Addicted to addiction

There are those who have addictive personalities.

I am one of those.

You will have to forgive me for this sudden change of topic, but I have to write what is in my heart. At the moment my heart is full of addiction, or shall we say, anti-addiction. As you would have seen by now, I am writing this blog in order to set my relationships straight. If I am addicted to something or someone, there will certainly be unbalance in my various relationships, would you agree? On the other hand, is there such a thing as a "good" addiction?

Before we can answer that, let's look at the word "addiction". Addiction usually goes hand in hand with substance abuse. According to the people that know what they are talking about, there are two types of addiction. Physical addiction and psychological addiction. Physical addiction is more often associated with drug or alcohol abuse - Once your body gets used to having that drug in its system or that amount of alcohol in the bloodstream, it becomes addicted. The body compensates for the intrusive element and thus changes some of it's functions. If you take the drug away now, the body will malfunction for a while, until it can reset itself to run without the intrusive element. So yes, in some cases people really do get physical symptoms of withdrawal. I know this is a very short and basic explanation of how the body gets addicted, but I am not here to give you an education in physiology.

Psychological addiction is a part of physical addiction, but it can be put into a category of its own - Usually addiction starts out because you are looking for some kind of stress relief (this is the case with both physical and psychological addiction). The substance is not always as important as the addiction itself. What is important to the mindset of someone with an addictive personality is that he or she is actually addicted to something, anything RIGHT NOW!! Whether it be a game, a person or a drug does not matter, as long as the addiction is there. As long as the relief mechanism is in place.

Is it wrong to have a mechanism to help relieve stress? Not at all! But being addicted to that mechanism is wrong. The word addiction has a negative connotation. It means that you are enslaved to a certain habit or substance. People who are addicted tend to let the addiction take over all of their relationships. They cannot think of anything but the addiction, they cannot talk of anything but the addiction. When they are at work, they aren't focused on their jobs, but on getting through the day so that they can spend time on their addiction (except if work is their addiction, of course). Addiction creeps in wherever it can find a foothold. It can ruin marriages, friendships, careers and much more. Addiction can ruin your chance of doing something with your talents (ask me, I know...)
People also get symptoms of withdrawal when they do not have a psychological addiction. But this is all in the mind, as my eldest brother would say: "Psychosomatic." ;p

How do you break your addiction to being addicted? To be honest, I do not know. Mostly people who have a problem with addiction will identify and fight one addiction just to replace it with another. But let's see if we can get a permanent solution. I have a few ideas. First off, identify the addiction. Be honest and open with yourself and admit that you have a tendency to become enslaved by substances, people or activities quite easily. Now, if you have identified the addiction, cut it out. If it is a game, throw it away. If it is alcohol, stay away from bars, bottle stores, parties, all that stuff. If it's people or certain kinds of relationships, stop looking for that type of person. DO NOT TEMPT YOURSELF! YOU WILL FAIL!!
When the withdrawal comes, and it will come, harden up. Don't give in to your mind playing tricks on you!

Maybe there is another answer? What if there was such a thing as positive addiction? The problem here is, you are still addicted. You are still enslaved. But that doesn't have to be a problem. If you do it for the right reasons, and do right by it, isn't it worth the enslavement? Now you will ask me, what on this earthly ball can be classified as "positive addiction"? Once again I do not know. There is something not from here that might be worth your while. Supernatural addiction. God. Have you thought about that, about Him?


PS - Thanks for those who took part in my experiment. From the comments I see that we all have the same idea regarding Japan, but from there our points of view differ quite a bit. What you saw there, is the wrapping paper of a red velvet cupcake. A square piece of white paper with eight smears of baked red dough on it. The red circle in the middle is obviously the bottom part of the cupcake.