The dictionary defines addiction as the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. But addiction is so much more complicated than that.

Simply explained, addiction is the inability to tell your self no to something you enjoy. It affects us all. Don't think so? Test yourself. What is your favorite thing to eat? Stop eating it, cold turkey. Not for a week or a month, but for a year. The majority of American society (and other societies) won't be able to stop on the first attempt. They'll find themselves unconsciously rationalizing why it's okay to eat it one last time, "it's just once, it's not going to hurt anybody, no one will know", until they give in to temptations; because sugar is a drug that release dopamine and serotonin. And although heart disease is the leading cause of death in the united states, largely due to the fact that Americans consume the most sugar per day (77g - 126g on average), most Americans never encounter situations that requires them to control their chemical dependencies.  

It's not until our dependencies start to interfere in our relationships do we begin to try to curb them. Then we learn addiction can be a difficult thing to control. It requires a disciplined mind that very few of us in Wester society have attempted to master, so few of us possess the knowledge to teach others how. Recovered addicts are some of the mentally strongest people in society.

Addiction is complicated. It's not just our chemical dependencies that make us addicts. Addicts relapse years after their chemical dependency is gone. And morphine, the purest form of heroin, has been prescribed to millions of Americans but only a small fraction of people become addicted. Addiction appears to be connected to our emotions, perspectives, values and inability to face stressful situations.

While sugar is a difficult drug to quit it, doesn't compare to substances like heroin or methamphetamine because those substances create a feeling of euphoria that completely relieve us of our negative thought patterns and perspectives. Eating sugar does not change our perspective of ourselves. But meth makes you feel like you are the most amazing person on earth, even though you're at the lowest you've ever been. 

For individuals who experience a lot of negative self talk and hold a negative perspective of life, their mental dependency to drugs may be incredibly hard to overcome.  According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 85% of individuals relapse within the first year of treatment. Likely because, recovery centers are designed to isolate and protect the addict from everyday life and focus on clean time rather than the addicts underlying negative perspective of their life experience and negative emotional cycle.    

The biggest factor driving addiction today is that addiction has become big business for big pharma corporations, the judicial system, private prisons and the government.  Studies and anecdotal evidence from all around the world suggest that psychedelics are the quickest way to sobriety but we live in a society where methadone is legally prescribed to addicts by doctors indefinitely. According to Fortune Business Insights "the legal opioid market is projected to grow from USD 2.68 billion in 2021 to USD 4.81 billion in 2028 at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 8.7% in the 2021-2028 period." The intention is not to cure the addict with methadone but to provide a safer avenue for supplying the habit. All the while, it's the criminalization of drugs that make them dangerous. For more evidence regarding the war on drugs, visit Project Healing Prosperity & Freedom's Drugs page. 

If there aren't many people who truly know how to cure addiction and the addict is a commodity, where does an addict go to get help?