ADDICTION and WILLPOWER!

As an old grandfather and great grandfather, I thought I would pass along some tidbits of knowledge acquired in a lifetime of observing people around me and from reading and forming my own opinions.

Our bodies are organic machines of flesh, whereas an outboard motor is a machine of metal. In our formative teen years, the brain is still adjusting and learning. The processes are not metalic, but organic as in chemistry. They can be twisted and convoluted due to substances we eat, or intake. I get concerned; particularly about my teenage granddaughters, who go through a phase of learning by experimentation. A teenage automatically tninks they will live forever and are smart and in control of their lives and their bodies.

I tend to believe much of our character is genetic traits that are inherited. Some people thus are more susceptible to addictive substances, than others.

At any rate, I know I´m addicted to Marmite. Withdrawal takes only about two weeks, when there is none available, but if I get a bottle of Marmite, I end up using it all up in short order and go through withdrawal again. Fortunately the B complex vitamins in this brewers yeast are healthy for you.

There are many addictive substances. Fried food is one of them, the smell alone makes your mouth salivate. It takes much willpower to deny eating fried foods. Which in turn makes you obese, and makes for many health problems and a shorter life span.

Heroin takes about one week to become addicted. In my youth, criminal gangs enslaved young girls into prostitution, by injecting them twice a day with heroin for one week. After that, to get their fix, they would prostitute themselves as willing slaves to keep the heroin coming.

Crack cocaine only takes three days, to accomplish the same thing as heroin.

Alcohol addiction takes longer to change the brain chemistry, about three months of two drinks a day will make you a lifelong alcoholic.

Nicotine from smoking also takes about three months to enslave you by changing your brain chemistry, if you smoke three or more times a day.

Many processed foods in supermarkets are laced with overdoses of sugar and salt to make you addicted to the product. It takes immense willpower to break an addiction.