how to actually quit any addiction in 9 minutes (explained by a stick figure)

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 it on 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 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'll 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 goes up this makes us feel happy and experience pleasure but then a wise SM 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 and our dopamine level actually goes down below Baseline

when our dopam 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 the faster the drop addictive beh 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 quck 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 quote by saying I play video games to relax and socialize with friends but in reality they spent the8 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 can't control yourself from playing video games and the activity itself controls you instead step two I used to spend my days Glu 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 mild nourished 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 a more time away from video games I even started to get my dop from the workout itself since I always felt good at the end I was also experiencing happiness and the pleasure from seeing myself progress

weina 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 rais your dopamine level slowly like reading yoga drawing or even as simple as socializing with friends step three however simply just replacing an ADD 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 leak 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 eventually had no time to play any video game and video games wasn't fun for me

anymore so we need to find something to be obsess 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 a 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 Pleasant and it makes you happy step four 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 good physical shape being kind to people and most importantly stop playing League

of Legends step five even after doing all of these things sometimes I still find myself doing the bad habits like grabbing lotion and going on in the incarnito tab to watch adult content whil 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 phas 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 like 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 will want to be with that made me completely stop going on the Hub because that's not who I want to to be anymore I have 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 their 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 six now there will be days when you're going to relapse

and that 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 lead 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 had a drink one night acknowledge your achievement for that sober week then set a new goal of staying sober for 2 weeks this way you're always improving and moving forward I went from playing video games 8 hours a day fapping every day and feeling like crap every day to someone who can actually feel good about themselves and is proud the progress that they've made so far quitting additions is in 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 abits will become easier allowing you to live a happier and fulfilling life I also like to hear some of your strategies with creating addictions in the comments below anyways I hope you learned something useful subscribe if you learn something new