Kicking The Habit

This post is different from all the others.

The ones up till now have all been hyperbole and conjecture, this one is a vector (ok, tempted to use the word (<_<)) carrying pragmatic, practical, useful advice.

Addiction is a complex issue, the reasons vary, as do the means of feeding it and of course, how the results affect the rest of your life. It always changes you, and the change is pretty much always for the worse. It will erode you, and eventually you will need to overcome it to avoid crashing and burning.

'Overcome' isn't the right word, actually. You escape. You can say that you 'overcame' an addiction only after much time has passed and you no longer remember the circumstances that led to your escape.

The best way, no, the only way of escaping an addiction is by going Cold Turkey. To those not familiar with the metaphor (slang?), it means that you give up everything at once, utilize a moment of fierce willpower and not wait for it to be made ineffectual by a moment of weakness, and make the change as drastic and painful as possible.

This is opposed to 'phasing out' something.

To put it simply, 'Phasing out' never works. When you say that you want to phase something out, it is simply a way of masking your insincerity- you're not really going to quit- but you'll be able to say that you're making an effort. This is merely for the sake of one's self-satisfaction, or delusion, whichever level of politeness you prefer. We humans are built to change only when forced. All of you going from 2 packs a day to 1, stop kidding yourselves.

Degradation can happen over time, but trying to improve yourself (What word shall we use for it? Upgradation? Recycling?) requires an uncompromising, determined, effort.

I was twelve when I looked at my Pokemon game clock- which had clocked in 270 hours and was waiting for a special event that happened at 300.

A sudden rush of blood to the head (Wait, Yes! That's the Coldplay song! Finally I remember it, I've had the lyrics in my head for a year but didn't remember the name!- "...I'd buy a gun and use it to start a war, if only you could give me something worth fighting for...", uh, anyway-)

A sudden rush of blood to the head made me do the math. 8 useful hours in a day. 4 hours of free time. 35 days of my life wasted, (That would be more than enough to get me into any college of my choice now), 70 days of my free time which could have been spent writing my novel, or learning to play tennis or the flute or the guitar or trying to work on my drawing- I hadn't drawn anything since leaving junior school. And what did I have to show for it? A level 98 Rayquaza and my prized team of hacked pokemon?

Fuck Pokemon.
I'm taking my life back.

And that was the beginning of my fight back. (And also the beginning of my fierce hatred of pokemon, which would probably mark the start of 'adolescence' for me.) I erased those 270 hours, for they would have only leeched more had they remained.

There is no scope for sentimentality here. I've come a long way since then, fought against both addiction and lethargy, failed often, but somehow eventually dug my way out.

The only advice is this- If you really want to quit, you're going Cold Turkey. Right Now. Don't think. Just fucking DO IT.

Edit:
Yes, I'm an expert regarding the matter. You don't have an excuse not to listen.