It’s been a while since I wrote a new article, but for those of you who’ve been with me for a while – you know what that means.
It’s coming soon. Very soon.
And it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done so far.
I thank you for your patience.
But let’s get back to the topic of the article – the hidden traps of addiction.
Addictions are really easy to form because they’re so good at giving you a quick pleasure boost. When we hear the word addiction, we automatically think of drugs like cocaine and heroine but there are addictions that hide in plain sight as well that seem harmless.
Overeating, TV, video games.
They all seem harmless but let’s take a closer look to see if they really are harmless.
What is addiction in general reinforcing?
The quick and easy way out. Immediate gratification. No thought about the long term. Nothing about patience. Nothing about the bigger picture.
Screw all that.
Just want what I want right now.
Not a very good idea to constantly reinforce, but addiction does that because of its powerful habitual action.
The second hidden trap of addiction is that nothing else brings you pleasure anymore. Before, a great conversation with friends over dinner would have been great but now, you’re not interested in that anymore. Got to level up in World of Warcraft instead. Getting things done, achieving milestones used to give you a high, but not anymore. That kind of pleasure has been substituted with your addiction.
The third hidden trap is too much focus on the self. Me, me, me. All pleasure for me. Screw everyone and everything else. That’s a way to become easily lonely and depressed. If you look at most suicide notes, you see the word I many, many times but never we. Too much focus on the self is not good.
With all these hidden traps, it’s no wonder why addictions lead to all sorts of bad things.
Let’s see how all this plays out with a “hard” drug addiction like cocaine.
John’s at a party, he’s feeling kind of crappy because his life sucks, somebody offers him some white powder as a solution. Life is great now! But the pleasure subsides. Reality comes crashing back. He gets depressed. He wants to feel happy. He wants the quick way out again so he goes in search for the white powder rather than face reality and get his life together. Soon, the powder becomes the only way out. The quick and easy way out. Pleasure derived from setting and achieving goals to improve his life doesn’t compare to the pleasure he gets from the powder so he ceases to grow in his life. He slowly withdraws from his friends and family. He spends his time thinking of ways to support his drug habit, even if it means stealing. Everything in life is about him and the powder. All of this leads down a dark road we see and hear too often about.
But the question is, does that same scenario apply with “soft” drug addictions?
What’s wrong with some eating when you feel sad, watching TV or playing video games to escape reality?
Harmless fun right?
Well, in some ways, “soft” drug addictions are EVEN WORSE because it happens so slowly you don’t even know it.
The road traveled is the same, but it doesn’t happen as fast as “hard” drug addiction. “Soft” drug addiction creeps up behind you and overtakes you without you even knowing.
Life is hard. Eat some ice cream. Watch TV to escape reality. Play a video game so you can feel like a king of your own virtual world.
Life is hard. Escape again.
Fail to do anything to improve your life because the pleasure from escaping it is greater and acts as a better substitute. That results in life being harder, which drives you even further into escaping it through “soft” addictions.
Pretty soon, you’re consumed by your own thinking. You’re shining a huge beacon at yourself and your life, illuminating and exaggerating all the things you don’t like about it which makes you feel even more sad and depressed. You don’t have anybody to talk to as your addiction and selfishness slowly alienated you from everyone.
I didn’t even include all the health issues associated with the addictions but you get the idea now.
Both cases of addiction lead down the same road, but in different speeds.
The hard one can be traveled in as little as a couple of months.
The other, years, but you don’t even see it.
There are a lot of addictions hiding in plain sight.
It’s easy to spot the hard ones.
Not so easy to spot the soft ones.
But the key thing to remember is the hidden traps of addiction exist in them all.
Remember that if you ever feel tempted to indulge because once you do, it’s very hard to stop.
