What have your experiences with addiction OTHER THAN drugs or alcohol been like?

21 comments

  4. Sex addiction. Must have frittered away tens of thousands on prostitutes. Also addicted to sugar, but I’ve been working on kicking that and working out.

  5. Porn addiction has made me look at women more sexually but it hasn’t affected my confidence when talking to them. It’s not as bad as I have set controls for myself but I do wish I had intimacy with a real woman than a person on the screen.

  6. I’m addicted to sailboats. It’s great. I used to be addicted to 4wd trucks, but I kicked it.

  7. I’d say the internet.

    As a kid I was only given a certain amount of time on electronics PERIOD. When I went to college my parents gave me my very own computer and let me tell you it took all of my willpower not to turn into a vegetable sitting in my bed all day.

    I can’t begin to tell you how much I miss the ability I had as a kid and teen to read a fictional or non fictional book cover to cover in a day or two. I used to go through upwards of a dozen books a week, now I sometimes struggle to go through one in a month.

  8. Does cough syrup count? Because I use to drink that shit on the regular for the deep sleeps and the fever dreams

  9. Bit of a gaming addict. But I’m completely in the zone at college or uni so as long as I go to the library or wherever every day I can still get stuff done. It’s not really a problem except for working from home.

  10. Sugar was a difficult thing to kick. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) being the worst.

    There are 52 different sugars according to the US and the food is loaded with sugar to make it more appealing to consumers.

    So, the key is to eliminate HFCS and pick stuff that has cane sugar or something easier digestible.

    Eventually you will discover how sweet certain foods are after cutting out sugar. Keep in mind that sugar taxes your immune system and is not healthy to consume in large quantities. Sugar is pretty much unavoidable though since it is found in foods naturally as Fructose. Best to avoid the highly processed sugars first then cut out artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, Saccharin).

  11. I was addicted to video games. In the end, it didnt much matter what I played, what was important was that I played, and I subserved everything else in my life to games. I would choose friends, partners and jobs on one question only: “Will I have time to play?” and I would get irrational anxious if something quite benign was happening, but that would lower the time I had to play. Sometimes I even would be on the verge on a nervous breakdown because something quite normal, maybe even an achievement in another part of my life, would not allow me to play games as much as I would like to.

    Note here, that I otherwise was, and am, a fit individual, with romantic experience and quite some close friends and even some professional career success, but honestly… at that time, nothing of that felt “real” or “meaningful” … only games felt “real” and “meaningful” . It was absurd, but that’s how I felt.

    How did I lose the addiction? Believe it or not… I got a job from home from my PC where I would play my games. I still sometimes play during work, when there isn’t much to do, but otherwise, I can’t stand to be near my workstation when I am done with everything.

    I contemplated getting a console, but … you know, I am fine as it is now and I don’t want to go back to that addiction whatsoever.

  14. I got into gambling over lockdown because I was bored. I wouldn’t say I’m currently an addict since I stopped before it got real dicey, but there was a period over those months where my bankroll was making big swings from 5 grand in the black to 5 grand in the hole.

    The weird thing about it is, you get a strange hype *even as youre losing*. When I was losing big I’d get this edgy buzz that’s not dissimilar to taking stimulant drugs. Physically amped up and jittery. I’ve heard that dopamine is the ‘anticipation’ chemical rather than the happiness chemical, as people usually consider it. So its the hook of the big win just-around-the-corner that grabs you.

    Then when you win it’s not just the fact of having won money that you feel good about, and the relief that youre in the black again, it’s the feeling like things in general are going your way.

    I watched the film Uncut Gems recently and Adam Sandlers characters portrayal captures this well I think. In the film when he’s on a roll he’s completely buzzing and you can tell he really thinks the universe is shining on him.

  15. Gambling was a point of contention between me and an ex. She was right. I was wrong. I have a degree in statistics but I still love the rush of beating the odds.

    Its like a moment between what you are and what you could be, and there are few things in life like that.

  16. Gaming addiction. Video games control my life to the point I’ve decided to not have children unless I can quit. I get addicted to almost anything I like but video games, particularly online ones with friends who depend on me take on a new reality. I’ve often told people my first life is online, irl is secondary. Sounds stupid but its a real battle for me, I talk with my therapist often about it.

  17. Gambling was a point of contention between me and an ex. She was right. I was wrong. I have a degree in statistics but I still love the rush of beating the odds.

    Its like a moment between what you are and what you could be, and there are few things in life like that.

  18. Porn. It’s one hell of a drug, and might’ve even ruined my real chances in life, but nowadays it’s my escape.

    Comfort food. I spend way too much money with that, even though I exercise a lot.

  19. Love and how it makes you addicted to the other person/their attention/affection can be horribly consuming

  20. Stuff like caffeine and nicotine mostly but my biggest one is procrastinating. I always wait till it’s a crisis to get it done and I struggle to get my ass up and do it.

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