion.
Other key to moving away from addiction is achieving a more beneficial nutritional status. This helps everything...mood/outlook, metabolizing toxins, etc. It can also be a long process, but very worthwhile. Remineralizing is IMO crucial, with stuff like mag and calcium and lithium, etc. For many of us supplements are needed in the beginning stages of this...diet alone won't do it. And once we start a supplment we may not need it in perpetuity. But we have to experiment to figure out what works for us.
Anyway, just wanted to post that there's hope. Good luck. I'm rooting for you.
Fantastic post and well done on quitting your addictions.
Yeah, it's not all hot yoga or trying to maintain poses. Something to consider.
