Absteience Paper

I choose to abstain from watching television because it's an activity that I engage in frequently thus, it was the best choice to help me to better understand empathy; addictions and the recovery process through self-experience. Beginning the whole brainstorming process was challenging because while I was looking for items to choose from for the basis of paper I found it extremely difficult to pick one. The reason for this was because I have a lot of activities, hobbies and other things that I like to do and found it hard trying to balance out the opportunity costs and the pros and cons of each item.

Consequently, I became frustrated and somewhat exhausted from browsing through a range of items. Also, the only thing that I kept thinking about while going through the items was how I was going to deal with this abstinence for two weeks and the potential item. After half an hour of searching and thinking I choose television. As I choose the television for the basics of my paper, I thought about the psychological effects it would have on me and how it was an activity that I did often and I was a little angry and upset over it because I knew I was going to be bored without the T.V to keep me entertained.

As I started the assignment I had an image of the T.V in my mind and how it was going to be hard not to watch it. Regrets and doubts started to surface from my mind which made me angry and worried. However, I knew that I couldn't renege because it was the best item that I could choose so I did.

The first week was obviously the hardest of the two weeks because on the first day of my abstinence trial I forgot about the decision I made and my mom luckily remembered and stopped me before I could turn on the T.V and ruin it. At that very exact moment thoughts were racing through my mind such as this being a terrible mistake and that I wasn't going to last. But there's no escape even if it's hard I kept thinking to myself.

I found myself urging strongly for the remote control but didn't as I stared aimlessly at the black lifeless screen as if it was going to magically turn on. I knew from that moment on that this week was going to be very stressful and challenging and braced myself for the duration of it. The first day was a test of will in my eyes and I was just thinking how I am going to do this for 2 weeks if I can't even last a day or remember the promise I made to myself.

After the first day of being abstinent from watching television it grew increasingly harder to resist the temptation of television during the next days because I had routine shows that I watched everyday not to mention videos games that I played on a daily basis. I forgot to bring those problems into the equation which just put me in a worse mood. I would become easily aggravated and stressed out because I felt bored and like television was the only thing that kept life interesting and now