Newsletter
Addictions, Cravings, Interference2022-04-23
“Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.”
—Abraham Lincoln
Addictions broadly speaking are activities and behaviors that may provide transient, facile, and illusory happiness, hope, and/or meaning. They do not achieve or make progress towards your real-life goals, and in fact have detrimental consequences in the long term. For example, cannabinoids, opioids, and benzodiazepines give an illusory feeling of happiness, stimulants of hope, and psychedelics of meaning.
Addictions provide some immediate gratification, with little effort, fitting an illusion of short-term gain. In essence, addictions are cravings (being unable to quit, doing more and more) of something destructive that interferes with your real life. In the long term they destroy your health, wealth, and social standing. Addictions are the opposite of discipline, and can waste your life. They are biological, chemical and informational “stories” that we tell ourselves and others tell us, that are disconnected from reality and take us down a wrong path in life. In a religious sense, they can be viewed as sins.
Our Life x Mind app can keep track of addictions. You can customize which addiction you want to track, and it measures cravings and interference. It can provide insights about how addictions affect your life and your mind, and how life events and mental health affect your addictions. Acknowledging you have a problem and taking control of it are the way to a healthier and more successful life.
Live. Happier. Longer.