Jasmir Thakur

Addiction is when you feel a strong urge to do something even if there are harmful repercussions.

The first interaction with any substance is almost always voluntary but once you get addicted to the substance, certain brain changes occur that make exercising self-control difficult and makes relapsing easy in case you try to quit.

One of the major brain changes is the over-stimulation of the brain’s reward center and hence the over-secretion of dopamine. At first, the excess dopamine makes you feel happier than you’ve ever felt before but our body adapts to anything and so it adjusts to the excess dopamine making the “high” your new normal. This is what creates a dependency.

Now there is a misconception that this “high” refers to only recreational drugs or alcohol but this dependency can occur even with an over-the-counter drug. Taking antibiotics unnecessarily or taking a paracetamol or ibuprofen reduces your tolerance to pain and increases your dependency on the drug.

There is also a drug culture amongst the youth, whether students or working professionals, who need to stay awake for longer periods of time. This includes not only drugs like ice, yaba, modalert (modafinil) but also simpler addictions we may not realize we have like drinking excessive black coffee or red bull to pull an all-nighter or two.

So Are you an addict? Let’s take a screening test to find out:

1. Having intense urges
2. Always making sure you have an adequate supply of the substance
3. Spending when you can’t afford or borrowing money and in extreme cases, stealing
4. Not meeting deadlines
5. Choosing addiction over having a social life
6. Doing harmful activities that you normally wouldn’t do
7. Trying to quit but failing
8. Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit

If you identify the above symptoms in anyone else or yourself, it is a sign that a dependency has been created.

Life coaching is not about giving advice, but about helping you regain access your own inner wisdom so that you feel aligned with your best self at the end of the day.

Schedule a discovery session today to find out what’s holding you back from living your most extraordinary life. Drop me a mail on jasmir@jasmirthakur.in or give me a call on +91 9820238574