I’ll go straight to it. Let’s take the example of a cocaine addict. There is a series of actions that occurs before he takes the cocaine. These actions are very important and we should be very conscious of them. When he actually takes a hit of the drug, a dopaminergic burst is produced which feels really good but this action makes the circuits that were active before that grow. This circuit matures each time he takes a hit of the drug as it is always identifying patterns to which they occur through constant repetition, until it become a personality and obstruct normal behavioral activities. Now the person is said to be addicted.
Addiction become a self-constructed repetitive formaldehyde needed to preserve the individual from the actual realities of life by suggesting ways and coming up with lies and excuses in order to get what it wants. Whilst in it, addiction becomes a friend not an enemy. We really see this in a lot of celebrities that die around the age of 27 (the 27 club). They fall in love with the allure of the romantic and gratifying attribute of their addictions and they can’t let it go, until it kills them.
So how can we eliminate this “PERSONALITY”? You cannot eliminate this circuit by simply abstaining from the addiction.
Let’s say you stop smoking for about a month or two but your addicted friend constantly takes it every time you guys meet. The probability that you will go back to the addiction would be enormous. Why? This is because the circuit is still very much alive. Though Inactive, but alive. So rather what you could do, would be to build another circuit to shut it down and you have to do this in all of the cases you’ve associated yourself with the addiction. So for a porn addict, creating the new personality or circuit could be, denying yourself of porn in all instances that you’ve had to look at it, think about it, when you’re on the internet, when you’re alone or maybe when you see a sexually explicit image. Doing this consciously and persistently starts the process known as ATONEMENT.
Atonement etymologically means “AT-ONEMENT”. AT mean being particular and ONEMENT mean a state of reconciliation. So you want to be reconciled with yourself. You do this by admitting to the fact that you are in trouble, and it is serious and that things could get better. Then you want to become more conscious of yourself and take yourself seriously.
In the bible, a little consciousness destroyed the original paradise but the cure for that is way more consciousness and not a return to unconsciousness. This is why the Judeo-Christian way of overcoming addiction is very effective if done properly. Their way has always been “WHENEVER YOU ARE FACED WITH A PROBLEM LOOK TOWARDS YOURSELF FIRST”. This is atonement and I think it is the first step in overcoming addiction. There are other steps that may have to follow but skipping this fundamental step can be very detrimental.
I’ll talk in details about the 27 club and what we can learn from them next time.
Kema.

following.iv actually tried to resist smoking countlessly times.i still go on breaks at least twice a year. All it takes its just that one day a close friend will come around and to make the session more lively i will smoke one.but that one that i smoked will trigger another relapse back into disney land