Addiction can be your superpower!

I want to explain that an addictive personality can be your superpower! This topic hasn’t been talked about enough and needs to be. There are a ton of people who struggle with addictive personalities who are addicted to the wrong things.

Instead of being addicted to the wrong things, why not get addicted to the right things that serve you instead of hurting you? If you’re someone like myself who has an addictive personality, how is it possible to turn that into your superpower?

Let’s use a real-life example to explain it.

Jessica has an addictive personality. She has gotten a new and very stressful job.

Even though she usually only enjoyed a beverage or two on special occasions, she decided that after work, she wanted to go out and have a couple of drinks to relieve some stress. She felt great after having a couple of drinks, and she went back home to her husband.

The following day was another stressful day at work; after work, she decided to stop by the store and grab some seltzers because she knew it would relieve her after a long and stressful day.

When she got home and brought in the case of seltzers, her husband asked what the occasion was. She said, “No special occasion, just another stressful day at work.”

Her husband let it go and didn’t think it was a big deal. Fast forward two months, Jessica had put on over 20 pounds and was drinking multiple seltzers every day after work and on weekends.

She had developed a slight addiction to alcohol and was using it as a coping mechanism to deal with her stress. One day, when she came home from work, she went to grab a drink from the fridge, and there wasn’t anything in there.

She immediately panicked and yelled for her husband. “Honey, where are my seltzers?”

He replied, “Why don’t you come into the living room to talk.”

She came into the living room, and he tried to explain that maybe she should slow down on the drinking because he had noticed the weight she had put on and how it was affecting her health. They agreed that she wouldn’t come home after work and drink anymore.

The next day, she came home super stressed out and argued with her husband about something that shouldn’t have escalated to that level. She quickly realized that she was triggered by something so small because she did not have any alcohol after work.

This might not seem like a big deal, simple alcohol addiction, but the actual problem runs deeper. It's not just about the alcohol itself; it's about the underlying triggers and emotional aspects that lead to the dependency.

In Jessica’s case, the underlying trigger was the stress from work. This continued every day when she got home for the next week. The stress from her work started affecting her relationship with her husband.

She realized that she needed to find a different way to cope with her stress from work. She tried reading, which helped, but didn’t do the job. Jessica would still be stressed out after reading, leading to arguments with her husband. She went to bed that night frustrated and stressed out. She wasn’t just stressed out about her work, but now her relationship.

What do you think her solution was going to be?

She went back to drinking because it solved the problem with her relationship.

Correct! But that wasn’t solving the problem with her underlying problem.

The next day, on the way home, she wanted to avoid going home and getting into another fight, so she decided to stop at the store and grab a couple of seltzers.

She finished them by the time she got home and was in a much better mood.

She didn’t get into a fight with her husband that night, and everything was good!

She realized that she needed the alcohol to relieve the stress. So she thought, as long as my husband doesn’t know I have a couple of days before going home to see him, everything will be fine.

Fast forward two weeks.

She stopped by the store on the way home again but decided to do her grocery shopping. When she got home, she asked her husband to go outside and grab the rest of the groceries from the car. She realized when he started walking out the door that she hadn’t gotten rid of the empty cans from this past week.

He saw the cans and turned around, and she stood there crying.

She quickly admitted that she had been doing it for the last couple of weeks.

Jessica had relapsed into the unhealthy coping mechanism, and now her husband knew.

They sat down and talked about it and realized that they needed to find something else for her to cope with the daily stresses of work.

So they started doing some research online, and her husband found that people who had addiction problems were able to overcome them by exercising to get the dopamine and serotonin release.

Her husband mentioned that she might try exercising and returning to the gym like she used to years ago.

She agreed, got a gym membership, and hired a coach after work the next day.

Then, she proceeded to do a workout.

When she got home, she walked through the door with a big smile, and her husband asked, “How was it?”

She replied, “It was amazing! I haven’t felt this way in years!”

He asked her if she still needed a drink, and she said, “Hell no, I feel great, and I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!”.

Fast forward two months of consistently attending the gym and following her meal program.

Jessica lost the 20 pounds she had put on and got a promotion at work!

I’m sharing this story because we live in a society where it is considered the norm to go home after a long, stressful day and have a few alcoholic beverages.

However, that can lead to a rough and dark life path.

In Jessica’s case, it only took two months to develop an alcohol addiction, and it started to affect her physical health and relationship health.

The fundamental shift in belief came from understanding that she needed to find a healthy coping mechanism to deal with the stresses from work.

Now, I could have just told you that research shows a strong correlation between people who beat addictions and end up relapsing. But that is not as powerful as spelling and detailing exactly how it happens.

The question is…. What to do about it?

For starters, we want to identify what triggers you and find healthier coping mechanisms that will benefit your overall health and quality of life.

To truly overcome addiction, including alcohol dependency, one must address the emotional triggers that lead to the behavior.

It's not just about quitting the substance but understanding the underlying causes and finding healthier ways to cope with emotions.

I call it Fresh Hope, which essentially means we want you to be able to swap out your lousy coping mechanisms like drugs, alcohol, food, or any other vices that you go to when those triggers occur.

We want to substitute your destructive addictions for ones that serve you, like working out, eating healthy, meditating, reading, journaling, etc.

Swapping out vices allows for sustainability and decreases your chances of relapsing back into your old vices.

Ultimately, you want to filter everything through a lens of longevity and sustainability. Suppose your current vices affect your physical and mental health, relationships, and overall quality of life. It’s not sustainable in the long term and could lead to an early death.

We utilize This process for our 1:1 clients in our 12- and 6-month coaching programs. They can swap out bad vices and coping mechanisms for ones that serve them and improve their overall quality of life.

It’s perfect for anyone who has struggled with similar experiences, such as Jessica (and myself), and wants to end the frustration of failed attempts to break bad habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms and finally achieve the life they desire.

If you are interested, simply PM me on Facebook or Instagram or reply to this email and let me know!

Much Love,

Coach Oliver