To give up one’s will / dependency

Losing your will means losing an important characteristic of being human. The ability to act upon your will, to have preferences… Whatever takes over the will usually utilizes the reward-punishment system. The connection is very clear between a poor animal that due to an electrode connected to its brain rewards itself to death, and a person who runs after “rating”, a gambler who runs after money or an imaginary reward, or someone addicted to the internet or to something else. As an Eastern friend once said: Maybe it is more correct if instead of “I think, therefore I am!” we said “I have a will, therefore I am!” In fact, could we go one step further and say that to free oneself of any kind of addiction is existence itself?