Are the following things or phenomena addictive or like drugs?

Question

How might the following things or phenomena be like drugs or alcohol?

- television
-radio
-reading
-pornnography
-sex
-fast vehicles
-cars
-guns
-knives
-games
-running
-idleness
-work
-food

What is obsession? What is compulsion? Why do you do what you do? Why do you keep doing it?

Answer 1

our minds and bodies are complex
people can get addicted to things on that list, and become obsessed with them

they are looking for the mental state it gives them, a type of high, and they can even have physical reactions when the source of the addiction/obsession is taken away, as the mind and body are so closely connected
the difference with chemical drugs is that there is a specific chemical addiction that occurs , along with the mental

obsession is an unhealthy focus on something, feeling you cant live without it, a complusion is the urge to do something, often doing it a certain way

for all of these, its the reaction and importance you place on the thing, and your reaction to it not being there, that defines if its healthy or not , and if its an addiction. how is endulging in the topic affecting someones life and relastionships

then, you also have to add in the cultural aspects, what is viewed as addiction/obsession/compulsion in one society might not be in another, except for the most serious cases

Answer 2

I think we need to start by defining our terms.

Mental illness is a mind-state that causes unhappiness and an inability to function in society. Some kinds of mental illness are obsessions and compulsions. An obsession is when your thoughts are dominated by one particular subject. A compulsion is when your behaviour is dominated by some particular action. Addictions - even to drugs - are pretty much by definition compulsions in that you feel compelled to do something over and over.

Where these things can often get a little blurry is in severity. If you like to get up in the morning, eat breakfast, take a shower, and then go to work always in that exact order and you become unhappy when you cannot do those things in that order, that might be called a compulsion. But then it becomes a matter of degree... if you just feel a little off, it is only an illness of the very mildest sort, but if you absolutely refuse to go to work unless you do those other things first, it might cause problems with living a normal life.

And so it goes with many addictions. A person who feels compelled to have even one drink a month (or a year, or even less) is technically an alcoholic. Just a very, very mild one.

As such, almost anything CAN be a compulsion if you do it or an obsession if you think about it. Some of the things in your list could be either (some people are compelled to collect pornography, others just obsess about it all the time). Many drugs are both physically and mentally addictive.

Keep in mind though, that voluntarily doing something over and over is NOT a compulsion nor is voluntarily thinking about something over and over... it's when such activities begin to become a need instead of a volutary act that they cross the line. If you are a physicist, thinking about physics is probably not an obsession... but if you are obsessed with physics, it may be a good idea to get a job as a physicist!

Likewise, there are many drugs which cause a physical adjustment and consequent negative effects if they are removed that are NOT addictive. Antacids, anti-depressants, and nasal decongestants are all good examples.

In a similar vein, if your need is not caused by a mental state, then it is not an addiction either. If the only job you can get is a hundred miles away, it is not an addiction to spend hours in your car every day. Nor must food be an addition, in that humans must consume some kind of food to stay alive. Again, both these things still CAN be addictions, but they are not necessarily so.

Answer 3

I enjoyed the books. i assumed the assumption become very unique and that i'm smitten by making use of vampires, so something that has to do with vampires i'm all approximately. The action picture become disappointing because of the fact it recommended faraway from somewhat some the stable areas of the e book. i'm drawn to New Moon the action picture, because of the fact there's a sparkling director and from the trailers that I fairly have seen so some distance evidently like they actually observed the e book this time.

Answer 4

Anything that allows people to escape serious contemplation is addictive. For those who have things to do, and don't because they would rather seriously contemplate, that is addictive.

Answer 5

these are inevitable things of the modern life we are all living with. I wouldn't call it obsession nor addiction, nor anything like that. we can live some time without some of these things, but they are here, why not to use them.

Answer 6

Drugs and alcohol are actually addictive. Your body experiences withdrawl is stopped suddenly.

Nothing on that list is addictive. People can be compulsive and they claim to be 'addicted' to whatever, say gambling, because they can't face the fact that they're simply week minded and week willed. They prefer the crutch and sympathy that comes with being "sick." As in "oh its not your fault, your addicted, its a 'disease.' Its NOT an Fing 'disease' - its a loser doesn't have enough self control to stop doing whatever 'it' is.

Answer 7

Not an easy question, but I’ll give it my best shot. Mostly it has to do with what we call “Modern Times”. Back during earlier times when we were forced to do things we don’t even consider today. To clarify this, I’ll address the different items separately and in relation to the time of the Wild West frontier. In away, all of these are interconnected in one way or another.

Our additions with guns and knives are due to our sub-concise desire to return to days of frontier justice. It also allows us to feel safe in today’s world, protecting our family, home and property. How did we achieve all this, work of course? While we’re on the subject of work, back then a work day was from sun up to sun down. So it’s natural for us to work hard when we realize what we will lose if we don’t. It also explains why we work outside the day at times, like cattle drives.

Now in those days there were also farmers who raised crops for both man and beast. Now a days, between the ranchers and farmers, we have such a large variety of food that it’s easy to over eat and indulge. A way to stay in shape from all this eating, we run. Because of our natural need to compete and win, running (which only requires endurance) is why it’s so addictive. By the way, running is also comes from one having too much time on there hands, in other words idleness.

If running isn’t your cure for what to do with all that idle time, the laid back way is to turn to television, which can lead to video games. First let’s address the TV, this is why this country has turned into the biggest bunch of couch potatoes. Once you get hooked on it, you could say it’s like a drug, one that could lead to another one, video games. As we all know how that has had a affect on our social growth, in some ways good, but mostly in a negative sense. This is where the relationship of fast vehicles and cars comes in, as well as pornography, sex and games.

Bare with me a little bit more. Back in the days of the old west, the horse was the primary means of transportation, by itself or attached to a cart / wagon. Ever notice how people (mostly males) have a one to one relationship with there cars and especially motorcycles. It pretty much the same cowboys had with there horse, tires vise shoes, gas & coolant / feed and water, washing to keep the paint job / brushing and grooming the old paint. Plus let’s not forget the saddle and ranes vise chrome and custom interiors.

Even industry kept the relation ongoing as in terms and names; Horse Power, Mustang, Pinto and Workhorse. Puts the term “Iron horse” in a different light, anyone who has a cycle says they ride it, not drive it. Now as for our obsession with speed, that even goes back in time further, for as long as we can remember, man has always been trying to go faster and higher, all due to what we saw natures other species have been able to do better than we could.

Sex (pornography) and games, here’s where relating in directly to different things comes in. Again, we must look back a lot further when sex & pornography are concerned. Aside from the most obvious reasons (reproduction), sex is one of those double sided subjects. Most religions consider sex a sin outside child baring reasons, which the rebellious side of us makes us want to do it. But mostly as we all know the gratifying sensation we get having sex. Pornography is also two sided, most lily it was un-intentionally started from art. Man has always considered women to be the beauty of all beauties, thus why so many painting of naked women. The church also helped, these pictures were seen as being done by demons who possessed the artist. And once again, if it’s bad for you, you want it more.

After a while the church won, so the paintings of beautiful naked women became fewer and fewer. This resulted into the two paths which gave us pornography. The masses who still desired to look at erotic pictures was fulfilled by underground pictures, but why stop there, being that it was not allowed, why not draw erotic acts between men and women. When photography was introduced, there was no stopping the trend.

With all this pornography, it’s easy to see how it became a big business and high profit industry in cyberspace (computers), also lead to more casual sex, and then came games. However not completely, our compulsion for games relates to many of the items we’ve already addressed. For example, video games like racing (cars & fast vehicles), shooting and war (guns and knives), going back in time, games were an big part of or lives. From poker games which some consider a form of work, to planning wars, satisfy our need to compete, something to do with an idle mind, and just to have fun as the yang to the ying of work.

Finally we are left with reading and radio, we read because we were taught to at an early age, to learn and keep informed of events. To some it’s a way to relax, as well as for entertainment instead of TV, and to expand our intellect. By the way which can assist in a better job, now you see why work is also an addiction. Radio is our way to do most of what reading accomplishes, but quicker and with a wider resource available. It also provides the one constant which also relates to mostly all of the items we’ve hit on, and that is music. Music maybe the last thing that is keeping us from the last big step backwards to complete regression, but that is another answer to another question another day.

You may agree or disagree, say I’m right or wrong, it does not matter. Everything I’ve presented and described is from a point of inter-relationship, the Ying & Yang, and how one goes through life without the social sin of being judgmental and prejudice.