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Dr. Alok Kanojia, better known as Dr. K, talked about why breaking addictions is difficult, and gave advice on how to deal with it better.
In a recent video where Dr. K was talking about different types of addictions, he spoke at length about the reasons why such behavior can be extremely difficult to stop.
HealthyGamer is a mental health platform designed to help gamers live the best versions of their life. The platform aims to create mental resources for gamers, and was started back in late 2018.
HealthyGamer also has a YouTube account where various mental health related videos featuring Dr. K are posted regularly.
Dr. K explains how to break addictions like video games, alcohol and social media platforms
First and foremost, Dr. K explained that before people can go ahead and actually start dealing with their issues, they need to understand the reasons the issues exist in the first place. According to Dr. K., addictions are merely an escape from a person’s problems in life.
“What’s really important to understand about addictive and destructive behaviors is that the reason we keep doing this is because the payoff is huge. When we think about an addiction we think about it as a negative thing.”
He went on to talk about how addiction is not necessarily a bad thing, and that rather than thinking about it as something negative, people should look at it as a “solution to problems.”
“Addiction is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. It’s a solution, it’s not a problem, right? The reason that an addiction is so hard to kick is that it takes your problems away. It’s an escape. It is like god-mode….I can play this game or drink this alcohol, and boom! God-mode, all those feelings go away.”
Hence, in order to deal with the issue, Dr. K. said that the first step needs to be “acknowledging the enemy."
According to him, recognizing and accepting the reasons behind indulging in “destructive behaviors” is always the first step towards finding less destructive, or even constructive, solutions to the behavior in question.
In this way, it is the self-destructive nature of a behavior which is the issue at hand, and not the fact that the addiction in question effectively solves a person’s problem temporarily.
The addiction thus effectively stops the person from working on the problems that are driving them to it in the first place.
While the process of "weaning off" is admittedly long and requires work, Dr. K suggested that working on the problems people feel the need to escape from is the task at hand.
