Overcoming Addiction ...

·        Causes of Addiction:

1.      Any addiction occurs because that activity releases dopamine in our brain cells, which causes in us a sensation of happiness. This dopamine is responsible for any motivation of doing work, if dopamine is completely removed from our body, we wouldn’t even be able to eat our food which is kept in front of us, just because we lack motivation.

So, when one tries to resist an activity that causes addiction, the amount of dopamine that our brain was previously getting from that activity is stopped, as a result, our brain retaliates causing in us cravings.

2.      So, even if one consciously tries to resist addiction, his subconscious mind causes in us cravings for that activity from time to time in different forms, this makes it very difficult to leave an activity.

·        How to overcome addiction?

1.      Period of Subconscious effect (21 days): To changes the neural connections we must actively resist the activity, in whatever ways possible.

                                            

2.      Goal: Choose a goal why do you want to leave the habit. Our body is very lazy, it always wants to maintain stability, changing a habit involves thousands of changes in the body, which body doesn’t want to do unnecessarily; you have to thus give it enough reasons to consider that decision. Without a proper goal, it’s impossible to leave an addiction

3.      Factors involved in Addiction:

                                                              i.     Trigger: Any environment, or situation or time that particularly incites you to do the activity of addiction

                                                             ii.     Pre-Requisites: Things that are required to complete your activity of addiction, in case of smoking it is the cigarette itself

4.      How to deal with factors of Addiction?

                                                              i.     Associate that trigger with some other activity, for e.g., let's say hanging out with friends who smoke cigarette motivates you to smoke a cigarette, stop hanging out with them, not for much long but continuous 21 Days. Or be stubborn about not doing that continuous activity for 21 days at whatever cost.

                                                             ii.     Increase the cost of pre-requisites, let’s say you have an addiction to smoking, and there is a shop, just out of your place. Make yourself a pledge that even if you buy a cigarette, you will buy it from a shop which is at least 2 km away from your place and that too just one, not a full packet of it. Why? Because this increases the cost of activity, and our lazy brain will try resisting activities that need hard work.

                                                            iii.     Try giving your brain some other source of dopamine, do or eat anything that makes you happy except that activity, eat chocolates, do some dance, play some music, or even reading a book, try doing anything but that activity for continuous 21 days.