How to deal with addiction
Answering a livestream question: "How to quit nicotine?"
I was recently asked in a livestream about quitting nicotine. Rather than answer the question literally, I shared my general understanding and approach to managing addiction. I grew up in a community where addiction was a common coping mechanism for the troubles people experienced. Using those experiences I’ve helped people around me develop healthier habits.
Nicotine, like many other drugs or processes or habits or chemicals, really, it's just chemicals can become addictive. I want you to think about this on a wide range of scales, because I want you to think about how you have multiple parts to yourself, your mind, your body, and your spirit.
And all three parts have the potential to become addicted. And when do you yourself become truly addicted? The way I describe that is the point where your will has become habit is where addiction starts. So you have to think back to where that happened.
Let me pause for a moment and define some terms: Tool versus vice.
I believe that everything has the potential to be a tool, a powerful tool. But, the same thing without discipline and moderation, can become a vice -something that is destructive to me and to my community. It doesn't matter what it is. Imagine anything and everything everywhere is a tool, but that same thing without discipline and moderation becomes a vice.
Somewhere along the line, in the time of your experience, your life, your will, your assertion of your own power became a habit. And that habit is when the addiction started, when you stopped asserting moderation and discipline to your use of whatever it was.
Nicotine, the thing in question, is one part of the addiction. The other part is physical right. We as human beings get into habits, okay? we have our hobbies, our habits, and our routines, and they have a powerful impact on our psyche. I’ve crossed many people whose hobbies had bad habits involved, and those created a key part of their routine.
Maybe they're a musician of some sort, or they're an artist of some sort, and every time they have a break, they have a smoke. Well, their hobby, their passion, their inspiration is now linked to a habit that they no longer even think about consciously. They just continue the habit without thought.
In order for the addiction to be addressed, if they’re trying to address it, that's got to change. The moment that they start to insert that change, I believe they will start to see the scope of where they need practice in being disciplined in inserting change in their life.
But it's also where they see and find opportunities to insert new hobbies, new routines, new habits.
I hope this helps.
Video of the answer is above!
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