I Quit Everything: How One Woman’s Addiction to Quitting Helped Her Confront Bad Habits and Embrace Midlife

Amid the COVID pandemic, writer and rocker Smith (Red Velvet Underground) realized she was consumed, not comforted, by her many coping mechanisms. Here she chronicles her month-by-month mission to quit alcohol, sugar, cannabis, caffeine, and social media. Smith investigates the framework of her “big quit” against pop culture representations of substance use, from beer-guzzling adolescents in Bad News Bears to 1960s sugar propaganda. She also discusses which substances she went back to and when, balancing her newfound clarity with the understanding that many habits can be helpful in moderation. Performed by the author, this thought-provoking memoir takes on a reflective and relatable tone. The issue-oriented investigation of ways in which society supports addiction is clever and compelling. Though many have been affected by their own or another’s substance abuse, Smith also touches on the universal phenomenon of “quitting” the phases of life that have run their course.