I also have an addictive personality, and have lived with and occasionally hung out with hard-drug addicts for the majority of my college life. I used to be psychologically addicted to weed until it gave me extreme paranoia after 4 years of chronic use so I made myself stop. Then I used a multitude of other substances for highs (really anything I could get my hands on). Used to be addicted to videogames in middle school / high school but then I started becoming an academic / social person and put those down for the most part. Now I've been called a sex addict (but that's just shit talk lol) and have smelled hints of approach addiction!
How can I get over these addictions for good, and stop going back?
Quoting myself here, but I believe this applies,
"When people are in abusive relationships, abuse drugs / alcohol, etc. the ultimate effect is those [things] abuse the people.
In this sense we have control over our actions, and how those actions make us feel. The best method for a long term effect is to accomplish and reward with things that keep long term benefits in the picture, with minimal negative consequences."
Quick highs, unless associated with just accomplishing something beneficial to you, other than getting high, typically don't help you in the long term and have an affinity to get you hooked / rewire your reward circuitry a bit.
Phone-video games are made to keep you sucked into your screen and repeat simple actions of quick successes again and again and again. I suggest deleting phone-app games for this reason, unless it's one of those brain game apps (although the data on these is mixed as to if it's actually beneficial - your brain might just get good at those games).
If you delete the app / sell the game, you're less likely to redownload it and start playing it again. If you remove yourself from a drug-infested environment, you're less likely to relapse on the drug.
There's also different ways of
Self Talk to slowly work your way out of addiction. Check out that link and digest what you can.
It's important to consider two things:
1).
What is X addiction stopping me from doing?
2).
Would I rather have X addiction, or Y thing that I won't have if I keep feeding the addiction?
If it's something immediate, (like my extreme paranoia), that can serve as a pretty big motivator to stop. If it's something long term, it's more difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but in reality if not playing StarCraft for 8 hours a day let's me start studying literature / working out / learning martial arts, the long term things that X is stopping you from doing usually way outweighs the continued use of X in retrospect.
Many people when they're older look back regretfully for pouring money and time to their addictions, when they could have been doing something much more beneficial to themselves and to others. It's not uncommon to waste part of your life on something. I will add this though, if you like video games, go ahead and play video games!
BUT, like most things
moderation is key.
Too little --> you're unhappy,
Too much --> you're not growing,
Just Right --> you're happy AND making positive changes in your life.
Adapting behaviors + beliefs and learning emotional regulation (try meditation)
has been shown to aid addicts in their path to recovery.
If you decide it's time to put a halt on your addictions and wasting your time on draining, less than beneficial things it's important to understand that beating addiction takes time and effort. It might not seem possible at first (video games were really hard for me to stop in middle school - I played 10-16 hours a day, it was my life), but it's entirely doable, and in my experience it's worth it.
For me it was finding something else I was passionate about (guitar, school, socializing) and feeding those areas.
There's healthy addictions, too,but they often take more time to develop / truly identify.
There are many avenues people have found in beating addiction. Look some things up and try and see one that sticks with you.
Best,
Hue
