People spend their whole lives running after happiness and thinking "if only I had this or that I would be happy". But happiness through physical pleasure disappears the moment the pleasure is gone. One can never get enough and is never happy. This has been shown, time and time again, with the worlds most popular and richest people who happen to often be depressed!
A person who wants happiness needs to learn to "let go" of the pursuit of physical pleasure and instead seek the "true happiness", which Rabbi Avraham J. Twerski defines as "self fulfillment". That means to fulfill the true "you" that you want to be deep down, closer to Hashem, a better person, a better father and a better spouse. Click here for an interview with Rabbi Twerski on this topic - (right click and choose "Save Target As").
The Ba'al Hasulam compares the Yetzer Hara to an "itch". You keep scratching because it itches, and it feels good to scratch, but the scratching only makes the itch worse. However, if you decide in your mind that you will not scratch the itch any more - come what may, it will burn with a powerful itchiness for about a minute or so and then suddenly the itch just disappears!
Giving in to the addiction only makes a person want more. Yes, we scratched the itch for this moment, but Oh' will it itch again very soon!! People spend their lives scratching like madmen, never at peace, until blood pours from their wounds. Instead, we need to decide once and for all, we will not scratch the itch anymore - come what may! It will be hard, yes - it will burn with "itchiness" and we may feel desperate to act out for a while, but suddenly these obsessions just disappear and we discover a new freedom in our lives that we never felt before!
Are you ready to take that step of faith and just STOP scratching? You must believe that once you take that one step of PURE FAITH, the road will open up before you!! (Check out this video clip :-)