How addiction works, part two

 It can take a while to work out the whys of an addiction. All addiction stems from the same thing though. You feel in a certain mood. It could be hungry, angry, lonely, tired, depressed, bored, anxious... whatever. Then to get out of this mood, you do the one thing that always changes how you feel. If it's something good for you, it isn't a problem. If it's something bad for you, it's an addiction. Step one is to figure out what mood it is that you are trying to get away from, that's called a trigger. Sometimes it helps to get a little notebook and carry it with you, and any time you feel the urge to use whatever your addiction is, write down all your feelings and moods you recall from about the last ten minutes. Once you realize "Hey, every time I'm bored, I want to do that bad thing..." it gets easier. Then brainstorm OTHER ways to change your mood when you're bored or depressed or whatever your trigger is. Then when you feel triggered, do those other things FIRST. Usually it takes a while. You will do that OTHER thing and sometimes it works and sometimes you wind up doing your addictive bad habit afterwards anyways. But that's normal. You'll find that you won't ALWAYS wind up doing your bad habit. And sometimes you'll try the replacement first, then do the bad habit, and realize you did it for a half hour instead of the usual hour. It isn't an overnight fix. It takes some time. But if you pay attention to what mood you're trying to change, and find other, better ways to change your mood, you'll beat the bad habit.
It's important to brainstorm a lot of ways to change whatever mood you find is the one that gets you into trouble.  There's no point in breaking a porn addiction, only to wind up addicted to GAME OF THRONES a year later.  And the number of alcoholics that become compulsive eaters or smokers is staggeringly high.  Try to find five ways to feel better and be sure to mix up which ones you use.