5 Normalized Addictions That are Worse Than Most Drugs

You’ll massively improve your life if you can drop them.

We’re all addicted — I’m no exception, either.

Addictions don’t mean you’re a junkie selling twenty minutes of butthole action for half a gram of crack. It means you’re doing something you know isn’t good for you but can’t stop. Cigarettes. Junk food. TikTok videos. Running back to your toxic ex. Society has normalized many of these behaviors, which is what makes them so dangerous.

I’ve taken drugs for years, but none of them messed my life up as much as the addictions that fly under the radar because 99% of people do them.

Set yourself free from their slavery.

Most People Drip-Feed Themselves Poison Every Evening

Sometimes, I want to slap my mum.

Not in a bad way. More in a loving, “wake the fuck up, what are you doing, stop making your life so hard” kind of way. One Friday evening, I could barely hold myself back.

It had been six months since we saw each other, so we had lots to talk about. Except that after half an hour of chit-chat, we sat down for dinner and she turned on the news. “Good evening… yadda yadda… the world is fucked… we’re all doomed… bombs, war, refugees, rape… have a good night.” Mum’s carefully crafted Spaghetti Carbonara lost its taste.

Bad news sells like hotcakes because of the human negativity bias — we pay more attention to bad stuff.

What helped us survive in our cavemen days has become a widespread addiction. It makes us obsess about scandals, catastrophes, and everything else that turns our stomachs. We rationalize it with the most stupid excuse I’ve ever heard.

“You have to know what’s going on.”

Really? Where is the law that says that? What does staying in the loop get you besides a headache and a pretentious feeling of “I care about the world?”

If you want to know what’s going on, Google it. If you want to change the world, take action. But stop drip-feeding yourself poison every day.

I sold my TV and stopped watching the news eight years ago. So far, I haven’t missed a single important event. But I feel a lot better without the daily negativity.

Minding your own business is not as exciting as Kim Jong Fat threatening the world with nukes, but if you want to be happier, remove the unhappiness.

It’s not that hard.

How to get out of it:

Go on a news-fast for a month — it’s a reasonable time frame anybody can do.

Ask your friends to tell you when there’s something you have to know because else you’ll get executed tomorrow. (Spoiler alert: there will be nothing)

Fill your free time with things that bring you joy.

Life is better that way.

“To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Comparison Trap Keeps You Unhappy No Matter How Much You Achieve

It was a night to remember.

The bass from the massive speakers hit me like a sledgehammer and my body started moving by itself. The club was dark, the dopamine flowed, and the music made my brain explode. Life couldn’t get any better — until I looked at the DJ.

Tall. Muscular. Tattoos. Three women around him, taking off his black shirt with their eyes.

I wanted to be him.

A moment later, I snapped out of my thoughts. Why did I feel so bad about myself? My life is great. I run a business, have a hot blonde talking to me, and live in a tropical paradise. But I’ve fallen victim to the comparison trap.

We all do, every day.

We see our neighbors with a new car, our colleagues with a promotion, and our buddy with a hot girlfriend.

This makes us feel like we’re not enough. So we work harder, earn more money, and buy nicer things. We try to keep up with the Joneses, not seeing that the Joneses try to keep up with us. The dopamine hits we get from leveling up are addictive, but the high quickly fades. We go back to envying others, like all the others.

There will always be something you don’t have, someone who’s bigger, richer, fitter, or happier than you. But society encourages the constant game of harder, better, faster, stronger — a dick-measuring contest held on Instabook and Facegram.

Like any good addiction, it makes you lose sight of what matters — being present, being happy, being enough.

How to get out of it:

If you don’t feel enough right now, nothing you can buy or achieve will ever fix that.

Stop chasing what you lack. Focus on what you can be grateful for. The experiences, the friends, and the cute little ant that tried to steal some of your breakfast sandwich.

Your life is enough, so make the best out of it instead of chasing someone else’s.

This White Powder Keeps You Coming Back For More

My neighbor’s cat is a junkie.

No, she doesn’t visit the dog next door for her daily hit of H. She’s just a picky eater who exclusively wants her favorite cat food brand. It took my neighbor a while to figure out why.

The sugar industry is a 40 billion-dollar market — and they’re well-connected with pet food manufacturers.

The white powder lights the reward centers in our brains up like a Christmas tree, just like addictive drugs. Cookies, cake, and even pizza — that shit is everywhere and keeps us coming back for more.

Our health suffers for it — individually through higher risks of diabetes, collectively with an obesity epidemic. The World Health Organization says overweight kills more people than underweight now. We’re addicted to a substance that shortens our lifespan and makes us sick while we’re still breathing.

When I was on a bodybuilding diet, I was a freak because I weighed my food. But if you inhale a box of cookies that contain enough sugar to feed half of Africa for the next decade? Nobody bats an eye.

I know few people care about their health ten years from now. It’s too far off into the future. But quitting sugar will make your life better today.

You’ll have more energy and less sugar crashes. A lower risk of diabetes and better heart health. Better focus and reduced cravings.

Do yourself a favor and quit.

How to get out of it:

You don’t have to quit sweets for good.

But do so for four weeks. No cakes, cookies, ice cream, or sugary desserts. It’s enough to reset your metabolism and cravings. If you can’t get through a month, that should give you even more reason to do it.

Then, consume in moderation — a little dab here and there doesn’t hurt. But don’t go Tony Montana and bury your face in white powder.

Drugs — But Not The Ones You Think

“I didn’t have my morning cocaine yet, sorry I don’t function.”

If that sentence sounds weird, replace cocaine with coffee. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug — more than 80% of North-American adults consume it regularly. You can go through five cups before lunchtime and still be far from your office record.

The same is true for nicotine and alcohol. I’ve worked in a bar for years and seen many people get too drunk for their good, sometimes knocking on the door at 10 am to get their first hit. Drugs can mess up lives even if they’re legal.

Look at the statistics. Alcohol is a neurotoxin. Smoking causes butthole cancer and a bunch of other nasty things.

I’m not saying you have to stay sober for the rest of your life. We all want to have fun, I know. But please understand substances aren’t harmless just because they’re legal. Some rich dudes just decided selling them is a good business model and some other rich dudes with power decided they’re easy to tax.

“But I’m not addicted…” Yeah. How often do you say “I need a beer/wine” after a long day or a coffee after a short night?

The problem isn’t the drug itself, but how we normalized overconsumption.

How to get out of it:

Drugs serve a purpose.

They either distract you from your current state or improve it. That’s where you’ll have to start. Ask yourself “why” you’re consuming.

Bad mood, anxious, tired, too stuck in your head? You can find sober fixes to these problems. They last much longer than the fleeting high, too.

Stop handing your freedom over to a substance.

These Are The Movies That Mess You Up

I was twelve when my friend gave me a shiny CD that contained a video with an outstanding plotline.

“You were speeding, I’ll have to give you a ticket.”

“I’m sorry officer, is there anything I can do to make up for it? *wink*”

*officer unzips his pants*

What followed was over a decade of frying my dopamine receptors and fucking up my image of intimacy and sex with free, HD porn that’s plastered all over the internet. My friends did the same. The statistics show many people do — 70% of men and 30% of women consume porn regularly.

It’s addictive and kills your drive and motivation because our cavemen brains aren’t used to seeing so many naked bodies at the click of a button.

I’ve been officially porn free for three months and it’s amazing. I can enjoy sex without choking her unconscious or slapping her ass until it’s as red as a lobster dipped in tomato sauce. It’s still fun, but I also appreciate the intimate connection.

Reality is better than porn, but you’ll only realize it once you’ve quit.

How to get out of it:

Set a date to quit cold turkey.

No easing out. No gradually reducing. Just stop. Depending on how much you’ve consumed, you’ll experience mild to serious withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, loss of libido, and even slight depression. Your brain craves dopamine and will make you do anything for a hit. If it gets too tough, here’s a course I’ve tried, tested, and rated 5/5.

Removing porn from your life isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

The Biggest Addiction Sits In Our Pockets

I recently bought a second phone and it was one of my best investments.

When I don’t pay attention, I can waste a lot of time in front of a tiny screen. I wake up groggily and open WhatsApp. I get stuck on a post and flick through Instagram. So I thought of a simple trick.

I bought a cheap smartphone with nothing but Spotify and a meditation app on it — all I need for my morning routine and work. Most of the day, I have my actual phone turned off and hidden in the kitchen. No temptation, no time wasted.

I’m not saying phone time is bad per se. We live in the 21st century. Technology rocks compared to grilling frogs in a cave and communicating through smoke signs.

But society has normalized pulling out your phone on every occasion. Dinners. Concerts. Driving on the Autobahn with 160km/h. According to Rescue Time, the average person spends over three hours per day on their digital companion. To say we’re addicted would be an understatement.

The costs are high. You can’t appreciate the people around you, nature’s beauty, or the insane sound from festival speakers with your phone in front of your face. If you enjoy the present moment, the memory will stay in your head without a photo.

How to get out of it:

The simplest trick to spend less time on your phone is to make it boring.

Hide apps in folders. Turn off the Wifi. Make the screen black and white. Use app blockers.

Make your phone boring and you’ll see reality is much more beautiful in the first place.

If you only remember one thing from this article, make it this: just because everybody does it, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

Learn how to drop your bad habits and build great ones with these 10 proven techniques.