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There was a good article in the NYT today that made a good point about Internet addiction: LINK I thought she made a good point by saying that if your pastime is not classy, it's an "addiction," but if it is (like opera or poetry), it's a "passion." How true! Here was one example she wrote of a supposed addict, which she thinks really shows the student is a "bright, self effasing, religious young woman who keeps student hours and prefers logic games, jokes, graphic novels, trivia quizzes, music, Victoriana and socializing on Facebook to prefab pop bands":
So, is she an addict or just passionate?This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh, | ||
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I think a passion only becomes an addiction if you can't manage life without it. | |||
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I've always been a bit uncomfortable with this use of "addiction". As far as my own usage is concerned an addiction is a physical thing. You can be addicted to morphine, addicted to cocaine, addicted to nicotine or addicted to alcohol but you can't be addicted to watching television, reading Catherine Cookson novels, using the computer, or playing poker - all of which I've heard. The words I'd use for these things are "compulsion" or "obsession."This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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You can't enter rehab for a compulsion or obsession. | ||
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True, but you can get treatment for them. And in any case can you go into rehab for "internet addiction" or any of the other things I mentioned? (Maybe you can for gambling, but I can't imagine any of the others.) "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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What about the "celebrities" who are having treatment for "sex addiction"? Is that an addiction, or a compulsion or obsession? Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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It's just how I use the words but I'd call it a compulsion rather than an addiction. It seems to me that it;s a psychological condition and I only consider that physical addictions are addictions as such. Of course that's just how I'd use the words. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I am with you on this, Bob. There should be another word for the more fluffy "addictions." | |||
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Isn't sex a physical addiction then? I'd have thought it was rather more physical than some of the other things you mentioned. The body and the mind are intimately interlinked, in any case, so dividing such things into "physical" and "psychological" conditions is a bit arbitrary in any case. Drugs and alcohol affect the mind just as much as they affect the body. | |||
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Reason for reahb | ||
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rehab. I can't edit | ||
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Ohhh, I thought you meant Rahab, the famous hooker! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahab It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti | |||
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It's more psychological, isn't it? I don't see it addictive in the same way drugs are. | |||
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I'm no expert on this, but doesn't sex encourage the production of certain endorphins? Isn't it possible to get addicted to these in the same way as one becomes addicted to manufactured drugs? | |||
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I am not an expert in this the field of addiction, but I have seen some horrendous addiction symptoms, with tremors and shaking, and even the fetus inside an addicted mother's uterus will shake violently. Somehow, I don't see that as being the same as sexual addiction, but I could be wrong. | |||
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So an addiction is only an addiction if there's a possible health risk, then? Here's Wikipedia's take on the subject:
The terms "behavioural addiction" and "soft addiction" have been used to describe the latter type. Wikipedia says "The applicability of the word 'addiction' to these conditions is controversial, and there is not a universal consensus as to the most appropriate phrase used to describe these conditions as a class". | |||
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Again...not an expert here, but I'd define one as being the physical addiction and the other as being the psychological one. | |||
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