Addiction Check-In Thread

I agree with Exarchias on this.

We must not accept any of our addictions.

We must only accept that the fight might be long.

We must accept that at certain periods of time we have no resources to change ourselves and we exercise patience.

den385 wrote: I agree with Exarchias on this.

We must not accept any of our addictions.

We must only accept that the fight might be long.

We must accept that at certain periods of time we have no resources to change ourselves and we exercise patience.

Only to add if i may that i could gladly change the "must not" with the "have not", and the "must" with the "could be nice to" because it makes it to sound more easy that way
Of course i said "Do Not" and that sounds bad, but my point was only to be rude and unrespectful against the Valium in order to take away any romantic aspect of this addiction.
I hope my point was well made.
Thank you for your thoughts
Robert.

I agree again j-D

I will save the "must" formula for myself.

It is most imperative; such strictness may be harmful without deep understanding of the subject. Though, I believe that the "must" formula regarding self is helpful. Words can affect our perception and "I shall do what I must" is a powerful inner move. Unlike it, "you/we should do what (I say) you/we must" is alike tyranny, "we" here only masking the intention to impose judgement on the other.

I have had a tough past couple of days. Ever since coming back from some intense energy work in Colorado (at the Gathering), my body has been rejecting meat. It really just wants vegetables. But, it kind of threw me for a loop... and I went off the healthy eating train for a bit.

I think I have regained some stability. Time to keep on keeping on.

Exarchias wrote:

CryojenX wrote: ...I just accept it as a part of my life I guess.

if we are talking about Valium it isn't a part of your life so DO NOT accept it
Accept instead that you have all the time in the world to fight it. Take it slowly and surely.

ps. find something interesting to occupy your mind in times of need. pc games are a good choice.
ps2. I apologize for my English

Actually I like that attitude, devote oneself to getting off of the stuff but have patience in the speed (or lack thereof) of the process. Thanks!

Exarchias wrote:

den385 wrote: I agree with Exarchias on this.

We must not accept any of our addictions.

We must only accept that the fight might be long.

We must accept that at certain periods of time we have no resources to change ourselves and we exercise patience.

Only to add if i may that i could gladly change the "must not" with the "have not", and the "must" with the "could be nice to" because it makes it to sound more easy that way
Of course i said "Do Not" and that sounds bad, but my point was only to be rude and unrespectful against the Valium in order to take away any romantic aspect of this addiction.
I hope my point was well made.
Thank you for your thoughts
Robert.

Oh believe me, there's nothing romantic about valium for me, that's what makes the difference between an addiction and physical dependency, I get nothing psychologically from taking it, but if I were to stop I'd probably have a seizure.

This is probably considered a weird one, but I'm a shopaholic. I don't mean this as a joke, it's a real problem for me and I'm considering going to a psychologist about this before it ruins my life (I've already amassed quite a bit of credit card debt). I wouldn't have believed it myself, but it's a physical addiction, comparable to being addicted to eating etc. as it probably has to do with the dopamine reward system.
I spent insane amounts on electronic gadgets, then I moved to watches. I get high on receiving new stuff - my mood improves dramatically (while at the same time feeling very guilty for heaving spent money again) when I receive a new item. The high lasts for a few days, then it's replaced by panic because of the finances. I then try to sell stuff again, only to remove it from eBay and putting it up again several times. Mostly, I'm happy once I've sold things. Except sometimes I freak out an buy it again (as in: the same item) after a short amount of time.

I know it's physical because for two months now I haven't been able to buy much as I had to pay some back taxes. This actually pushed me into a depression-like state, I have withdrawal symptoms (shakiness, restlessness, aggression, I'm ill-tempered and freak out easily). Eating crap 'helps' a bit, so I've put on 10 pounds in he last 9 weeks. Awesome.

The sad thing is that my wife doesn't know anything about it - not about the debt, either. I can still manage payments and sometimes manage to reduce it, but I keep rebounding. I have a great job, two wonderful kids and a loving wife. I can't for the life of me find out why I act this way.

Anyway, that's me right now - I feel like I should be talking about this with my wife rather than here, but I guess it's a start

Cyan, I'm quite a shopaholic myself, although I manage it pretty ok. Shopping is a painkiller. It's symptomatic.

The real thing that induces this symptoms, the root cause - that's what matters. I know mine and constantly work on it. Otherwise, there will be no cure from neither root cause nor symptoms.

While working on a root cause (which is always individual), the following strategies & tactics help me:

1) limit your spendings; it may sound odd, but I find it irresponsible to live in credit; I spend from debet only
2) have a buffer, some "retardant amount" - it's more advanced tech than (1)
3) spend on things you really need, really use, really love; make each buying a quest for optimality, a pursuit of a shopaholic grail. investigate what you buy deeply. investigate how it is made. make this a domain of knowledge.
4) I also bring in some meditative aspect into this: find not only a quality and nice thing. Not only know from what it is made and how the market worket and so on. But find things that inspire you. Things that lift your mood. Things that express you. And it must not matter if they are not popular and not expensive or marketed actively.
5) With time and work on root cause, fixation on things will evaporate. And you will still have some useful stuff and useful knowledge.

This all might sound pretty stupid and consumerism-ish, but the point is to bend addiction into something useful. To find zen solution until you have found a Jedi one (the one which will redeem you of the root cause).

Checking in...

I'm really surprised by how well I'm dealing with this lack of sugar. I thought I'd be going crazy by now. I remember thinking the same about caffeine though and not really being that affected negatively while I started having it.

Not having any sugar has actually made it easier to avoid sugar, I don't get to say 'oh only a little bit won't hurt'. A colleague brought in a big bag of chocolate today which is in view of my desk... having some did cross my mind but then I remembered that it tasted like the horrible chocolate you get in christmas advent calendars so I had this weird seed snack thing I'd bought. Makes me realise that 'addiction' is actually a lot mental in nature.

Apart from not craving sugar quite so much I have noticed any other benefits so far. When I stopped caffeine I actually felt more awake in the mornings but nothing like that has happened with cutting sugar.

Still not doing great. lol.

I know my body, and it feels like opening the flood gates a little has forced them open a lot.