Abstinence vs. Moderation

germanlooks

germanlooks

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Whenever we want to get rid of a bad habit, an addiction or just stop doing something which we know isn’t good for us we have two options to do it:

1)Moderating it

2)Abstaining from it




So what of the two is better for you?
This depends on certain factors.

-are you addicted to the bad habit and can’t even live without it for few days?
-how much dopamine does the habit release ?
-how harmful is the habit for your body and/or mind?



When Abstinence is better:
Abstinence is better when you are addicted to the bad habit which basically means that you can’t live without it for just a few days without getting withdrawal symptoms.
Another point which is connected to the first is the dopamine release. The higher the dopamine release the easier you get addicted and the better it is to abstain (just taking crystal meth ones can make you addicted to it because the dopamine release is so absurdly strong).
And lastly of corse if the habit does noticeable damage like cigarettes for example abstinence is also the way to go.

Did you ever try jerking off to porn for just every 4 days for example? It’s noticeable harder to keep this moderation going than to stay on complete abstinence from masturbation and porn. Every time you jerk off to porn your brain will experience a huge and unnatural dopamine spike. And after that your brain will remember this incredible dopamine high. This will make you more likely to jerk off to porn again on the following day to experience the dopamine high again.

But if you completely abstain from porn/masturbation you obv won’t experience these dopamine highs anymore which will lead your brain to eventually forgetting and not missing them anymore in the long run.

Same thing applies to a smoker who smokes a pack a day. He will only fight his addiction by completely abstaining instead of by smoking in moderation.


When Moderation can make sense:
Moderation makes sense when you aren’t really addicted to the bad habit and when the habit isn’t one which is prone to making you as easily addicted to it.

For me personally this would be eating sweets or fast food occasionally. I don’t get addicted from it by keeping it in moderation so there is not a real reason to completely abstain from it. While food releases a lot of dopamine the dopamine concentration is still much smaller than the amount of dopamine you get from porn, masturbation, cocaine and several other drugs. So moderation works out a lot better than with the habits I just named.




To sum it up, these are habits which are extremely addictive and where abstinence is usually best:

-Porn/masturbation
-Drugs
-social media, also forums like this one
-video games

It’s individual to some extend as well. Some people will get easily addicted by fast food but have no problem playing a video game in moderation. So you also have to find out for yourself what approach is the best for your specific habit you want to get rid of.
 
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This is the most German thread of the week.
 
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Brutal how threads where you put a bit of more effort in get less attention than low effort shit posts
 
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I don't think you should stop doing something completely you should start small
 
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Tomato tomato. More importantly than either is replacement i.e. changing your destructive behaviour patterns into positive habits. The beauty of it is that replacing harmful addictions aids in the disruption of their potency on our lifestyle.
The question then becomes with what should I replace my bad habits with? And the answer to that is simply those habits that are in line with our desired identity.
 
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