Someone told me today that most addictions are curable with the right incentive. Addicted people are only not quitting their 'addiction' (quotation marks because it's not real), because they don't want to or because the incentive is or was not tempting enough to give it up.
His theory: If they were offered one million dollars to stop whichever addiction they have, e. g. cigarettes, chocolate, p*rn , till the end of the year, all of them could quit, maybe except the ones who already are multi-millionaires and billionaires.
Do you agree with him? Are you addicted to something that you've tried to unsuccessfully quit before that you could succesfully quit for the money offered?
Are most addictions curable with the right incentive? Could you quit for one million dollars?
Addiction is a very real thing. If your friend doesn't believe in addiction then he's an idiot.
But the only reason anyone decides to fight addiction is because of some sort of incentive. Such as a longer, healthier life, happiness, custody of their kids, saving their marriage, a steady job, whatever. I'm talking about pretty real addictions here such as alcoholism not someone who really likes chocolate by the way.
So yeah I'm pretty sure for most people a million dollars is a great incentive but that doesn't make beating that addiction easy by any means.
As someone who was addicted to sedatives in the past I can tell you that no matter what the incentive is there will always be a temptation to relapse.
Oh, we were talking about those addictions that some say are addictions while others say they're not, like the examples I gave, not the ones that everyone agrees are real addictions.
His mother would forego dinners to eat blocks of chocolate and his father would eat blocks of chocolate on top of dinners while watching TV. They say they want to lose weight, but they continue with that behaviour despite knowing that weight loss only happens when calories burnt > calories eaten and chocolate are not that nutritious. They already are overweight.
I said they were addicted to chocolate since they can't quit despite wanting to. He said it's not real addiction. They would be able to quit.. just like p*rn addicts and cigarette addicts, if they were offered one million dollars.
There are different types of addiction. Drug addiction has a physical element. When you're addicted to xanax, within hours of your last dose you start to withdraw and feel ill hence taking more pills. With addictions to food and gambling or something of the sort there is no physical element like that. But the mental one is still there. Kicking an addiction like that to the curb is like breaking a habit you've had for years.
Habits/addictions that stimulate the reward and happy chemicals in your brain are the hardest to break. That's why people try so hard on January 1st to lose weight, only to give up 2 weeks later.
I think the principle is sound and would work for most people in most cases. There are some people, though, whose problems are deeper than needing another fix. Their addiction might be a way to deal with severe depression, for example. Even a million dollars may not be enough incentive for people who hate themselves and use their addiction as their escape, either because they like the person it turns them into or helps them not think about who they are.
That would make for a good discussion in a college psych class, I think. I see it as an extremely complex and personalized problem.
If your "issues" and associated addiction are related to say, being rejected by the opposite sex for your entire life, then you might be incentivized if the reward were the guarantee of being desired by somebody you liked. Likewise, if your self-loathing is related to feeling like you were an awful parent, maybe the opportunity to reconnect with your children can provide you that incentive to quit and get your life straightened out.
Those are arguably mild examples though, and one could argue they might still be influenced by a financial reward depending on the depths of their depression. But what about people who have spent years of their life, maybe even most of their childhood, being abused? I have my doubts that they would respond to incentives. I think getting them to not hate themselves probably has to come first.
well many addictions alter your brain chemistry, and that isn't something that a million dollars alone can really rework... unless you used that money to go to rehab/therapy
Are you saying the brain chemistry cannot be reversed or altered again? Do you think chocolate addiction can be real for some people as in brain chemistry alteration? I saw a video the other day about p*rn addiction acting like substance abusive addiction.
If I had a different job that didn't require it, yes. It's mandatory for the work I do though. It's not like I crave it, but I do need to use it to pay my bills.
I could if I wanted to, but it would make life a lot more inconvenient and expensive. For a million dollar yearly salary I could afford to adjust I suppose. I have tons of things I do outside of the internet, so it's not really an issue. Information is valuable though, so I guess I'd be spending a shit ton of money on books.
My brain is a power house, it needs a lot of intellectual stimulation... Most people just don't cut the mustard when it comes to that in every day life... Without that, I'd just go creative mode, which could lead some interesting places, but I would become a very discounted reclusive.
That's what I think. I wasn't a drug addict but I was on prescription painkillers for years for medical reasons so I know what it's like to stop taking a drug you're addicted to
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