I love drinking and smoking but the cost is pushing me into debt
DEAR DEIDRE: HAPPINESS for me is a pint and a cigarette in a pub beer garden, and yet these habits are financially crippling me.
I would love to be able to give up smoking at least but I have no willpower.
After a big session I promise myself that I will stop smoking but as soon as I have a drink, I cave in.
I am a 38-year-old single man. I keep saying to myself that I am not going to carry on like this but it never lasts.
Each time I get paid my benefits I go out to the pub for “one pint” but it always turns in to four or five at least and I end up buying a packet of fags too.
The cigarettes alone cost around £16 and last me three days at most.
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I would like to cut back on drinking so much but I think tackling the cigarettes first is more realistic.
I am hooked. I need to stop as it is wasting my money and not doing me any good. Please help.
MORE FROM DEAR DEIDRE
DEIDRE SAYS: Realising you have a problem with alcohol and smoking is the first big step to getting help.
Addictions usually mask depression. You have tried to stop but these are both hard habits to break.
You are not doomed to a life of addiction but don’t struggle alone when there is help available.
My support pack on Stopping Smoking shares effective methods to go cold turkey, and support that is available.
Another, called Drink Problem?, explains self-help and where to get advice.