I have been addicted to different things in my life, one time I was addicted to chewing ice cube, ("ewwww! That sounds really weird") till it almost caused me pneumonia.
I was addicted to coffee for a couple of years, and found it hard to do without it. I could go on and on with my long list of past and a few present addictions. Some of us have similar ordeal, it may not be a coffee or ice cube addiction, it may be addiction to Netflix, social media, to sex, to hard drugs, Pornography name it.
We as humans easily develop habits and its been proven that we easily develop bad habits comparatively; And that’s what has led us to series of addictions. It’s the way our brain has been wired. We easily come back to what we did yesterday.
And on and on we see ourselves doing it repeatedly with less effort or thought to it. After this read, you would be one step closer to gaining freedom from that obstreperous addiction. Let's ride!Point to note is that you can both be positively addicted and negatively addicted, but for this writeup were talking about negative addiction.
FICTIONAL NARRATIVE.
Sarah woke up one cold and snowy Sunday morning and got to realize how far gone her addiction for chocolate has eaten deep into her as she’s a diabetic. She eventually resolved to quit that addiction. Lucia, her favorite cousin works as a sales rep in Royal Oasis, a chocolate company.
Lucia always brings an ample amount of chocolate to her cousin Sarah. Knowing that it was going to be difficult to change her addiction with Lucia still supplying her chocolate, she had to tell Lucia to stop bringing in the chocolate.
It was difficult for her to keep up with that decision, Sometimes she just throws in the towel and goes to buy the chocolate herself but she kept on striving to quit that addiction. And eventually she.... (let’s hang the suspense there)
WAYS TO LET GO OF AN ADDICTION
1. Make A Journal
How has this addiction impacted you? Make a journal of what impact this addiction has had in your life.
Could it be that since you started getting addicted to social media, you no longer have time to study and that has left you with poor grades.? Then document it.
2. Decision Making.
3. Take A Deep Breath
why do you look confused..? Yeah that’s my next point. You need to take a deep breath in preparation for this arduous task because it’s not a piece of cake. Addiction eviction is HARD, don’t let nobody tell you less. Friend, I’m not going to sugar coat it or mince words to make you feel better. I’m your buddy, i have to let you know what you’re in for. It’s a whole lot easier to gain a new addiction than to lose it. You should note that some addiction differs. Some addiction could be much more difficult to evict than others.
4. Search For An Habit Replacement
Let’s make this analysis, say you bury a drum deep inside a stream, it’s impossible for you to empty the water in that drum without water still stuffing up the drum again. So once one set of water is being removed, another set of water gets to stuff up the drum all because it’s Buried in a sea that’s filled with water.
This analysis would be used to elucidate my point. when you want to let go of one addiction without having a new good habit to replace it with, it’s almost always impossible.
So what habit do you think you would need to replace this outgoing addiction.? Huh? I can’t answer that for you. Just think, The answer lies with.
With another scenario: Angela wants to stop her Netflix addiction, she needs to have a replacement which is studying. She can’t just stop Watching Netflix and start staring at me, she has to occupy that void. You get it now? And that’s what she’s choosing to do by using her studies to fill up that space.
5. Keep A Clean Environment.
Like I said in my blog about learning a new addiction, Scout around for things that makes it easy for you to want to indulge in that addiction, and discard it completely.
It could be friends that gets you addicted to clubbing, it could even be a game app hanging in your phone, it could be the hard drug still lying peacefully in your Locker. get rid of those items that would make quitting that addiction impossible. You may not necessarily get rid of your friends, but try to dine with them with a long fork, well until you’ve gained a solid ground in your addiction eviction journey.
6. Take Baby Steps
You can’t quit an addiction in one day. No! If you did that then that wasn’t an addiction you just quit.
You would surely relapse, That’s fact! But when you do, try again. Just like a baby learning to walk, he can’t get the hang of it in just one day. The baby stumbles, goes back to crawling, tries to walk, stumbles, retrogresses to crawling, tries one more time and gets better at it as he tries continuously.
Baby Steps interpreted
Day 1:
you were all pumped up with Phayvee’s blog on addiction, you resolved to quit and you succeeded in not indulging in that addiction
Day 2
Reality set in, you were not as motivated as you were yesterday, so You indulged in the addiction before you even got the chance to think. It’s fine, you’re still in the early stage, it’s going to be a long journey.
Day 3:
Half way through the day you kept off the addiction, but you were too stressed to keep at it so at the later half you went back to the addiction. It’s still fine.
Day 4.
You indulged in the addiction, but felt guilty and promised not to do it the next day
Day 5:
It was so difficult but you didn’t indulge in the addiction. You got a new habit to replace that addiction and you started at it.
Day 6:
You relapsed again. This time you did both the addiction and the new habit replacement. Well it’s still fine. You’re gaining momentum with the new habit. Before long the new habit would repel the addiction naturally.
Day 7 & 8:
You practiced just the new habit without an addiction.
If you noticed, you’re making a progress already. On and on the struggle continues and over time, you’ll see that you have gotten rid of the addiction.
7. Celebrate Yourself.
Yes! treat yourself to that shopping, spa, tour, travel, food, whatever you feel like because you did it.
You’re one of the few persons in the world to get rid of a leeching addiction.
Conclusion
Addiction is difficult to let go of, but the good news is that it’s possible to let go of it eventually. Just start now. Start making baby steps. And before long you’ll realize how far you’ve come in your journey
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Questions
1. What are you addicted to that’s making your life less qualitative?
2. How are you taking steps to let go of that addiction?
3. What in your life now, is making it difficult for you to quit that addiction
GIVEAWAY: Did you know.?
When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
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Have a Blast!
