How does one "overcome" an addiction?

Be it cigarettes, tv, food, attention, heroin etc…

Has anyone ever overcome an addiction?

You quit. Everyone makes these things too complicated.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Ok, you don’t quit…no, you quit.

I was addicted to Chinese food for a while.

But 1.3 billion people eat it daily.

Try not to be too hard on yourself.

So why do some people struggle with certain addictions and others suffer with them their entire lives?

Clearly an answer relies on the question: Why am I addicted?
Then we have other questions, such as: Why do I want to overcome the addiction?

Weak willpower. I competed in natural bodybuilding for 12 years. I had to quit everything to get in the best shape I could. Plain pasta for months on end, no pop, no beer, no junk at all. I ate at certain times, slept for certain hours. I missed 3 workouts (other than illness) in 12 years. I still train 5-6 days a week, never missing a workout and rarely eating poorly.
I quit many things. To do so, I simply quit.

I work out and eat excellenty. I train between 4 - 6 days a week. I eat between 5 - 6 very healthy meals every day.

I also still struggle with addictions. Your analogy makes no sense.

Heck, if I have to ask the question in this way so be it…

“What makes a persons will power strong?”

So, we might conclude that an addiction is overcome when one desire becomes stronger than another.

Yep. As far as drugs, etc go, health should overrule. But health is taken for granted to people don’t recognize what it is worth. Either way, to kick an addiction, you quit. But you asked ‘How’ you overcome an addiction, so I say you quit! Why you overcome it is the reasons we’ve just said.

That probably sums it up rather nicely. I just wonder why there are tons of intelligent self critical people out there who struggle day in and day out with addiction.

Barack OBama smokes. He has smoked most of his life and has tried to “just quit” several times. Im sure from an intellectual perspective he knows all the reasons why he should quit. Why doesnt he? I highly doubt our next president has a weak willpower.

Obama doesn’t really want to quit.

Really?

I mean he doesn’t ‘want’ to quit. I mean really want to. He doesn’t want to do what it takes. So he has no willpower regarding his addiction.
The addiction he is concerned with is POWER…

Well how does one go from “not really wanting to” to “really wanting to”?

Also, what do you mean POWER?

This is the thing with us complicated humans. We often have multiple contrary wills. We are ‘divided against our self.’ This means that it’s not so simple as: You want to do it, so just do it. Seeing as how often, we both want to do it and we don’t. Or my intellect may want to quit a drug, but my unconscious still desires to take it. Equally, I may think that child abuse is wrong, and yet feel an overpowering sexual desire for children. This is why the lines between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are not so simple as many assume, and why it’s helpful to having a strong understanding of human psychology before you go judging people.

Currently, science is searching for a possible genetic link to addiction, i.e. some people are genetically predisposed to acquiring addiction. There are many people who transfer addictions. For example, they’ll be hooked on booze, then quit, only to become hooked on coke, then quit only to become hooked on gambling. In addition, addiction seems to run in families. I think the root cause might be some sort of mental illness.

Great post.

I guess my biggest question is why do some people fix or control their desire and others fail?

I know plenty of low life creeps who exzibit strong willpower in certain areas of their life.

We all know “strong” people who lack willpower in certain areas.

Hopefully we all know someone who at one point in their lives said “enough is enough”.

Why is that? What is the difference?

We are all genetic and we all have addictions.