Taking Control; Quitting Addiction.

Physiologically, as a human being, you are designed to engage in day-dreams (scientifically called lateral thinking) whenever you are bored with your present.

With time this habit becomes stronger than we’d like to control and becomes a menacing problem called compulsive thinking. Our minds will ruminate over issues excessively and that creates anxiety.

The process is an energy-consuming illusion that subconsciously traps us by taking us away from the ‘boring present’ of our lives but at the same time fatigues our mental capacity.

Here is where the problem gets even bigger - by carrying a base-level of stress, any additional inconvenience to our reality like prolonged boredom, a small trauma or injury, feelings of guilt or whatever, can drain our already exhausted psychological and emotional power. The base-level of anxiety rapidly transforms into panic or frustration or anger or sadness.

So to recap:

1. Our default state when we are bored is compulsive worrying that creates stress out of nothing.
2. That stress drains all our energy – physical and psychological.
3. We feel weak, and any small additional issue (Trigger) overpowers us into a helpless state.

The point is, we have become susceptible to stress-overload and burn-out because by default, we engage our minds with thoughts and activities that are counter-productive and makes us 'energy-less'. Then anything can tip-us over.

This is what triggers the addicts “reward-craving” mechanism that temporarily recharges us and empowers addiction.

When we self-medicate with our addiction, and because they are usually the quickest way to snap out of our energy-drained state (emptiness and resulting pain) that creates a habit. A circuit forms in your brain that automatically creates the Stress-Craving-Use Behaviour.

With time, instead of getting recharged, we just numb the pain when we self-medicate. Let me rephrase that to a more accurate depiction, with time, our addiction numbs us to the actual sources of our problems such that we get paralyzed and unable to change what matters to us.

Okay. Once more, and forgive me for repeating but this is important for you to realize:

Boredom → Compulsive Worrying → Stress out of nothing → Energy Drain → Reward-Craving → Feeling Overpowered and Helpless → Trigger → Use → Guilt → More Pain and Stress → Energy Drain...and the cycle repeats!

This is the whole story as far as the problem is concerned. But I am writing this to guide you with truth that will break the chains and free you from your addiction.

Remember this fundamental rule: as an addict, you can only control your addiction when you have psychological energy!

By the time you reach the later stages in that cycle where your energy has been drained, your brain begins to funnel everything down to one thing – craving your addiction because that is what you involuntarily taught it to seek when it needs to recharge you, as your energy-levels and psychological state slowly dwindle.

And then all it takes is a tiny trigger!

Because "Energy Drain" on-wards, your low energy begins to affect your psychological state and the subsequent ability to fight, even though you may still have the aspirations to quit.

And this creates inner-conflict; you want to quit but begin believing it's become way too hard for you to resist your addiction. That's a lie!

The truth is you can only control your addiction when you have psychological energy, so the correct way to tackle your addiction is to preserve it through the principle of prevention - not allowing "Energy Drain" to continue!

Realize this from the fundamental first rule: To focus on fighting the earlier stages of the cycle is the correct way to maintain your psychological power and hence abstain.


1. Boredom (Energy Full) → 2. Compulsive Worrying (Energy begins to decrease) → 3. Stress out of nothing (Energy continues to decrease) → 4. Energy Drain (Warning: Energy Low)... then on-wards you become too weak to be able to back-track. It is too late.

Ironically, we debate whether or not we should self-medicate when the cravings arises, but that is not the right time because at that stage your state give you low chances to avoid.

With time, we forget about the source of our addiction, which is that we have become accustomed to our base-level of stress anxiety and pain. After all, we can simply numb the God-damned thing within (not away).

The will and intelligence to resolve the actual issues we suffer from diminishes. Our addiction is a crutch that if we don't fix, can disable us!

But can we be recharged any other way???

Look, ‘ideally’ you must learn to live a fulfilling and 'boredom-less' life. ‘Ideally’ you should avoid compulsive thinking that generates stress out of nothing. But in term of implementation, let’s look at another fundamental of life:

The quickest, easiest way to engage with the present is with movement.

Now by movement I mean shifting position; it includes exercising, or simply standing up, or getting a sip of water, or lying down and breathing. The point being to change your initial position that made you engage in your compulsive thinking behaviour.

This will snap you out of your funk, albeit temporarily, which in turn, elevates your thoughts temporarily. And that is what we want because the point is to “switch-on” and be present for a moment long enough to figure out what the actual inconvenience of our reality was. What is causing psychological energy decrease?

I use the word “inconvenience” on purpose because it reflects the benign nature of our real problems. Addicts especially tend to be victimized by small, simple inconveniences because like mentioned earlier, as an addict you are already mentally-fatigued and burned-out by your compulsive thinking habit. So any little thing can overload you which triggers the desire to numb the pressure.

Whenever you catch yourself edging - you should immediately bring your attention to the present long enough to realize that you’re probably passive, and alone. At least alone with your thoughts.

You could be in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, you could be reading a boring book at the library, you could be out with friends, the equation is always - you are PASSIVE!

And the quickest, easiest way to actively participate with your present is with changing position.

When we move, we “switch-on”. A bicycle cannot be balanced on just two wheels IF IT ISN’T MOVING.

When you begin to crave for your addiction, immediately ask yourself this question, “What is ACTUALLY stressing me right now?”

Something is draining your energy, and this is the real PROBLEM. “What AM I STRESSING ABOUT THAT IS MAKING ME CRAVE MY ADDICTION?”

My dear, if you can engage with this question, find the honest answer, and deal with it EVERY TIME. You are cured.

You’ll have times where you relapse because you feel too cold or too hot, and because you are used to being passive and on autopilot mode, rather than deal with it and add/remove layers of clothing or switch the AC-on, you will indulge your addiction to numb the inconvenience that was overloading your fatigued mental capacity. It is absurd!

Anything that brings peace of mind to you saves you.

The true nature of your resistance as an addict is usually to complicate matters that are so SIMPLE, if only you maintained your psychological power and state. Once you look and face the source of your reward-seeking behaviour, you begin to fully live.

Keep asking the question:

What am Really I stressing about right now?

And stop counting days, or viewing this as a challenge. This is your life so you should learn to live it stress-free!