Addiction and Recovery

Addiction is common and very natural in any human being. The act of addiction itself is very human. Therefore sit back and relax if you are worried about being addict to anything. First of all you need to know what addiction exactly is. Addiction is a state where a person is regularly obsessed with something, that is very habitual and gradually you lose control over it and reach a point where you can’t stop it or say find it very difficult to stop it. Any habit that reaches a position when you find it very difficult to pull back can be called addiction.

Addiction becomes a problem, a cause for worry when the addiction is bad or when it leads to the destruction of something. The damage may be to your health, character or anything. You might have picked up these addictions just by looking at some one, due to the influence of your family of friends or maybe because of emotional distress. It does not really matter how you have got addicted to something or what you are addicted to. The main aspect is to know how to stop it, how to stop you from destroying yourself.

The primary step to recover from any sort of addiction is to identify your addiction. You might be addicted to food, work, pornography, sex, alcohol, drugs, gambling and so on. All you need to do initially is to spot your addiction and decide to get rid of it and recover. The minute you decide, you will 25% of your mission. The rest are just extra boost. Deciding something is very essential because whatever you do is all because of what you decide in your mind. Addiction is just a mind game. Make your mind understand that you are doing something good for your own. Unless you yourself fix on whether or not you wish to recover, it will never happen. Therefore the first step is to just make up your mind.

The next pace is very difficult. The only way to achieve it is by challenging your mind. Majority of the people who decide to get rid of their addiction fail half the way. It is very easy begin something and extremely difficult to sustain it. Whenever you stop yourself from doing something you like, it is very natural to get tempted to do break your self deal. When you prevent yourself from doing something your mind does nothing but thing about doing it, and tempt you as much as it can. All you can do is say, ‘lead us not into temptation’!! In other words just stop yourself from being tempted. Always remember that your mind always craves for what you restrict it from. To achieve this you can try keeping yourself busy with something else which involves your mind. You will have to distort your mind.  This will help you to resist the temptation for a while. Keeping oneself busy with something or the other, acts as a shield.

By indulging in some activities you will be able to attain temporary resistance. You can start with a new hobby that interests you. You may take up painting, writing, gardening, photography, pottery anything at all. Take the hobby seriously and keep yourself busy. This will not only keep you away from temptation but also bring a small new change in life. As you are keeping yourself busy with something new, it will give you a fresh feeling too and also develop sense of self-worth and self-esteem. This is what people lose when they are addicted to something. They lose their self-esteem and feel the thing they are addicted to, is the center of the world. Therefore a new hobby could turn out to be a great help.

The other important thing to remember if you want to recover from your addiction is to stop thinking that it is hard to get rid of your addiction. This thought itself makes it extra difficult. Whenever you feel something is difficult your mind forces you to escape. When you are forced to escape, you will go ahead and escape. Thus stop feeling that it is difficult. It is not at all difficult just a little tricky.

Recovery for addiction is nothing but getting back the control on oneself. It is stopping you from losing yourself. Always remember not to consider addiction as a disease. Addiction is just lack of self control. Yes, it is simply lack of self control. People are addicted to something because they have lost control on themselves. This is the battle you need to fight. All you need to do is make your mind listen to you. You are your own boss and when needed you can definitely be a little bossy over yourself.

Getting Sober: What to Expect

A concept of the Sober Sources Network