But There’s an Insanely Powerful Bright Side

The ugly truth is that we’re all addicts and thanks to the fact that we are wired to be an addicted, there isn’t much we can do to solve it — apart from the few snatches of introspection. But there’s something insanely powerful about this: You can choose what you’re addicted to. The maniacal nature of addiction means that if you manage to replace a bad or unhealthy one with a good one — you can achieve some pretty wild results.

I used to be addicted to gaming and anime in college. And all they’ve given me are — sleep deprivation, thicker spectacles, and brain-splitting migraines. With the lockdown, I got back to reading and quit gaming. Then, writing came along, and out went anime.

While reading’s given me a portal to thousands of brilliant minds and worlds, writing’s become a soul-rewarding side hustle.

You don’t have to quit an undesirable addiction, you have to replace it with a better, one.Replace junk food with tasty yet healthy food. Replace lung-harming cigarette smoking with lung-improving exercise. Replace TV shows with documentaries. Replace movies with books. Replace porn with collage making. Replace YouTube with MOOCs. Replace gaming with leveling up in real life. And this way,

Eventually, replace the person you are with the person you want to be and your present life with the life you dream of.