Addiction,Dependency & Control
What is addiction? And what can you be addicted to?
Drugs,alcohol, smokes,medication? Obvious ones really, but it can also be tea, coffee, soft drinks and other sugars, unhealthy greasy food.
Addicts can’t control addiction, they need help because their body has now control of the mind. All the wrong now becomes right, self harm is now self pleasure and the only people you’re happy to see are the ones who agree with everything you’re saying. The ones who care about you are now your enemies for showing you how boring reality really is. Your tough love tactics will make you their enemy and most addicts fail to give up their addiction.
All in all, Addiction is not just a temporary relief it is an irresistible physical need to have/do something.
It’s a real shame but sadly there’s nothing you can do about it because these individuals now need professional help, but even then the only people who would change are the ones who are willing to give up their addiction to make that change.
How do their brains work?
Addiction is a lot about or all about looking for oblivion or forgetting(also temporary) but it’s a cycle they don’t seem to have a control of now, their addicted bodies now control their mind.
Though dependence is slightly different from addiction, it can turn into addiction over a continuous cycle of loss of control. The brain requires a particular substance to feel normal, the body’s biochemical systems change and adapt to release certain enzymes at certain times over a period of 24 hrs, if you’re drinking at 9pm every night for 3 days continuously, your body/mind will demand it on the 4th day and that’s how quickly you can be dependent.
“The need to feel normal” is dependence.
Dependence is what gives you the temporary high (and then the consequent low) which drives people to keep wanting it.
It’s no shame to admit this but in the past I have been dependent on what I thought of me as “feeling more alive” when I used to drink on night outs every other day. This is back in Uni when I was so confused about my choice of career path, so low, or broke, young, inexperienced. We’ve all been in that scenario at some point and sometimes all you need is a reason to break free, we don’t care if it’s temporary. Every day can be a reason to drink and forget and escape from the so-called “boring reality”.
There can only be a few reasons why reality can seem so miserable. And it all boils down to people in the form of family, friends, relationships\partners or work. If all was going well, no individual would make such choices but life is full of pressure.
Just like our bodies maintain the pressure of homeostasis without which we will die, there are always gonna be pressures in life. It’s all about the right balance to maintain one pressure to the other. The longer you are left without control, the harder it will be to gain control.
Addiction or Dependence when abused will change the development of your brain, it will reduce the grey matter of your brain, with certain genetics you will suffer from more memory loss,brain fog and/or damage than others or emotional or alone or depressed. It impacts your judgement, makes you reckless, sluggish or unconcerned, angry, anxious.
Just because some of these drugs are legal doesn’t mean one can do whatever we want and when we want. Learning to stay in balance has been one of the biggest challenges in my life but keeping myself a fitness freak has kept me sane and in control. Sweating these toxins out never got me addicted and gave me the strength of control but I know people who don’t work in those bars anymore because they couldn’t handle reality. Sadly it only costs others that they aren’t with us anymore and it puts me in tears of sorrow.
Life is still and will always be in our hands and we must always remember that each choice is a consequence of the future, instantaneous, recurring or indefinite.
I’d like to share my new years resolution and perhaps something you can try. “One drink policy!”
It’s hard for me to say no to my friends because of our love but quite frankly and factually, all bodybuilder, fitness freaks or athletes are likely to damage their bodies 4 times more than the ones who don’t and those are the facts due to the damage that’s already there, hence why you’ll see us getting pissed much quicker. It is my profession to stay a certain way and look a certain way and I think we should all respect it.
I don’t drink everyday and frankly, I don’t want to drink ever because ever since i’ve quit drinking my mood has gotten better, so has my skin, hair, nails, mind, sleep, social interaction, psychological state, strength, motivation, stamina.
Just like each of us in school, I’ve started getting naturally “high” on life than on dependency on alcohol or anything else. Started making healthier choices on food or commuting or people and it worked. If I can see the difference in me in exactly all those aspects then, that must be some change and so, I’ve been told by people around me(most people who know me) and so can you.
Believe me when I say this, more than 1 unit of alcohol(less than a glass) is definitely bad news but what’s worse is that even that is bad news.
I’ve realised what I really enjoy getting high on is a rush of adrenaline which is why I can’t and never want to stop my adventures in the physical world whether it’s skating, skiing, scuba diving or jiu-jitsu and many more to come.
I’ve found my niche to keep me in shape and I think most people find it hard to stay in shape because they don’t enjoy it enough. You must find what you like in terms of physical activity and replace it with your physical activity.
Life is ours so our decisions must be tailored to optimise it’s potential.