5 helpful strategies to battle addictions.
** Disclaimer: The views presented in this article are not of any professional. These are just tips I have on this issue according to my experience and research. **
Excess of anything is bad. This is a sentence we have heard a lot but not necessarily stopped and thought about. I always heard this from my father and brushed it off until I discovered my obsessive nature and got involved in some very dangerous addictions.
Addiction, in simplest terms, is the physical or psychological dependence on substances or behaviors. Addiction is a very serious issue that has ruined millions of lives. People involved in addictions have experienced their relationships, careers, and physical and mental health slip through their fingers because of habits they just can’t get rid of.
Interestingly enough, my experience of addiction stemmed from a need to gain control but ended in me losing control over my own body and mind. It also started as an escape from the torturous nature of reality but ended up making my reality much more agonizing. I have personally suffered from not only substance abuse but also from behaviors that were severely detrimental to my health. On multiple occasions, I have seen my life go down a road of potentially catastrophic consequences.
However, I have been lucky enough to survive those phases of my life and emerge victorious against those addictions. This success is entire because of the support of family and friends and to some extent my own perseverance. And as a gesture of gratitude to fate, I am writing this article.
These are some of the things I learned during my battle with addiction. They played a major role in my rehabilitation. And I hope they may be of some help to others going through anything similar.
1. Acknowledging that you have a problem.
The first step to fighting any problem is acknowledging its presence. Many addicts are oblivious that they even have a problem that may potentially end up killing them. It would be more appropriate to say that they have an inkling but they choose to neglect it or go into denial. There are two ways to counter it.
First, people around him can hold an intervention. They convince the person that he has a problem and push him to seek help. Now, this needs to be done without criminalizing the person, but rather the problem. Blaming the person is unproductive as anyone in that scenario would become defensive and close themselves up, hindering any chance for improvement.
Second, the person needs to evaluate himself and admit that he has a problem. He needs to acknowledge the potential consequences of his addictions and how they will affect his life. An important note here is to remember that having an addiction doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person. You are suffering from a behavioral illness, and just like in the case of any other illness, you don’t have to hate yourself for it. I say this because self-hatred is very common for anyone suffering from addiction and it can lead you to more behavioral pathogens.
2. Going cold turkey.
Going cold turkey means putting an abrupt stop to your addiction. Stop doing the detrimental behaviors you are addicted to or throw away all of the substances you are abusing.
Now, I don’t recommend this for everybody or in every case. The prospect of going cold turkey entirely depends on your nature or the nature of the substance you are abusing. If you think that by going cold turkey you will face withdrawal symptoms that are potentially fatal or will affect your health negatively, don’t do it. Find some other way. In my case, going cold turkey was very dangerous and left me with withdrawal symptoms that were quite harmful. So, I don’t recommend this strategy to everybody.
But for those who decide to do so, a fair warning; will be immensely difficult. You will face withdrawal which will tempt you to relapse into your addiction. But this is the time you need to stay strong. Try to keep yourself calm. Try to keep the source of your addiction as far from reach as possible.
3. Waning off.
This is relatively easier than going cold turkey. In this technique, you have to slowly taper off from your addiction by gradually decreasing your dosage. This prevents your body from going into sudden shock as it does with going cold turkey and habituates it to a lower dosage of the substance or behavior.
The difficult part in this technique is to stay disciplined and not deviate from the plan of decreasing dosage despite being in possession of the substance you are abusing or having the liberty to engage in the addictive behavior.
Switching substances can also be of help with this strategy. You can switch to a less harmful substance or behavior that gives you a similar high. For example, I managed my cigarette addiction by switching to e-cigarettes. Now this may not necessarily be a smart move but at least it helped me smoke less.
4. Aversion therapy.
Aversion therapy is a type of behavioral therapy specifically designed to counter addictions. This form of therapy requires you to attribute something unpleasant to your addictive behavior.
An example of this can be mixing something bitter in your alcohol or rubbing Bittrex on the filters of your cigarettes.
This will give you an unpleasant experience every time you engage in addictive behavior and gradually decrease your affinity towards it. Thus, diminishing the addiction.
5. Seek therapy.
Everything I have said in the aforementioned points are the strategies that helped me fight my addictions. But there are many cases in which these strategies are of no help. I implore you that if you are reading this article, battling addiction, and the strategies that helped me don’t necessarily do the same for you, seek help please. There is no shame in admitting that you are struggling and need help. Seek out a therapist or a rehab facility and start working on your problem.
Addiction is a serious disease with devasting consequences. To those of you who are out there battling it, I say more power to you. To those who are fighting it and watching themselves face defeat, I say its alright and go seek help. You can do it. Just remember your addiction doesn’t control you, you control it.
