OVERCOMING ADDICTIONS, HEALING AND POWER

From Self-Development and the Way to Power, by L. W. Rogers (15)

There are, of course, certain gross desires that must be gotten rid of
by the most direct and least objectionable method, and when one really
desires to be free from a given vice or moral weakness and sets
earnestly and intelligently about it his release is not so difficult
as the complete tyranny of most vices would lead one to suppose. There
is a process by which any of us may be free if we will take the
trouble to patiently put it into practice. This method will apply to
any desire from which we wish to be released. For example, let us take
the person who has a settled desire for alcoholic stimulants but
really wishes to be rid of it forever. Many people who are thus
afflicted to the point where they occasionally become intoxicated
feel, when they recover their normal condition, that no price would be
too great to pay for freedom from this humiliating habit. As a rule
such a man tries to close his eyes to his shame and forget it,
promising himself that he will be stronger when the temptation again
assails him. But it is just this putting it aside, this casting it out
of his mind, that perpetuates his weakness. He instinctively shrinks
from dwelling upon the thought of whither he is drifting. So he puts
the unpleasant subject aside altogether and when the inner desire
asserts itself again he finds himself precisely as helpless as before.

Now, his certain method of escape from this tyranny of desire is to
turn his mind resolutely to an examination of the whole question. Let
him look the facts in the face, however humiliating they may be. He
should call his imagination to his assistance. It should be used to
picture to himself his future if he does not succeed in breaking up
the unfortunate slavery of the desire nature. He should think of the
fact that as he grows older the situation grows worse. He should
picture himself as the helpless, repulsive sot, with feeble body and
weakening mind, and reflect upon the humiliation he must endure, the
poverty he must face, and the physical and mental pain he must bear in
the future if he now fails to break the desire ties that bind him.
This creates in him a feeling of repulsion toward the cause of it all;
and if he continues to think daily upon this hideous picture of what
he is slowly drifting toward--if he daily regards it all with a
feeling of slight repulsion--then even within a month or two he will
find that his desire for drink is slowly fading out.

This is as true of all other desires that enslave us. The desire for
alcoholic stimulants merely illustrates the principle involved. Any
desire from which one wishes to be free may be escaped by the same
method. But one who would free himself from the desire-nature should
not make the mistake of creating a feeling of intense hostility toward
the thing he seeks to escape; for hatred is also a tie. He should
merely reach a position of complete indifference. He should think of
it not with settled hostility, but with slight repulsion; and if he
does that daily, mentally dwelling upon the pain and humiliation it
causes, he will find the ties loosening, the desire weakening.