All Humans Have Addictions
Everyone has some sort of addiction some are good and some are bad, but who has the right to say my addiction is worse than theirs. Living in this life is a learning experience and how we overcome our particular addiction is up to the individual because we have choices, but my choice may not be the same as yours and vise versa. An addiction is anything compulsory that makes you feel good that you just don’t have the will power to give up.
I have tried living healthy in the past, well some of the time, actually not very much. It’s so much easier to tell someone else how to live healthy than to do it yourself. I always have the best of intentions and then I stray or revert back to previous bad habits or addictions like my smoking. I did quit for a period of time and actually felt better, but I missed it, so right back I went. I guess I enjoy smoking more than feeling good, go figure. I have absolutely no will power in some things.
They say a glass of red wine is actually good for you if you can stop at just one. If you have an addictive personality that might not be such a good idea because 1 can very easily turn into 2 or more. I like the cocktail hour, but I can’t drink wine because I get a headache, see that’s something else I could be doing that’s good for me if I could drink it. However I have no problem with vodka, but it’s not conducive for healthy living, but it does help me get through menopause.
It’s really hard to quit the addiction of smoking. The statistics shows that almost 90% of quitters start to smoke again one day.
Addiction is bad if someone’s life is being controlled by drugs or alcohol.
Addiction becomes a disease.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for stopping and I totally agree about some addictions being a disease that can destroy your life and others which I’m sure we all know about.
It is a very tough struggle to find a happy medium for everything in life - at least that is my impression so far.
Alcohol, drugs, those things that can alter the present state of mind so quickly and easily - are really easy to become addicted to.
You don’t go into much detail about your own experiences in this post - I haven’t read your blog before - I hope you find your happy medium.
Gary
Hi Gary and you are so right about the happy medium and no I probably will never go into details about my past unless I thought it would help someone else. I tend to gloss over a lot of things because I have heard so many tragic stories and mine isn’t nearly so bad as some I have heard so why try and make mine sound better, my son is so good at that….Thanks for stopping and I have found my happy medium by the way.
Not all people have addictions…But it sounds as if the essence of your post revolves around judgment. I, for example, do not have an addictive personality however I DO have an allergy to alcohol that prohibits my taking the first glass of wine, lest it lead me to 5 more glasses. This same “gene” that cause my beta endorphin deprivation reacts the same way with sugar and with food deprivation. [Yes. I am a recovering alcoholic, sugar addict, and anorexic.]
it sounds like a lot but - with my own work in clinical and addictive psychology as well as nutrition - in understanding that it all stems from the lack of something “normal” people have…it’s not really a lot; It just takes on different manifestations.
As for the judgment you’re talking about; People who judge one addiction as “bad” while okey-dokeying their own addiction are fooling only themselves; people in recovery or understand their own addictions know this. In the eating disorder group I sponsor, I have known particularly overweight women judge and scoff at their alcoholic relatives. Yet the *same* lack of some synthesis is PRECISELY the same in each of them.
The women overeat starches, carbs and sugar because their BE’s need a fix; much like the alcoholic drinks and cannot stop. I have seen plenty of overweight women, also [and ironically sometimes the very ones who scoffed!] once they discover what it feels like to *get a buzz* start gravitating toward alcohol as well.
Therefore, there is no room for judgment. My philosophy is that if we judge a person or a situation [like the former example] we will turn into exactly the thing we have judged. Karma is a great equalizer.
The best each of us can do is recognize those behaviors that harm us, and then find the solution for them; For example, I cannot balance alcohol. I have to abstain from it. I also cannot balance a certain amount of sugar [15 grams per meal or snack is very much enough for me to tolerate without kicking in a BE rush] so I have to abstain from anything over that.
It does not mean my personality is addictive; to the contrary, I enjoy it when things just “come my way” and have no weird rituals or anything of that nature. But it does mean that I have something clinically different in me than in “normal” folks who can have a candy bar and then not want another one for a few weeks or so. [What is UP with that right?] Or the same with alcohol. [Leaving half a glass of wine on the table when we've finished dinner! The outrage! LoL]
As far as smoking…I got hooked when I was 14…Said I’d quit after High School, then college, then graduate school, then when i quit drinking, then when my grandmother got diagnosed, then when she died I would quit, then..FINALLY. .It’s been great freedom in admitting to myself that I don’t want to quit. Now I smoke with impunity because I WILL keep one. I WILL.
What kind of sickos can abide reality straight?
Not me. I have seen it and it’s a scary place to be.
So what? I take no “medication” from big pharma. I don’t do drugs. Don’t drink. Etc.
If people need to judge that, I feel sorry for their current life as well as future.