How do people cure their addictions?

[diesel]

At some point during their rock bottom period they realize the sad truth about life and how nothing is real, nothing matters, etc. Dumb addicts feel it instinctively, smart addicts have it surface to a conscious level.

In rehab there is this whole thing about finding a higher power. I assume this is like finding something you'll decide to believe is meaningful so that you'll have something to grasp at even when you're going down a quicksand. Is it much like existentialism, the path they take back to humanity? They agree to resort to delusions in order to recover to functional levels and go back to the conveyor belt with the rest of the monkeys? They may have lost a great portion of their lives and have few pieces to pick up. By the time some of them recover, they are past their prime.

[Perennial_Man]

A culmination of sorts as Gandhi and this Victor Hugo. in his les Miserable the Valjean would surely have killed himself if he pondered stopping his acts in the past. As for women with puny testosterones they are basically dead.

[aquarius]

Having actually worked in one of these institutions at one point, I would agree that diesel is mostly right. Rehab is a band aid solution for the low end of life, something the more insular, traditional societies rarely have a problem with.

[diesel]

I thought about this talking with a friend who is a former heroin addict. He described his current self as a docile little turtle, with a constant "I am on my best behavior" essence all the time.

[in abyssia]

I think the general saying 'once an addict, always an addict' is  true. I'm observing that with a relative who has replaced alcohol with weed and a dumb girlfriend. Love too, is an addiction. It is called being pussy-whipped.

I also think an addict should be introduced into barbell training. That would be a fine substitute by ten-fold.

Crazy fact though is that some of the finest lifters were some of the most proficient drinkers. Doug Hepburn comes to mind.

[aquarius]

Substances distort a person's value system by replacing something healthy with something poisonous.

How do people cure their addictions?

Ask them to go thirty days without the substance. This breaks the cycle and in another thirty days new neural pathways can form.

[Everdarkgreen]

Ask them to go thirty days without the substance. This breaks the cycle and in another thirty days new neural pathways can form.

I've read some things on this and some suggest that while it could take 30 days for one person, it may take much longer (ie. up to a year) for others to establish these pathways. Likewise, it's a twofold process of removing the ailment and replacing it with a gratifying practice. Without one, the cure fails.

[Ymir]

William S. Burroughs died on methadone. When the trudgedom of our pathological society really gets it scurvies in you, there's little we can do for katharsis short of killing and fucking everyone we see. People need artificial motive to function in an artificial world. Give us drugs!

[diesel]

Substances distort a person's value system by replacing something healthy with something poisonous.

The person realizes how fragile and relative that original value system is though. It's no wonder so many of these people become religious.