Everyone is getting more addicted nowadays, and I'm not just talking about drugs or alcohol. Addiction is literally everywhere. It's like we need to be stimulated every second of the day and it's gone to the point where we can't even sit down and eat without putting up a youtube video to watch.
Overindulging in these addictions can drag us to a life we don't want, turning us into a drug addict, an alcoholic, a porn addict, or even worse, a discord mod. By avoiding these destructive habits, we avoid going down that dark and miserable path, and on the other side, we can become more productive, confident, and positive. ambitious, and ultimately more fulfilled and happy with our lives.
I know we've all tried to quit these addictions ourselves, but only to be on day one again every single day. It's a constant uphill battle. But don't worry, by the end of this video, you'll have everything you need to finally get your life together and finally break free from these habits.
But before we dive into what we need to do, it's important to first understand how addiction works in our brain. Addiction happens in our brain's reward system. When we do something pleasurable, like eating chocolate, playing video games, having sex, drinking alcohol, or smoking weed, Our dopamine level goes up. This makes us feel happy and experience pleasure. But then a wise monk will come up and tell you, in life, everything is temporary.
What goes up will always come back down. And he's talking about your dopamine. Once our dopamine has reached its peak, it will always come back down.
That's just how our brains work. But it doesn't just settle back to normal. Everything's got a cost.
Now dopamine level actually goes down below baseline. When our dopamine drops below baseline, we experience unpleasant things like tiredness, lack of focus, lack of motivation, and hopelessness. It's like the feeling you get when you just want to rot in bed for the whole day.
But our brain doesn't want to stay below baseline and experiences pain and discomfort. So it seeks more instant pleasure to bring our dopamine level back up as fast as possible. But remember, what happens when you see too much instant pleasure? You eventually go back down and experience pain once again. And the cycle continues.
It's like an endless roller coaster of going back up and down. The higher and faster our dopamine levels rise to the peak, the deeper and faster the drop. Addictive behaviors and drugs like cocaine, sex, video games, and porn increase dopamine very fast, and indulging too much of it can make our dopamine levels drop lower and stronger, which can leave us feeling more pain and discomfort afterwards. That's why these things are so destructive. These fast dopamine spikes train our brain to crave immediate pleasure, making it harder over time for us to enjoy activities that offer slower, more lasting rewards.
For example, reading usually causes dopamine to rise more slowly. compared to rapid spikes from video games. That's why it's so hard to sit down to read a book when you're a video game addict. If you're a video game addict trying to quit League of Legends, or just someone who struggles with some other addiction, normally people would just tell you to just stop doing it.
Well, the problem is that whatever you're addicted to has been such a big part of your daily life, it's almost impossible to give it up. The addiction is basically almost the same as brushing your teeth or showering. It's a part of your daily routine, and you can't just suddenly get rid of it. So, How do we actually quit these addictions?
Step one is to actually have the self-awareness to admit that you're actually addicted and it's becoming a problem in your life. Some people would just cope by saying, I play video games to relax and socialize with friends, but in reality, they spent the eight hours a day screaming into their mics, destroying their own mental health because they just had a bad teammate. Playing video games aren't necessarily bad and it's far better than sticking needles in you that you brought from a stranger off an alleyway, but it only becomes a problem when you- you can't control yourself from playing video games and the activity itself controls you instead. Step 2. I used to spend my days glued onto my chair, frying my dopamine receptors and my mental health with legal legends.
But one day, I realized that this was actually becoming a problem. I had nothing going on in my life, my body looked malnourished, I haven't touched grass in weeks, and I wasn't happy with the way I was living. I knew I needed to change, so I started to really get into working out.
I eventually noticed that I've slowly played less video games. I was spending more time working out and just didn't have much time for video games anymore. I was also spending more time learning about fitness by watching videos on YouTube, which took up more time away from video games.
I even started to get my dopamine from the workout itself since I always felt good at the end. I was also experiencing happiness and pleasure from seeing myself progress. Working out has become my alternate source of dopamine. Instead of going to cold turkey and completely eliminating the bad habit, We want to find another alternative source of dopamine that is healthier for you.
We want to replace your addiction with something else that raises your dopamine level slowly, like reading, yoga, drawing, or even as simple as socializing with friends. Step 3. However, simply just replacing an addiction with something else may not be enough. Sometimes your addiction is so strong that reading or going to the gym simply just can't replace it.
I remember that I would sometimes still catch myself playing League of Legends while I was still doing good habits like consistently working out and reading books but i still had time in my day to sneak in a few hours of league however it all changed when i started this youtube channel i started to set goals for myself and i became obsessed with growing on youtube i spent all of my time constantly working and thinking about youtube which took up all the time i had and i eventually had no time to play any video games. And video games wasn't fun for me anymore. So we need to find something to be obsessed over about.
Maybe it's a certain goal you want to achieve or a new hobby you want to try. This means that you have to explore and create new interests for yourself. By having an obsession, you'll be constantly thinking about it and it will take up mental space in your mind throughout your day. So you won't even have the mental space to think about the thing you were addicted to since all you think about is your obsession. But still.
Keep in mind that there will be times where the urge to do the bad habit constantly pops up in your mind. So, a really good tip I personally use is to not think about resisting the bad habit itself. For example, every time I get the urge to play games, I never fight the thought of, don't play video games, don't play, don't play, resist, resist, because that will always lead to giving in and doing the bad habit. Instead, I just think of a thought that makes me happy. For you, maybe it's like a childhood memory.
Maybe it's your parents pushing you on the swing, and you're laughing, and you're just having fun. Give this a try. Every time there's an urge, just think of something else other than a bad habit that's pleasant and makes you happy.
Step 4. There are going to be days where the mood just looks like this picture right here, which can make us feel crap for the whole day. And when we feel like crap, we naturally look for things that will give us a fast, pleasurable feeling to make us less crap. A lot of times, we do these addictive things as a way to cope and as a way to cover and run away from our crappy feelings. Feeling crappy is usually a result of our poor mental health.
But if our mental health was healthy in the first place, we wouldn't feel like crap to begin with. And if we never feel like crap, we wouldn't turn to those pleasurable activities to cope with our crappy mental health. Some things you can do to improve your mental health is to meditate, being grateful for little things, talking to people, being in good physical shape, being kind to people, and most importantly, stop playing League of Legends. Step 5. Even after doing all of these things, sometimes I still find myself doing the bad habits like grabbing lotion and going on the ink or needle tab. to watch adult content whilst playing with my little eggplant.
I still had a porn addiction despite me doing other good habits and finally stopping my League of Legends addiction. So, how did I free myself from my porn addiction? Well, I've realized that every time I'm in this phase where there's this girl I really like and I potentially want a relationship with, my urge to go on the hub completely disappears.
It's like I became a new person and it feels like magic. It was because I just couldn't see the girl I liked being in a relationship with a version of myself that's a chronic fapper. So I had to change my identity to someone else that I think the girl would want to be with.
That made me completely stop going on the hub because that's not who I want to be anymore. I had to change my identity. Changing your self-image and your self-identity can be really powerful, since people act in line with the person they think they are. If you think you're someone who's addicted to video games or porn, you will continue to be that person that struggles to quit.
But if you think that you're someone who's already got your life together, you won't even think about quitting porn or video games because a person who's got their life together doesn't have a video game or a porn addiction. So, think about the ideal person you want to be, and strive to be that person every day. Step 6. Now, there will be days when you're going to relapse, and that's just part of life's ups and downs. When you do relapse, it may feel like you just fell all the way back to the bottom in getting over it, and you're back to square one. However, relapsing doesn't necessarily mean starting over completely.
It's important not to be too hard on yourself because filling yourself with negative emotions can leave your brain back to those bad habits as a way to cope. Forgive yourself if you slip up and focus on the progress that you've made. For example, if you're overcoming alcoholism and stay sober for a week but had a drink one night, acknowledge your achievements for that sober week.
Then, set a new goal of staying sober for two weeks. This way, you're always improving and moving forward. I went from playing video games 8 hours a day, fapping everyday and feeling like crap everyday to someone who can actually feel good about themselves and is proud of the progress they've made so far. Quitting addictions isn't linear and will involve some trial and error. Remember, there will be setbacks, but it's only up to you to decide if you really want to improve your life or not.
But by following these steps, I'm confident that breaking these habits will become easier, allowing you to live a happier and fulfilling life. I also like to hear some of your strategies with quitting addictions in the comments below. Anyways, I hope you learned something useful.
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