Dealing With Addictions

Let me start off by apologizing for my absence these past few days. Like always, it wasn't by choice, it was rather forced by the disruption of power. The power disruption was caused by a fire at the substation that serves my area, and a whole lot of other places in my state. The fire was quite huge, and for a developing country where the most little problem take time to deal with, I didn't need anyone to tell me this was going to take quite a long time to be rectified. So, for the past three days, I've been going out to find a place to charge my phone and at this point, I can say the stress isn't worth it because by the time I get home from charging, I'm too tired to even use it, and due to my faulty battery, it would still have discharged anyways by the next day. So, I might not go on with this routine anymore. I might just take a break from read.cash and just hope to God power is restored soon.

While looking for where to charge today, I was forced to enter into a bet shop as that was the only place I could find where a generator was on. While I was there, I couldn't help revisiting a time in my life that I had the problem of bet addiction.

Addiction

The difference between a habit and an addiction is that one is normal and willing, while the other is most likely destructive and compulsive. When you're addicted to a thing, you find yourself doing it compulsively. Even when you know it's causing you harm, you'll still go to any length just to have your daily dose of it, whatever it may be. In my case, this destructive behaviour and action was sport betting.

Notice how I called it bet addiction and not gambling addiction. While both can seem same, it's important we establish the differences between them, cause they aren't same. Anyways, that addiction almost ruined my life and I had to fight really hard to get it under control thanks to the wonderful people in my life who supported me through it and helped me even when I wasn't willing to help myself. It wasn't an easy journey as addiction are always very difficult to deal with. There are a few things that helped me get through mine. These tips worked a miracle for me.

Dealing With Addiction

Edit Your Circle

This is the most important step when it comes to dealing with any form of addiction. You can't be dealing with drug addiction and you keep spending all your free time with friends who abuse drugs and expect that you will be able to resist the urge to do same. It's better you cut yourself off from that kind of circle and surround yourself with people who discourage or frown upon the use of drugs. That way you have less access and likely less temptation to delve into it again. Sometimes, it's not necessarily about changing friends, it can be as easy as changing the kind of conversations you entertain in your group or the kind of things you do in the name of fun. The whole point is that as long as you keep hanging with the same folks who do the thing you're trying to leave, the likelihood of you succeeding is almost zero. This could also mean avoiding certain places that you used to frequent before. In my case, such places would include bet shops and even bet sites when I'm online.

Develop Self-Control

This is also very important. The need for self-control can not be overemphasized. When one is addicted to a thing, there's always the urge to do it regardless of where one is. What will actually stop one will be one's self control in the absence of other obstacles and restrictions. This won't be easy and would require active monitoring and commitment.

Fill The Gap

There's usually a gap a person is trying to fill for them to get addicted to a thing. All it might just take to deal with an addiction might just be to keep the person always busy. For some, their addiction is as a result of too much time on their hand. They usually start these things to fill a gap and then they get hooked. Try to identify this gap and fill it with a good routine.

Conclusion

These steps are by no means exhaustive. I'm not a professional therapist and I make no such claim. I'm simply just sharing my own experience. So, if you're dealing with an addiction, seek help from professionals and know you're not alone.