The white bear problem exists because it's caused by a mechanism in our brains that amplify or exaggerates some circuits over others (or...some thoughts over others). It's like using a square of a term in curve fitting because its effects should be amplified to dampen feed back (or the opposite.)

So goes obsessive thinking and addiction, I believe. In fact, I think they're pretty similar things (how to rank the similarity of two words is left as an exercise.)

Opiates feel great. Ask a junkie. And your brain, assuming it's getting a reward for something good, like sex or honey (or both!!) is going to amplify that effect in a lot of ways, one of which might be: if user tries to block emotion, increment coefficient (or something).

So how do we hack it?