Beating Addiction: A Self-Help Guide

By Luke Vandenberg

Beating Addiction is a book for anyone wanting to get control of their life and shake off an addiction that has been crippling them. It goes beyond giving strategies for beating addiction, it teaches you how to find inner peace, and how to develop to your fullest human potential - to become self-actualised. This is a long journey, but well worth the effort. Why not make a start today?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Altiora Publications
• Release date: Nov 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301712564

Luke Vandenberg

After an honourable discharge in the 1980's Luke Vandenberg tried his hand in the business world, and for a time was businessman working 80 hour weeks and telling himself he was living the dream.Since the 1990's, Luke has been living the simple life in Big Sky country (of the American West). A private individual, Luke prefers to let his writing say everything he wants to say to the world about his values.

Book preview

Beating Addiction

Luke Vandenberg

Published by Altiora Publications at Smashwords

www.altiorapublications.com

© Copyright 2012 Luke Vandenberg

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism -- Carl Jung.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Contents

Introduction

Strategies

Meditation – how to generate your own good feeling

Becoming self-actualised

Conclusion

Introduction

In a nutshell

Addiction is continuing to do something that you know is harming you, but you do it anyway. The underlying cause of addiction is attachment to something that you cannot bear to live without. The only way to permanently beat a well-established addiction is to change your sense of identity because addiction contributes to a strong sense of identity. Your behavior tends to be consistent with your self-image, the person you know yourself to be. Identity is fluid; it is not set in concrete. If you know yourself to be an addict, you will inevitably return to your old habits, even after a period of abstinence.

To use a computer metaphor, you need to reprogram yourself to be someone else, the person you want to be, your ideal self. This principle is the basis of all self-improvement programs, and can be very useful when beating an addiction. No-one is saying the process is easy. It certainly is not. Its one of the hardest things you will ever do, but you should know that it is possible. If other can do it, so can you.

At an evolutionary level, addiction is a dysfunctional expression of the human instinct to try and get the things we need to survive and feel good. But it is an instinct that has gotten out of control. This eBook aims to help you get back into control of your life. At a psychological level, addiction is about remembering what feels really good and paying attention to that and making efforts to repeat it. This is