Ways to deal with addiction

Today I want to talk about the the term "addiction"

Addiction is a psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a chemical, drug, activity, or substance, even though it is causing psychological and physical harm, 

Now, when someone is said to be addicted to something

It simply implies that the person has no control over the way the they engage in that activity

Addiction doesn't just start in a day, it takes regular engagement in that activity to become addicted

If you watch pornography for the first time, it's easy for you to stop after that first event, but if you get attached and probably like the feeling you get whenever you're watching it 

You're more likely to watch it again and again till it becomes an addiction

If you gamble for the first time, it's not going to be easy to stop that first time if you win the first time, because you'll think that you'll always be on the winning side, even if you seem be losing you'll still have that strong hope of winning, but if you lose the first time, the pain of losing may deter you from trying again

But if you do it again and again, it will soon become a very toxic addiction

Same with drugs, alcohol, smoking and the rest

Once you venture into it more than once, it's very likely to become an addiction

Now I'm going to be using pornography/masturbation and gambling as reference to others in this post

One terrible thing about addiction is how deep it eats into our lifestyle

Let's say, you start watching pornography then you gradually get addicted to it, the next stage is masturbation because those two go together

Once you've not watched porn or masturbated in a day

That day won't just feel complete

You will feel restless

You'll feel unaccomplished

Because your brain has added it to the "must do" list

Maybe if you're the had a godly upbringing

After doing it each time

You'll feel disgusted with yourself

You'll feel like a terrible sinner

You feel remorseful

Then you say you won't do it again

You delete all the pornographic videos you have

You decide not to masturbate again

But because the proposition is not as deep as the addiction

You'll find yourself downloading a new set of porn the next day

And going back to the process

.

.

If it's a gambling addiction, every time you feel that you have a slight drop in money

The next thing that will come to your mind

Is to go and gamble

Even after losing the whole money you went there with

The fact that you won some money somewhere in between all those loses

You'll capitalize on those winnings

And still do it again another time

Because as they usually say "person wey no dey take risk no dey get money"

.

.

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Now one thing I have to tell you is that

As far as you have a reason to justify or support that addiction

You can't stop it

That's just it

Because it's that part of your thinking faculty

That the devil preys on

When convincing you to do it the next time

That's why sometimes it looks like addiction is a very strong chain

Because you may feel very disgusted or irritated with a particular action normally

But that little part of you that doesn't feel irritated

As small as it is

Is the main portion responsible for that addiction

.

So until you can develop a complete hatred for that action

You can't successfully overcome that addiction

.

So my suggested steps to you to stop addiction is

* Try to develop complete hatred for that action.

* Stay away from places that encourage that action, if it's pornography and masturbation, stay away from sexually provocative movies, novels and pictures, if it's gambling stay away from gambling centres, if it's alcohol try to stay away from bars and clubs etc.

* Try to engage yourself in other positive activities that will take the place of the previous negative one you're trying to overcome.

* Lastly and most importantly take it to God in prayers, as you can't overcome without him.

I hope this helps anyone going through any form of addiction