The word addiction has some very negative connotations to it. Should it though?

A rudimentary understanding of biology, specifically neuro-biology, reveals that humans are inherently habitual creatures. Further more, we know from experience that the more we repeat an action, the more our brain and body attempts to adapt to it, and the harder it becomes not to repeat the action again.

For the heroin addict — as well their family — this can have devastating consequences. But what about the man who is addicted to learning, the woman who is addicted to meeting new people, or the child who is addicted to asking questions? Are these bad things? Certainly not.

Just like you, I have been addicted to many things in my life. I was lucky enough to have the strength to resist the temptation to try heroin, crack or crystal meth in my life. But I still abused a number of drugs in my teens, including ecstasy, cocaine and MDMA. I guess you could also say that I have abused drugs most of my life, if you count natural growing plants as drugs too.

I wouldn't say that I was addicted to any of those drugs really, none other than cocaine. My brain is so fucked that I don't remember that time period well enough to tell you how long I was addicted to it. But it was something along of the lines of age 15-18, or 16-19.

The oddest thing is that; while my memory of that time is hazy (so hazy in fact, that a girl once added me on facebook claiming to have dated for me months, and despite my friends confirming it, I had literally no memory of her), I can remember with crystal clarity just how little I enjoyed cocaine.

The first time was incredible, but every occasion that proceeded it seemed to provide me with nothing other than a confusing desire for more. Yet, for years, I still betrayed my morals, my family, and my God-given gifts in order to acquire a constant stream of money in order to pay for my addiction.

I'm very fucking lucky that, for all the mistakes I have made, the exterior of my body has managed to maintain itself. One wouldn't look at me and think that I was addicted to class A drugs for 3 or 4 years. Nor alcohol for 2 or 4 years after that.

But on the inside things are different. There are no doubt holes in my brain from drug abuse that still require more healing, and at times when I speak only to forget what I was talking about, I am reminded once again of those mistakes I made. The fact that I can literally feel how much bigger my left nostril cavity is in comparison to the right is also a welcome reminder.

I say it is welcome, because I do not regret any of it. I don't know who I would have become had I taken a different route, an easier route. Would I today be ignorant to the hidden plights of those forgotten by society. Or worse— be aware of their suffering, but apathetic towards it?

I do not know. I cannot know. But, I do know that these last few years have been the first in my life where I knew I was on the right path. I can't guarantee that a second go at things would lead me to the same destination, and so I look upon my mistakes as a shining example of who I don't want to be.

I share this with you, because I feel that after a long journey, I am finally nearing that point where I can feel that I have ultimately left more happiness than suffering behind me in this journey through life. And I know that if I can achieve this, anyone else can.

If you're a drug addict, you know one, or you think you know them all, I implore you to take a moment to reconsider the potential value of a drug-addict, or any person in society. Some of us take longer to sort our shit out than others, for many different reasons, and for that I apologise.

For me, it took armed gangsters coming into my best friend's home and robbing the place — with a samurai sword up to his mother's throat I might add— for me to get the wake up call I was so desperately in need of. I knew I had to change my life entirely and leave my friends behind, because if anything like that ever happened to my family, the guilt alone would kill me.

To oversimplify an extremely complex issue, I have to say that the key to breaking a destructive habit is to be reminded of something that means more to you than that next fix. This will not always be easy, perhaps not even sometimes, but I hold the belief that we all have something that means more to us, and if you know an addict, you shouldn't give up on trying to find out what that thing is for them. You never know what talent, what wisdom, or what benefit a junkie can offer this world when they are free from the shackles of their addiction.

Another important thing to remember, is what I touched on at the start. We are all fucking addicts. One cannot expect to stop one habit without replacing it with another. I made the mistake of going from drugs straight to rum and vodka. And I convinced myself that was better, though now I am not too sure. In the end I learned that I had to replace any shitty habits I was shaking, with productive ones instead. That can be difficult though, if years of abusing your dopamine receptors has crippled your motivation and inspiration. I found that any replacement habit worked well enough at that time. So, now I have a bunch of really annoying habits, like turning off a light switch every time I exit a room, regardless of whether anyone is still in there. Shit like that may not be desirable, but it's certainly not destructive.

The science seems to back this up, as there is only so much of the "glue" in your brain that creates neuro pathways, so if there is a lot of it being used on seemingly redundant neuropathways(like one that keeps you addicted to turning off switches or closing doors behind you), then there is less of it to attach itself to damaging neuropathways(like the ones that cause us to be addicted to drink and drugs).

I will note that, I'm no fucking scientist. But, this shit does make sense to me, and since I experienced it, I feel I'm in a position to postulate on what's happening behind the scenes in my brain. (It's not like modern science doesn't present theory as fact all the time, like with global warming, or gravity.)

So, this could mean that breaking a habit down could be as simple as adopting lots of tiny ones that do no damage to you, until your brain is no longer wired specifically for that one life-absorbing addiction.

Eventually, with enough time away from drugs, and without any other kind of dopamine abuse, your drive will return to you. At which point, you can construct a productive habit, rebuilding the architecture in your brain around this new, dominant habit.

What should that habit/addiction be?

Anything productive is a good, but I think you can do better than being addicted to ONE productive task. After studying neurobiology and beginning to understand why I was developing addictions, I decided to focus on making my dominant neuro-pathway an addiction to self-improvement.

If you can do this, then you are not limiting yourself to one specific task, but rather, you are merely adopting an addiction to being better tomorrow than what you are today, and that leaves you a ton of freedom on how to go about that.

But one should always remain mindful. It's so easy to slip back into negative cycles if you aren't consciously paying attention to everything you are thinking. saying and wanting. If you find yourself doing something you know isn't good for you for the second, third, or fourth time.. Remind yourself that however difficult it may be to stop it in that moment, each time you do it again, it will become even more difficult.

I hope this can help someone. Please resteem if you think it could help any of your followers.