Addiction, Control, and the Patterns Beneath.
A few thoughts after some recent plane time viewing
My significant other and I just got back from a week away. While in the airport I was scrolling through Netflix looking for a couple of things to download. I stumbled across Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut and The Ozempic Effect. One of those “these’ll pass the time” moments that actually ends up making you connect dots and think a bit deeper.
A bit of honesty first
I’m heavier than I should be. Not massively, but enough to notice. Interestingly, when I stopped drinking, I dropped weight quite quickly. Which makes sense. But over time, some of that’s crept back in. And it’s not like I’m eating terribly all the time. Most of the time, it’s actually pretty decent.
But then, every now and again…a “go on, f@ck it” moment which turns into a couple of days which can turn into a bit of a pattern. And before you know it, it starts undoing the good work.
The “addictive personality” label
For years I’ve probably just filed that under: “I’ve got a bit of an addictive personality”
Job done. Explanation complete. But sat there on the plane, watching these documentaries, something clickec. Because that same “addictive” energy also shows up when I’m:
Locked in on something
Consistent
Disciplined
Fully committed
So is it really addiction or is it just intensity without direction?
Two modes most people will recognise
It is almost like there are two gears:
Gear 1:
Focused. On it. Eating well. Training / moving. Clear
Gear 2:
“F@ck it”. Short term thinking. Justifying decisions in the moment. Slipping into old patterns.
And the interesting bit is how quickly you can switch between the two.
What those documentaries sparked
Watching Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut got me thinking about how much of this is actually biological. Gut health - Cravings - Signals between brain and body.
They say your gut is your second brain which never really made logical sense to me but having watched these it did.
Then The Ozempic Effect touched on medications like Wegovy and Ozempic and how people are experiencing: Reduced cravings. Less “food noise”. More space between impulse and action
This is fascinating because it suggests that part of what we think is “lack of control” is actually: signal strength in the system. Turn the volume down and behaviour changes.
But that’s only part of the story
This is where it links into the work I do around belief coding and nervous system stuff because even if you reduce the biological urge… You’ve still got:
The patterns
The habits
The emotional drivers
The beliefs
Things like:
“I deserve this”
“I’ll start again Monday”
“One won’t hurt”
“I’ve already messed up, may as well carry on”
Sound familiar?
It’s not necessarily the thing, it’s the regulation
The more I look at it, the more it feels like this isn’t about food, alcohol, or anything specific.
It’s about state management. Your system is constantly asking:
“Where am I at, and how do I shift this?” And over time, it builds shortcuts.
Some helpful. Some less so.
Reframing the “addictive” part
What if that so-called addictive personality is actually just a strong drive to change state quickly which, depending on direction, becomes either:
Self-sabotage or
Discipline, consistency, commitment
Same energy. Different application.
Some people avoid even a placebo
I was hosting some events this weekend and speaking to a friend who stopped drinking 5 years ago. He saw me drinking no alcohol Peroni and said he could never do that. And speaking others lately it's apparent that some people won’t go near certain things at all once they’ve stepped away from them.
Even alcohol-free versions. And that used to seem extreme. But actually, it makes sense. If your system has a strong association: Taste - Smell - Environment that can be enough to fire the old pathway. So avoidance isn’t weakness. It’s: awareness of your own wiring
The network analogy thing because I just can’t help myself
If you think about it like a network:
Your brain = the server
Your nervous system = the infrastructure
Your habits = automated processes
Your behaviours = outputs
If something has been set up as: “When X happens run this script” It will keep doing it. Until you:
Interrupt it
Understand it
Replace it
So where does that leave me?
Still a work in progress. But with a slightly different perspective.
Less: “Why am I like this?” More: “What’s actually driving this pattern, and how can I work with it?”
What we often call lack of willpower, Is usually just a well-trained system doing exactly what it learned to do. The goal isn’t just to remove the behaviour, it’s to:
Understand the driver
Support the biology
Shift the beliefs
And give yourself better options
If This Resonated, Let's Talk
Sometimes you read something and it just... lands. That's usually your subconscious flagging something worth looking at.
I offer a free 15-minute Discovery Call - a no-obligation conversation about what's going on for you and whether Belief Coding® might be the right fit. No hard sell. No script. Just an honest chat.
If we align, we'll take it from there.
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