Addiction 101; Breaking free

You or your loved ones may be struggling with it, it started as a bad habit, but it has become much more than that; it is a strong seductive pull that you can't quite get rid of, it's called an addiction. It can be inconsiderable or considerable, which can manifest as unavoidable longing, thinkings and yearning that causes disruption to your very life, but it shouldn't continue like that. Regardless of who is suffering from addiction, the good news is, it can be vanquished.

Techniques which are based on proven results and rather uncommon procedures, which has aided people from different path of the world refrain from their addictions , but these procedures are not made public because they're not financially profitable, addiction recovery is a huge money maker.

Search engines would bring up hundreds of expensive retreat centers and luxurious rehab facilities with fees running into thousands of dollars. The truth of the matter is, most programs do not follow evidence based guidelines but there are simple things that anyone can do in the comfort of their own home to eliminate cravings and urges for whatever addiction. So you'd want to read this entire post to learn about this simple evidence based techniques that has helped thousands of people all over the world to quit regardless of the type of addiction.
Neurologists have revealed that addiction has a shared neural circulation, in other words addictions are more alike than they are unalike, they all release dopamine; the chemical that makes you feel good, located in the brain. They also activate the same region in the brain in very similar ways. This is why addictions are really chemical addictions, you become addicted to the way they make you feel.

A lot of people indulge in smoking, taking drugs, alcohol, consume high calorie sweets to get an upsurge of dopamine.
Taking medication just alters the brain's makeup, you're not really altering yourself, you're just altering the way it makes you feel and the chemical alteration will only last as long as the drug is made to last, it's not permanent fixture, you'd always need another drink or drug to feel better. When the brain's neuro pathway changes through practicing certain exercises, it's an enduring change, this is the secret behind living addiction free.

You'd find success when your thought, impulses and urges for your addiction diminishes. This is when your addiction becomes unnecessary, it'll no longer have to fill a supposed need. But before I get into all of that, there are a few things that you need to know. You need to know that addiction is largely misunderstood and mistreated. Most recovery programmes do not address the underlying problem that addiction is a biochemical issue in the brain, think about it. Some people are in and out of rehabs nearly twenty times, that says something about the current system of addiction treatment and this problem is recognised on a international level.(edited)
Enoch Gordis, director of the NIAAA, which is the National Institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, stated;

The entire treatment system, which is teaming with multifarious therapies, hordes of therapists, immense and high-priced programs are based on an inkling, not proof and not science.

William White, senior research consultant at Chestnut health systems, who's the leading authority in his field stated;

The treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse addiction hinged solely on recurrent events of detoxification and abrupt stabilization is clinically ineffectual and amounts to poor management of individual and collective resources.

William goes on to say that recovery requires, I quote;

A displacement which will minimize high cost, high intensity severe care and focus attention on low intensity, reduced cost, and more lasting support systems.
The truth is, effective methods are simple practices that anyone and everyone can do. Maybe you've got a few hours or even a few days of abstinence, but what happens after that, you find yourself slipping again, don't you? You just can't quite keep those cravings for your addiction off for very long, you stay addicted because your addiction does something for you. You continue to use because it relieves anxiety or stress or so you think.
The real trick to beating addiction is not to fight the old life but to focus on building a new one. Your addiction will stop when it becomes completely unnecessary to artificially stimulate your brain with chemicals. And the one day, you notice as you look back, a whole morning has passed without doing that addiction and then you notice you've gone all day without it. It almost surprises you, then you realize this strange paradox, you've been overcoming your addiction when you stopped trying so hard to overcome it; you're beating your addiction in a less worried way.

Family member would watch their addictive loved ones destroy their health, happiness and livelihood, it doesn't make any sense. Addiction seems irrational and illogical, they say you need to be more responsible, or you need grater will power or if only you truly live me you'd stop. While these are great sentiments, they're generally ineffective and this is why; addiction taps into our hard wired instincts for survival, it hijacks our brain and the emotional payoff from our addiction is over valued over every rational or negative consequences, that's the truth.
But maybe you don't have a problem, we've all told ourselves that before, haven't we. We often rationalize and minimize our addiction and we often do not feel like we have a problem until we really try to go without it, tried two days, a week or six months. The truth of the matter is, we don't feel the full effect of our addiction because we're always giving in. You may feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a part of you wants to quit but the other that can't be managed or subdued, I've got news for you, it can be Overcomed.

People all over the world have overcome their addiction, you're not powerless, you're not your addiction as you might think, you're not weak willed or morally wrong as some might have told you. Some may say, once an addict, always an addict but I've got news for you, you don't have to be, once you stop self identifying, you'd find greater power. Neuro-scientists refer to the brain as a team of rivals because the brain is a multiple structured system in which different structures fight against each other for dominance. In order for the brain to operate properly, it must balance. To put this into perspective, there are essentially two parts of the brain were concerned with; the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.

The main operating part of the brain is the prefrontal cortex, which is coherent, logical and comprehends repercussions
The limbic system however is a primitive brain, it is pleasure oriented and selfish. It is concerned with seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The two parties of the brain, explains why many feel as if there is a different part of them; a part that desperately wants to quit, while another part strongly urges them to continue. You probably experience this conflict often, you may find yourself praying for help to overcome this addiction, but deep down inside, you notice another part of you spring up and says, "just not yet". The limbic system is a subconscious part of the brain, it reinforces your behavior.
The same limbic system is tied to the autonomic nervous system. This autonomic nervous system controls the blinking of your eyelids and the beating of your heart, you do not consciously control these things, they just happen. Similarly, this limbic system will send you false messages in the form of urges and cravings regardless of your desire to stop it.
To diminish these cravings and urges, you need to react to them in a different way than you did in the past. Until you discover the truth of addiction, and address the underlying problem, improvement will be minimal for most people. You need to reprogram your brain, flattery and wishful thinking will not work but understanding will. Once you change your brain, you'd change your life.
The brain is like plastic and it can be changed, formed, remapped and rewired. It wasn't until nearly thirty years ago that researchers started to realize, how profoundly the brain can change even in adults. The brain is always changing and responding to every internal or external stimuli, it's always active, even when you're asleep. Anytime you have a thought, neurons fire, related thoughts and behavior sends chemical messengers down similar pathways.

When chemical messengers are sent down the same pathway over and over again, a network is built, those thoughts that lead to using, solidifies your neural pathways for using, those neurons that fire together, wire together. Similar to electricity, the larger and denser the pathway becomes, the easier signals are transmitted. This results in more thoughts, more urges, and more cravings for your addiction, which will interrupt your life.

A network's chemical messengers do not stop flowing down a given pathway unless you do something about it. You may have spent years, over stimulating your brain's reward center with chemicals from your addiction, as a result, it becomes less responsive over time, this is tolerance; the need for more and more of it. During this period, receptor sites in the brain are slowly diminishing, the brain does this because it thinks it's producing too many chemicals and likes to keep everything in balance. So in a homeostatic state, when you attempt to quit, you don't quite feel like yourself, do you? That because your brain has depleted and malfunctioning neurotransmitters.

Addiction always results to increase in desire for a diminishing pleasure, there's no winning. And in some cases, this over stimulation makes you unmotivated for everyday normal rewards such as a walk on the beach, travelling or being with loved ones and friends.
Those intrusive thoughts to engage in your addiction, that craving that seem to come out of nowhere, those urges you experience for your addiction is all wired into your brain, you need a complete overhaul. Change those patterns by creating a new one.
Photo source 1, 2, 3, 4

References A, B, C, D, E,F

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Authored by @Vwovwe

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