I looked forward to this Friday, and it's not just because I have an epic TGIF planned...
Oh dear, if I replace the word substance by Steemit, it looks like I am on my way to becoming a Steemit addict!
Looool. Aren't we all?
I tried to analyse my addiction to steemit and classify. I realised that it was either
- A Rational Choice Model of Addiction
or - The Incentive Sensitisation Model
Please allow me to unleash my inner psychologist!
I totally agree that addiction could be caused by prolonged negative emotional states or an attempt to distract oneself from the not-so-wonderful environment.
Growing up in Nigeria, I was just a typical teenager addicted to her cell phone, but my mother didn't understand why.
She tried to talk and convince me to interact more with humans. One time, she said:
If you have a good life, you wouldn't need to create a virtual world on social media and dwell there forever.
While this got me irritated at the time, when I look back now, she was probably right. My transition into adulthood came with its fair share of growing pains. I felt I was misunderstood a lot and I went into my shell; becoming a very introverted teenager in reality and a virtual social butterfly, and honestly, I preferred my virtual world.
My point is: addiction is not idiopathic, really. So if it has a cause, it has a cure.
Thanks for you lovely educative post. I can't believe it's now "See you in two weeks"
❤❤❤
It tells something about you and your mother that you remember what she said. It made me smile.
I once said something similar to my son. Also, I added that I actually can understand why the virtual world is more attractive to him than the real one. Sometimes I think that because we are still "cave-people" and not coping with the pace of modernity that we might miss something hard to name. I am deliberately exaggerating but I agree with Abigail on that.
From my point of view, addiction has its cause in wanting pain relief. Once the pain is gone the addiction might be gone with it. I think my society actually moves within a certain amount of pain & so addictions are there to give a way out of pain.
Do you know Gabor Maté? He is a Canadian doctor who talks a lot about addiction. It's sometimes also a "pain" listening to him :-)
Have a good night, day or morning.
P.S. Are you still located in Nigeria?
I couldn't agree more, but I don't think the addiction goes with the causative pain. The pain is like a matchstick that ignites the addiction and so even when the pain fizzles out, we could be left with a pointless addiction.
Lol, I do not know Maté but I will look him up ASAP
It's actually night here and yes, I'm still in Nigeria.
Take care ❤
I would like to answer with a question:
Have you ever had the experience of feeling fully content? Like staying in a situation and wishing for nothing more and nothing less?
I had this experience, but only on very very rare occasions. As I perceive a great suffering in the world, I would say that one fizzling out pain is replaced by another one setting in and being painless (either mentally or physically) is a state of being rare to find. That may sound pessimistic, I prefer to call it realistic :)
Addiction can either be pointless or a strategy to cope with pain. ... Actually, .... I would say every addiction points to something deeper. It is not the cause of pain in the first place, only a symptom to express and deal with it.
Does your mother still live?
You too, take care.
Hello @the.chiomz :)
It is great to see you here again!
It seems like your mother is a very sensible woman! I would love to hear that more mothers encourage their children in the same way. Unfortunately, what I used to hear is quite the opposite. Some parents actually prefer that their teenagers remain in the house at their computer desks; because it brings them peace of mind in relation to where the kids are and what they are doing!
I love the point you raised here about addiction not being idiopathic. So right! There isn't a single sort of addiction that develops overnight. The behaviour becomes slowly more and more compulsive until it is sustained in spite of the negative consequences!
Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this debate.
Have a wonderful weekend :)
It's always good to hear from you! 😊 @abigail-dantes
Well, my mother likes everything in moderation, I think that's a good deal.
Thanks for going through my long comment.
Have a great weekend as well :D
❤️