Please note: This is an opinion piece written from experience which worked for me, and has been effective for several others I’ve suggested it to. If you’re an out of control addict in desperate need of cocaine, either contact your local agorist or visit a doctor.
If one has executed an activity which has resulted in a high dopamine release, they will crave doing that activity again, after the dopamine levels have dropped, no matter how shameful or harmful they know the activity to be to themselves.
When one relies on a certain activity to achieve their dopamine high, their sub-conscious brain. Having recognized the potential dopamine release it will receive from doing the activity, will make the person want to keep on doing it and have the activity remain as a part of their life.
For example, a cocaine enthusiast, despite knowing full well the dangers of using cocaine to his health (and wallet) will want to use cocaine, to keep it as a part of his life. This causes a great temptation to arise for the person of interest, and they are left with difficult choice, to resist the cravings or to just enjoy the dopamine.
If one picks the latter, this will cause them to, overtime, develop a higher tolerance for the enjoyable activity, thus requiring a more intense variant of the activity (a higher, more potent, amount of the drug) to receive the same amount of dopamine high as before. The cocaine user now needs to snort two lines instead of one, just to get the same amount of satisfaction. As it is established that the activity required for dopamine release is hazardous to the person of interest, he will be at a much higher risk of danger, which renders the “enjoy the dopamine” option unjust.
It is also worth noting that the action of receiving a dopamine high artificially (such as watching porn as opposed to sex) is harmful in general, as it overloads the reward circuitry in the brain, causing certain (reversible) changes to be made to the neural pathways in the brain, causing loss of energy, motivation and overall happiness in life. For more information, visit https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/ .
The former option consists of the person resisting the dopamine cravings and putting aside the hazardous activity. Despite wanting to keep the harmful but enjoyable activity as a part of their life, one can make the physical choice not to take part in the activity, by simply not doing it. This however, is never enough, for putting behind the addiction requires a certain mindset. If prevents himself from doing the addictive activity, but is in a state of mind where he thinks and fantasizes about the pleasure of committing the task, he will eventually relapse. One cannot love an activity and endlessly refrain from doing it.
He must, therefore, shift his mindset about the activity. There are two steps to this. Firstly, all thoughts and fantasies about the activity must be stopped. No time is to be wasted on the activity. No fantasies about doing it. Instead, the person must focus on other activities, for the best way to have a thought leave your brain is to change what you think about. It is recommended that the person developed more hobbies, such as studying the entirety of the Mises Institute online library.
The second part to developing a successful anti-addiction mindset is to dive deeper into the mind, for the subconscious beliefs the person holds about the activity, or in other words, how they feel about that activity, must be changed. As stated earlier, the person will want to keep this harmful activity as a part of their life, despite the harmful effects. The addict usually wishes there was no harmful consequence as a result of doing the activity. In other words, he wishes he could keep doing the activity (as he loves the activity) without suffering any of its hazards. Not only is this mindset destined for failure (as it will result in a relapse), but it is impossible. As stated before, all activities which release dopamine “artificially” (as in they unnaturally activate the reward circuitry in the brain), such as drugs, fast food and pornography, will have negative effects, all resulting from the unnatural dopamine release itself. There’s no need for there to be a physical side effect for a drug, a high cost, or a bullshit legal risk, the act of unnatural dopamine release itself causes problems.
One must realize this, and change the way they think about the activity. They mustn’t think that they’d love to do the activity, and wish there wasn’t a bad side effect. They must instead, hate the activity because of the side effect, and consider the side effects as an inseparable part of that activity. They must change their internal vocabulary, instead of thinking to themselves about “needing the activity so bad” they must change to “fuck the activity”.
Only by changing their mindset, minimizing fantasies about the activity and physically stopping themselves from doing it, may the addict recover.
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