Is there a way out to get of the Yahoo! Answers Syndrome? I am hooked to it. Anyone?

Answer 1

Hi Third P,
We could start up an addiction support group. I think there are quite a number of us who are addicted to this site but it's a healthy addiction as long as you aren't neglecting your family life, your personal responsibilities and your professional ones. And just think if we were spending all this time on computer games (which I just wouldn't do anyway but I'm looking for a comparison) we wouldn't be expanding our knowledge, learning more about ourselves and meeting so many wonderful people. Also for me, it's therapeutic. It provides diversion to a day otherwise spent writing on other things over which I have no choice because I'm doing it professionally. So, for the moment I'm quite happy to feed my addiction. I think probably you are too!!!
Polly

Answer 2

Hi Third P.

I am sorry to say that the diagnosis of this Yahoo! Answers friend is — that you are totally hooked, caught in the net (get the pun?)

You have been on YA since only July 2, 2007, and you are already a Level 4!!! Before you know it, you will be a Level 5, and there will be no turning back, I'm afraid - lol

Just wait until you get a TC badge — think you can stop then — NEVER!!! I never expected to get a TC badge, didn't even want one. However, now that I have it, I feel strangely compelled to keep it. Weird.

I am so hooked that today I answered a question by someone whose daughter is getting married this Saturday. I had spent 2 hours working on the answer for him — but then, a glitch of YA wouldn't allow the answer to be Submitted. I tried over & over again, but nothing.

I could have easily said, "oh, well," and moved on, but no — I'm hooked. I had to get the answer to this person, no matter what. So, I broke one of my own rules — I emailed him the answer, not caring if I got Best Answer, just wanting him to get my answer, hoping it would be of some help.

Then, as Murphy's Law would have it, after I had emailed the answer to him, the YA system finally "un-glitched," & my answer ended up being Submitted. Now this person is probably wondering what kind of nut am I to both answer him on YA + email him the same answer!!!

The pull to help people, sometimes have a bit of fun, and also to learn new things is very strong. I don't believe there is any turning back!! Have you seen some of the scores the level 7 people have — WOW!! — 150,000+ points. I can't imagine ever getting to that point (another pun).

The final proof that I am hooked — it is 3:40am, and I am answering this question. ;-)

Good night all.

Peace.

Answer 3

I watch movies while doing Y!A. Sometimes, I get so distracted I end up not answering anything at all.

Find a hobby, something that interests you more than Y!A. Well, I like reading so I usually just read for hours on end. Of course, any hobby will do. Pretty soon you'll be back to normal.

Wait, I have the Y!A Syndrome, too! Somebody help me!! I think I'm going insane...:)

Answer 4

I used to be addicted, but then I found some other things to do. Get a hobby, read a book, etc. Eventually you won't need to be on here as much. In the beginning I was on yahoo answers 7 hrs a day (on & off) everyday for a month. Then I skipped like three months and came back a week ago.

Answer 5

I used to log on daily during the first month,4-5 hrs at a stretch but found i missed out on other important things. Best is do on alternate days. Post 2 to 3 questions and answer 5-7 questions. Do not be obsessed to reach the next level quickly. I don't hope to reach levl 7 within a year or so otherwise i will be sacrificing too much daily.So be moderate and you won't feel too depressed.

Answer 6

Well, you could try the following:

Find someone to report your innocent, harmless questions over and over, and have many of them deleted, so you can wake up to many violation notices a week. Soon enough, you'll end up having your precious account suspended.

If this is not enough, and you're stubborn, and decide to come back and create a new account, because you so love being here, and your friends here, try having the exact same thing happen to your newly created account. This may help.

Sorry, friend, I'm just too sad, today. But don't worry, I'll be well.

Make sure you take good care, and enjoy your weekend!! :)

Answer 7

It is like any habit, good or bad, you eventually get burned out and have to scale back. Try to pace yourself, mind over matter. I don't think it is all bad to be "hooked" when you are helping people over come problems or need advice. If it is effecting your life-style, your daily routine, you need to have a talk with yourself and make up your mind you are going to limit yourself. It takes determination, but it can be done. Think we have all been in your shoes . . . . especially when you turn the corner and you are near the next plateau of levels, then you really want to get to that level . . . . . be good to yourself!

Answer 8

Contact Yahoo Answers Rehab Clinic, 2435 N. Delaware St. Birmingham, Al, 93206. 1-800-222-9095. Good Luck.

Answer 9

Don't you think it's a kind of compensation?
When you find out what it compensates for, then you are automatically cured. When you know about your drives and passions, you control them; otherwise they do.

This helped me to be cured!
Good luck!

And remember that we need you here, too. It's not just you needing Yahoo Answers. :D

Answer 10

My answer, forgive me, is sideways; I've also tried to think of a bunch of different possibilities for helping you to think through your good question.

(Little known fact: People with ADD/ADHD do better on computers, because it FOCUSES the mind; it's a COMFORT. It also lessens the hardship in making life's everyday DECISIONS, so many of which have to be made hourly, daily, weekly in order to live even comfortably.)

Let me explain my own experience a bit and then move on to other possibilities, okay?

For some reason, although I'd have a good number of thumbs up on an answer, I'd get these consistent thumbs down. I could never figure them out. How can one get a thumbs down, for example, for saying one's favorite color? That's a clearly hostile act.

Next I knew some people were blocking me--people I thought liked me!!! Geezh!

Next thing I know, I asked a question in the Forum and someone anonymously slandered me.

After a few best answers in a row, I got some emails telling me I was some show-off-pseudo-intellectual. Huh?

I never knew the reasons; 'still don't. These kinds of people hit and run.

I got my feelings hurt badly, so I just quit.

I saw it as the HUMAN CONDITION showing its ugly side with the cowardly aid of fake names and fake photos, and I didn't like thinking negatively like that.

Why be where people can just be mean, because they hide behind masks? So I quit.

This is the first answer I've answered in weeks, and you'd be right to ask "Why is she bothering?"

Just trying to HELP--WHICH WAS THE WHOLE REASON I STARTED TO ANSWER in the FIRST place.

But when that aspect gets lost in personalities, point-grabbing and such, it's over! A kind of compulsive greed sets in.

I guess, in sum, I could say to you,
1. Don't look at your points.
2. Don't get into the popularity pit
3. Do it the way you started--TO HELP PEOPLE BY GIVING HEARTFELT ANSWERS TO THOSE WITH VALID QUESTIONS.
4. Everything will then fall back into perspective, and the "ADDICTION" will be cured.

(It's the points and the personality contests that get one "fighting" for more: more best answers, more people answering one's questions, more starring one's questions, more wanting to be heard just to be heard, rather than to HELP, more points; it makes a tournament out of a cause, and the RULES are very SHAKY--with the potential for hurt and for abuse--not like winning at chess, let's say; it's kinda mind-boggling, actually!)

You also may get something out of this link on procrastination and advoidance, because any "addiction" is, by nature, a tool to keep us from getting on with the things that scare us in life: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web1/jmaryasis.html

This is a whole site on procrastination and advoidance that looks pretty good:
http://www.whatithinkabout.com/killing-the-procrastination-syndrome/

And lastly, sometimes it may not be procrastination, but running from deep PAIN by focusing on something that takes little effort but stimulates one enough to allow for denial and freedom from that pain.

Here's a paragraph from Wikipedia that may tell you something that helps: "There is also a lesser known situation called pseudo-addiction.(Weissman and Haddox, 1989) A patient will exhibit drug-seeking behavior reminiscent of psychological addiction, but they tend to have genuine pain or other symptoms that have been undertreated. Unlike true psychological addiction, these behaviors tend to stop when the pain [and that pain, of course, can be loneliness or psychological, as well as physical] is adequately treated."*

Actually the whole page is pretty cool regarding addiction or "pseudo-addiction" as escapes from pain.

One more thing: The GOOD PART ABOUT Y/A that's so appealing is that it's not highly structured; it encourages your free thinking, and it often appreciates your feedback; a person can feel "LISTENED to," "TAKEN SERIOUSLY" in a culture that is so ME-oriented as to leave one out, look blank when another is speaking.

And then there's:
I am often left to think, "Des, if you put this much time and energy into writing papers for journals and for op-ed sections in the papers, you just might be reaching more people, AND you'd be getting paid for it!" (Just another thought)~
;-)