This is Day 2 of my life transformation.
True life transformation cannot happen when someone is dealing with addiction. This is a reality that we all must face even though it can be difficult to grapple with. The major forms of addiction such as those that would occur from alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use are not the only areas to consider. Distinguishing casual use from addictive behavior is essential. There is clearly a difference. Addictive behavior will delay, prevent and disrupt any attempts of a life transformation. This behaviour is often the “reason why” even though we do not want to admit this to ourselves.
What exactly is addiction? We can use a clinical definition, which usually refers to a disorder in which someone compulsively engages in a behavior despite the fact that there are negative consequences. I prefer to think of addiction as something that we are doing to replace or shortcut something that should be very natural to ourselves. We become reliant on this behavior and the need becomes very real and we just cannot seem to stop the behavior. Tobacco is a good example. When we introduce nicotine into our body it immediately starts to stimulate neurotransmitters. One of the fastest ones to get triggered is the transmitter that releases dopamine into our brain. This artificially triggers our primal reward system. Your body knows this is not quite right, so overtime it starts to reduce the number of receptors that will pick up nicotine. You need more and more to create the same effect and what is worse is that this backfires as well. There starts to develop withdrawal symptoms when one tries to quit!
Now when you consider the clinical definition, people will point to negative impacts on human biology. This includes the damage to the neurotransmitters in the brain, increase in heart rate and blood pressure. There is also constriction in blood vessels and of course the cardiovascular system issues when people breath smoke and carcinogens into their lungs. The clinical view would say this behavior is addictive when one continues this practice despite the acute impacts that occurring to their own body. That is true, but I like to dive into the other aspect and that is the desire to shortcut or replace natural processes with something artificial. In the case of tobacco we might use it to feel better, relax our nervous system, become more alert and focused and to reward ourselves after an accomplishment. If you have ever been addicted to nicotine, you will understand one or all of those benefits. We need to consider this shortcut concept when we consider other forms of addiction that may not be so easy to identify.
This might be a bit of an audacious claim, but I believe it is absolutely true. There are other forms of addiction, that are less obvious, that are just as crippling to your life transformation efforts as nicotine, alcohol, or opioids. The reason is very much the reason why people use tobacco. You have found a shortcut for a normal and natural human reaction and if you are not careful you will start to use that shortcut so frequently that it disrupts your ability to function well, and certainly not well enough to start transforming your life.
I hate to say this, because this will immediately cause people to reject this notion. We tend to protect these shortcuts with a bit of intensity. Think “my precious” if you know the reference from the Tolkien books. I will illustrate with a few examples. We can start with the most controversial one! Caffeine. I am not saying caffeine is bad. It is a naturally occurring substance that does have some benefit. After all plants produce it to entice animals to consume them so that they can spread their seeds through excrement. Lovely thought I know. If a person can drink caffeine in moderation and keep their consumption to a regulated amount without negative impacts in their life then I am sure there will be little to no impact on them. However, we must also realize that this substance can be abused and can become addictive. Caffeine, just like nicotine, impacts brain chemistry. It acts a bit differently, but the concept is the same. Caffeine is actually a adenosine receptor antagonist. Which means that the natural process of your body that promotes relaxation and drowsiness gets blocked by caffeine use. This then encourages other neurotransmitters instead. These might include dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Every human probably reacts differently here but the result is usually increased alertness, focus, and cognitive performance enhancement.
Sounds awesome! Well it is and and that is why caffeine is consumed in such massive quantities. However, getting back to my definition, if you are replacing or shortcutting your natural human reactions with a substance and you rely on that then you are addicted and therefore have a problem. Being addicted to caffeine can cause withdrawals, insomnia, mess with heart rate and blood pressure, make you more irritable and constantly restless. All of these can impact your life transformation efforts. You need to learn to relax, rest, recover and sleep in order to become a better version of yourself. If a substance is preventing that then you need to seriously consider quitting as part of your transformation journey.
I know quit caffeine!? That is modern day heresy. I am not saying that you need to, but I am saying that if there is anything in your life that you are so dependent on that it distracts you, robs you of critical natural functions, and causes negative impacts then it is time to stop or at least seriously decrease usage.
The list of possible culprits are endless. Sugar is a big one. However, there could be others that are just as insidious. Social media addiction is a big one. Pornography, News Feeds, Video Games, Shopping, and many more. Take a step back. Is there a behavior in your life that you are leaning on way to much? One that is causing you replace a normal human emotion or behavior with an artificial stimulation? Yes, Netflix is one too. You are directly and artificially triggering hundreds of areas of the human system and usually all at once and in rapid sequence. Stress hormones, adrenaline, cortisol, emotional responses from the amygdala such as fear. All of these are triggered in rapid succession and you binge watch 15 of them on a Saturday and wonder why you do not feel rested on Monday morning?
Life transformation is serious business. You are not going to improve your life by doing the same things that you have been doing. Your current life is arranged perfectly to produce the results that you are getting today. The only way to get a different result is to change and one of the big areas to look at is areas of addiction. If you have a big addition (alcohol, tobacco, drugs) then priority one is to deal with that. Progress will almost be impossible otherwise. If you have a smaller one, the impact can still be significant. You will have to decide, but do not lie to yourself. I have come to the realization that caffeine is directly impacting me in a negative way and preventing me from relaxing, getting a good night sleep and also encouraging me to overconsume energy stimulating foods. I committed to quit 30 days ago, and I am not down to less than 100mg per day. I hope to be off the substance completely by the end of October and hope to quit forever!
Life transformation is not free. It comes with a price tag, and one of them is going to be your addictions. Are you willing to pay the price to transform your life? Great question to ponder. What are you willing to give to become the person that you want to be?
