[Linkpost] “Addictions are anesthesia” by Chris Lakin

This is a link post.

Many people I respect misunderstand addictions: they believe they’re addicted “to” scrolling, vaping, overworking, etc.—instead of recognizing addictions as strategies.

Because of this, they’re surprised when their attempts to curb addictions don’t work: they either fail, and come to believe that the “lack willpower”, or they succeed at dropping one addiction, but find themselves picking up new ones:

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The Locally Optimal view of addictions is that addictions function as anesthesia. As strategies for managing suffering.

Like, if you’re in pain, it's often wise to employ some method of anesthesia.

…which also means that if you’re in pain and you forcibly remove your addictions (anesthesia), either you’re going to get overwhelmed, or you’re going to find another way to numb.

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Addictions help with suffering because anesthesia helps with suffering.

Therefore, the way to unlearn all addictions simultaneously is to remove the underlying suffering. With suffering, there is a sort of “addiction whac-a-mole” that happens. Without suffering, there is no need for any kind of anesthesia.

Addictions are one of my preferred measures of suffering and internal conflict. If you have addictions you dislike, there's probably suffering in your system. It's common not to [...]

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First published:
September 25th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PFgzLmEZSBrztDBpu/addictions-are-anesthesia

Linkpost URL:
https://chrislakin.blog/anesthesia

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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