Another way to succeed in life is to manage your time wisely and cut out any addictions from your life. Addictions are bad for many reasons but we often forget why addictions (of any kind) are bad in the first place.
Addictions are bad because they eat away at the time
available to live. There are many far more productive things that could be
accomplished with the little available time that you do have (like getting a
college degree or starting a business). Also, many addictions cause havoc in
the brain. If they don’t actually cause deterioration of gray matter they most
certainly hijack centers in the brain as you become used to the dopamine rush.
The brain/reward system responds by producing less dopamine. Since dopamine is
the pleasure or thrill chemical and now you have less of it due to your
addiction, you end up getting less pleasure in activities you previously
enjoyed.
In many cases what starts out as a feel-good drug/high turns
out to be a recipe for long-term depression, anxiety and lack of motivation.
Now you have even less motivation to do things that you previously enjoyed
simply because initially, these
activities will probably produce less dopamine in your brain than the addiction
that you are currently subdued by.
At this point you will have to entirely reprogram your brain
and start a new cycle. This process is indeed very hard.
Great website on this topic! Thanks Les for sharing this with me.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html
Yep. Have you seen this article, which sheds a new light - actually, quite an old light - on the topic? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Les! I will definitely have to check out that link and maybe even apply it to this post. I love to read anything about this subject.
DeleteRight? It is almost becoming old news now.
Aha! He did a TED talk, which you might enjoy. http://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
DeleteBugger! Let's try for a clickable link: Johann Hari:Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong
DeleteThanks Les! I will definitely be watching the video sometime this next week. I really love watching these kinds of videos.
DeleteYour comment, "Addictions are bad because they eat away at the time available to live" is bang on. However, a related idea underpins the failed "war on drugs" - it's a moral war based on the notion that drug addicts don't work, don't support themselves and don't "contribute to society" (how dare they!). But in actual fact, many or most do - there's an awful lot of high-functioning addicts in professions like law and banking. Try declaring war on them some time . . .
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't help wondering how these models of addiction to relate to non-drug addictions, such as gambling addictions, pornography addictions or - dare I say it? - addiction to religious belief. . .