The ONLY way to overcome an addiction

How do we overcome an addiction?

As I look at the words I’m typing, I notice they’re all blurry.

This is thanks to the conjunctivitis (along with some other nasty infection) that killed my dream of having my first Muay Thai fight on Friday.

So for the past week, I’ve been ill and I haven’t been able to do most of the things that make my life enjoyable.

Travel? Nope.

Writing and reading? Not without a burning pain in my eyes.

Coaching? Sadly … I had to cancel my sessions for the week.

Training? Not a chance.

Just sitting/lying there waiting to heal has turned my life into … emptiness.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the deeper the emptiness, the more I seem to crave…

• Junk food.

• Video games.

• Mindless YouTube videos.

Basically, anything to take my attention away and distract myself.

Because the truth is … emptiness is often very uncomfortable.

That’s why philosophers have scary names for it like “The Void” or “The Abyss.”

99% of humans will do just about anything to avoid it, as the Swiss Psychoanalyst Carl Jung said:

This single sentence perfectly sums up the root cause of our addictions and gives us a clue as to how we can overcome them.

I believe that any addiction is rooted in a desire to distract oneself from ourselves.

And to overcome our addictions, we need to do one thing.

Face the emptiness … and let it change you.

That emptiness isn’t empty at all.

It’s full of:

• your regrets

• your secret desires

• your unhealed wounds

• your deepest fears and insecurities

• certain facts about your life you don’t want to acknowledge

Facing this stuff can be painful, but here’s something to remember.

Emptiness is the fertile soil from which your best version will be born.

It’s full of truths that are waiting for you to face them.

For example, maybe you’re lonely or deeply unfulfilled at work.

And instead of acknowledging these truths head-on, you’ve been distracting yourself from them with all your addictive behaviours.

But one day, you say “enough” and decide to turn towards that emptiness.

Suddenly, you’re not living in a fantasy anymore.

You’ve woken up to your life and found the courage to face it and change it.

An addiction is a sign that your life isn’t going the way you want it to go.

Facing the emptiness puts you in the best possible position to create a life that genuinely fulfils you.

A life where you don’t need excessive booze, vaping, weed, video games, porn or Instagram reels just to get through it.

Here are two daily practices I suggest to start facing the emptiness:

1. Write 750 words every morning.

2. Sit in silence for 10 - 20 minutes and do nothing (call it your emptiness practice).

Do this for 30 days and watch your life change before your eyes.

But here’s the thing, we will never overcome an addiction if we’re attached to it.

So many people sabotage themselves with addictions because they’re afraid of success.

And understanding this fear of success is essential for moving past it.

That’s why I made this video talking about the 5 subconscious fears that sabotage you (and how to move past them).

Give it a watch here.

Take care and I’ll see you in the next email,

OC