ABOUT ADDICTIONS

Note: this is not a scientific material. If you need help, seek professional assistance. Translated from Spanish.

Document written long ago. Maybe there will be some change.

THE BACKGROUND

An addiction is anything you can not fail to do that hurts you. I heard this on Dr. Nancy Alvarez’s show. I think the concept should include alcoholism, for simplicity. Otherwise, there is a long list of definitions for alcoholism. A trap of addictions is that if you manage to leave one, you start another one. Some even have their positive side. The workaholic may achieve their fortune. But almost certainly they will die early from heart attack, cirrhosis or some other illness. An addiction is a manifestation of an underlying problem, an unresolved internal struggle. I almost dare say the addict to one thing, is to other ones too. Thus, as described above, the super worker also is an alcoholic, drug consumer, seeks sex without control or has a reckless behavior. What characterizes an addiction is that it is self-destructive.

The trick to a solution lies in finding the underlying problem, the inner battle. It might be some abuse in childhood, or a situation too traumatic at any stage of life. My bet is that generally it is a conflict between what parents demand from you and what you do or want to do with your life. I get the impression that this is a failure that comes from the beginnings of mankind.

MY APPROACH

It might exist a causing trauma to an addiction. Although they are usually a manifestation of the subconscious struggle between what your parents (or whoever raised you) decided should be your life, and what you're doing with it or want to do. In part this happens because they longed for a certain type of child. But parents drag their internal battles from the clash with their own parents too. And this non resolved conflict, parents channel it on you in the form of possessiveness, control, contradiction, penalty, claim, hardness, cruelty, and sometimes indifference. It is an endless chain. Perhaps you will do it with your children, or you are doing it already. Up to this point I have not considered the possibility of a mental illness like schizophrenia or some other unmanifested. The ways of conflict are many. It may be that your parents live in a power struggle and you became a disaster as an outcome. Or they have migrated and left you behind, or went into a separation.

SOME TRICKS

I learned this from a television show so long ago that I forgot about it. To face an addiction you have to think about the immediate negative effects. For example, if you smoke, as was my case, you have to remind you rself again and again that it leaves your clothes stinky, ruin your breath, makes you nervous, causes headaches, gets you tired when walking, the smell bothers most women, it's something that makes you look like someone problematic, etc. Do not torment yourself with guilt. This will lead the internal struggle to maintain and increase the problem. If you think about the long-term effects of an addiction, such as cancer, it can even raise the addiction. It sounds absurd, but that is the result. An addiction is a self-destructive behavior rooted in the subconscious. And if you think of the worst effects, it will increase. Another trick I guess I discovered myself, is not to finish the issue at once. This means, not to think you are never going to re-do or are going to stop it permanently. The idea is not to put much pressure on the decision, to prevent the desire for what your leaving from growing. In my case it worked. I do not know if it is useful to others. I sometimes smoke a cigarette (tobacco), only to end up with nausea, headache, dizziness and nervousness. You must resolve the mess inside from the very bottom. Otherwise, you will leave a vice to start another one.

You will solve your problem within yourself and not fighting against your parents or complaining about them.

From wikipedia:

Addictions