What You Know About Addiction Is Wrong!(you're not even close)

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you know all about addiction. Maybe you're like me and find addiction to be a fascinating topic to explore for creative reasons. I doubt it, though.

I'm going to share my knowledge with you here, not spout my opinions on the matter.

Let's start with the picture above.
The picture above is simply an image I found that I feel is a good visual representation of the "big monster" of addiction.

The big monster is LIES. The big monster is BRAINWASHING

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Before I get into it, let me share my credentials. I am not a psychologist. I am not a counselor. I have never worked in a clinic. I have never guided anyone in a professional capacity through struggling with addiction. In fact, posting this on Steemit is the closest I've ever come.

Why should you care what I have to say then?

Because by December of 2017 I was smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day and drinking 2-5 bottles of wine a night. I started when I was around 15. I'm 33.

As of right now, I do not smoke and I do not drink. I have quit both and I did it without the use of willpower, AA meetings(I've never been to one and I believe they are a waste of time), or by cutting back.

Sounds fishy. So how did you do it?

I read a book. Two books, actually, by the same author. One on smoking, one on drinking. There you go. If you want to stop drinking or smoking or both, simply read those books.

The reason I'm making this post:
I've been trying to research this topic of addiction and man is it hard to find ANYONE who has ANY idea what they are talking about. Most people, psychologists, and doctors alike, think they know what they're talking about.

This post is a counter-move against all the misinformation on addiction you'll likely come across over and over in your life. If you read this post, think about it(not simply agree or disagree with it) you will be much more impervious to addictions of all kinds.

So why are you interested in researching it? What addictions are you struggling with?

None that I know of. I started to think I was addicted to my phone and social media, but no. I decided I was simply spending too much time on it and stopped. Wasn't that tough, didn't really require willpower, just a logical decision. I'm researching it because I am interested to learn how deeply addiction is entrenched in our way of life.

So then why should I believe you over all the doctors and psychologists and people and information out there that specializes in researching and learning and helping and didn't just read a couple of books and crown himself king?

Because if any of the brainwashing:doctors, media, psychologists, friends, family were right then I wouldn't have had a problem. The beautiful thing about the truth of addiction is that once you really understand it, it's not a big deal.

That's how I know I'm right and "they" are wrong. Their information doesn't help, or not as much, as the information that I learned.

Let's talk about how addiction really works.

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There are 2 parts to addiction:

1. The little monster.

2. The big monster.

The reason one is little and one is big is because the bigger one is more powerful, more evil, and more difficult to overcome.

The two monsters have specific roles, as well.

The little monster is the physical dependency. It is the actual addiction. There is nothing else about the substance whether it be cigarettes, alcohol, or heroine that you are "addicted" to. So let's expel our first myth. This one, a long with the others, is going to be a doozy.

There is no such thing as a mental addiction.

If it's not physically addictive then it's not addictive and you're not addicted to it.

Addiction is complicated and specific to each person. To undo someone's addiction they most go through an arduous and complicated process of self-exploration.

Nope. Addiction is simple. You are addicted for two reasons:
Big monster: Brainwashing
Little monster: Physical Addiction

Here's how addiction takes place in your brain. You smoke a cigarette. Nicotine is released into your brain. As soon as you put out the cigarette, your nicotine levels begin to drop. This causes WITHDRAWAL PANGS.

The withdrawal pangs are the little monster.

So a good metaphor is that by putting nicotine, alcohol, or any addictive substance in your body, you are putting a little monster inside you. In the case of cigarettes, that little monster feeds on nicotine.

When he gets hungry he says, "You want a cigarette."

When you try to quit smoking and he realizes you're not listening to him, he goes and tells the big monster.

The big monster then says, "Oh man, you're so stressed out. You need a cigarette to help you relax. They may not be good for you, but you are stressed and you're only going to get more stressed until you have one."

Then you have a cigarette. Then he says, "Isn't that nice? See how much pleasure that gave you?"

If you understand nicotine addiction you know that cigarettes do not provide any pleasure of any kind. All they do is create a system of withdrawal pangs.

When you go without a cigarette for an extended period of time and then finally have one, you are not feeling pleasure or relaxation because nicotine is inherently pleasurable, you are experiencing the partial reduction of your withdrawal pangs

That's why it seems pleasurable. The same goes for alcohol, the same goes for heroine. The withdrawal pangs vary, but in the end it's all the same. There are numerous analogies. Saying cigarettes provide pleasure is like saying banging your head against a wall provides pleasure. "Every time I stop doing it, I'm so happy that I'm not doing it anymore, that's real pleasure!"

No...

Little Monster

Big Monster

To break an addiction you have to kill both.

Most people don't understand addiction and that's why they never escape it. We've all heard of people who haven't drank in years but still refer to themselves as alcoholic.(sober alcoholics)

Do they seem like truly happy people to you? Do they seem like they are truly free of alcohol's hold on their life?

They have killed the little monster, but they never killed the big monster.

They will have to use exhausting supplies of willpower for the rest of their life. Their entire life will have to be centered around them keeping control of their addiction. Even if they are successful, that's a lot of wasted energy.

Kill the big monster first. Undo the brainwashing.

-Addictions are hard to break.
-Habits are hard to break and hard to form.
-Addictions are fundamentally different for everyone.
-Willpower, support systems, and discipline are all part of kicking an addiction.
-There is such thing as an addictive personality.
-Alcoholic is a scientific objective term.
-Cigarettes taste good/are enjoyable to some people or at certain times
-Doctors, typically, know what they're talking about when they tell you to stop drinking/smoking.

If you believe any of those to be true, you are BRAINWASHED.

I know I did. I had to go through these different concepts(and many others) and investigate the truth. Once I did that, I realized that none of them are true. The big monster was dead and gone.

Next Kill the Little Monster.
This is considerably easier and more straightforward. You will go through withdrawal pangs for a bit, but they're not as bad as you think. I was getting totally trashed for years, and drinking for over 15 years straight, and I can't even remember any withdrawal pangs when I went cold turkey.

Smoking, I just quit yesterday. I've got a headache, I feel an urge to smoke, but I wouldn't say that I'm using willpower. I know that in a few days this feeling will go away. I know that right now the little monster is screaming and begging me to smoke because the big monster is dead and gone. All the little monster can do is say "you want a cigarette."

And my response is, "you're going to starve to death soon."

There's no more big monster telling me an epic poem of lies.

If you don't agree with anything I've said, that's your choice, but please don't start spouting statistics and information about dopamine and neurotransmitters and articles about how they've discovered the "addictive personality gene."

If that's what the scientists really believe, then I think we need new scientists.

If you believe all that, OK, good luck, you're going to need it. But again, you're only rehashing what I consider lies and brainwashing.

If you want to use logic and have a discussion, I'm all ears.

The last thing I want to share is the number one emotional reason why we have so much trouble realizing the cause of addiction. The reason we haven't all figured out about this big monster and little monster is fear.

Fear
is what makes addiction seemingly difficult to overcome. Remove the fear and you realize that your cell door was never locked in the first place.

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You remove the fear by exploring the truth:
It's all smoke and mirrors.