Everyone has an addiction, what’s yours?

Whether you suffer with mental health conditions or not, this post will shed some light on the ‘habits” we have formed that are actually sometimes addictions.

What do you do when you first wake up? Go through your phone, check your social media and possibly reply to a few messages. I would say that is a habit however the addiction is wanting to know what you have missed since you last checked your phone and wanting to know what everyone has been up to. Facebook is like the newspaper for most people. It’s where they find their traffic updates, weather for the day and if Aunty Sally’s son really bought that Range Rover or not. It’s also used for FBI purposes to stalk certain people (let’s be honest), usually exes or our curiosity about someone's life that we may have met. The addiction here is picking up your phone and scrolling. I bet you can’t get out of bed without doing that and you didn’t even realise it.

The casual weekend drinks become a glass of wine almost everyday and the consumption of chocolate turns from pieces to full slabs at a time. Some people have tattoo addictions and feel the need to get more and more until they either run out of skin or money. When you feel depressed or abit more anxious than usual you indulge in certain foods a little bit more than you normally would. A bowl of ice cream then changes to a tub of ice cream and one McDonald’s burger leads to two burgers.

Food addiction is extremely dangerous because it can either be anorexia related or bulimia related. Some people eat too much and purge whilst others don’t eat at all. Food disorders are usually related directly to mental health conditions such as body dysmorphia, post traumatic stress disorder as well as depression and disassociation. 

How many of you have a glass of Coca cola everyday? Or a soda everyday? It’s like you have to have it with whatever you eat or you just feel incomplete and dissatisfied. There are some women that are addicted to looking their best. In extreme cases, they resort to plastic surgery and keep going for procedures until they feel they have reached a level of perfection. By this time, the amount of surgeries are in the double digits. 

Don’t cover your eyes for the next one but raise your thumb if you have to start your day with coffee or you feel miserable? Coffee withdrawal is the same as drug withdrawal and can make you feel extremely miserable. You don’t need coffee to start the day because the day has started, you just use coffee as a coping mechanism for the day – just like any other type of addict. There are so many addictions out there that we have no idea that we have fallen prey to most of them and now it’s a mission to get out. 

The next group is probably the easiest to notice and this is the gym fanatics and the guys and girls addicted to having a particular body type. Whether it’s lean and mean or bulky and burley, you cannot deny that there is a form of addiction in that. Body builders commit hours of their time training and they would not dare to miss a session or their supplements and magic powder. There are many people that take training and going to the gym extremely seriously and the hardcore fanatics even go as far as setting up equipment in their homes for extra sessions. It’s like an addiction in a way.

Many people hear the word “addiction” and quickly associate that with people on heroine, cocaine and meth however, as you have read, addiction comes in different forms and we don’t notice it, we label it as a habit instead. Addiction slowly trickles into other parts of your life if your addiction is not fed. You become more anxious, you disassociate and ultimately become depressed. It’s like a vicious cycle that keeps repeating itself until something changes. Until we stop eating too much or too little, stop having so much soda and, I know this is hard – swop the coffee for another warm beverage lower in caffeine.  

A large pandemic (bigger than COVID) touched our shores decades ago and never left – the opioid pandemic. Use of scheduled drugs for pain after you have had an accident or surgery of any kind led to many people becoming used to the prescription medication. The regular guys stick to the baby morphine (AKA Adco dol) as well as allergex for those nights that you need to fall asleep. I’m sure there’s at least one of you who is guilty of at least one factor mentioned above thus far. Adco dol  for the masses is now a staple in their diet and most people have become so used to it that the old (useless) Panado has taken a back seat. I’m sorry but if Panado works for you then you need to be studied by scientists because I don’t know anyone that gets relief from it.

Have you ever been so hooked to a series on Netflix or any other streaming platform and watched every episode within 3 days or less? After you are done watching the series you hop onto another series that’s slightly similar (probably a Corban masterpiece). You cannot stop watching until you have seen all the episodes and you go crazy waiting for season two. That’s an addiction too because you are so addicted to the series that you have to know what happens next and you impatiently wait for next year for it to return. Squid games was unbelievably delayed might I add. I know many people who were addicted to watching series that they didn’t even sleep at night or nap before work because they were fixated on the series. 

Another type of addiction that maybe a handful of people suffer from is always being meticulous and perfect and they have this need to be perfect in their workplace and always aim for perfection. This is more of an obsession than addiction but I’m going to include it here because I feel the addiction aspect comes in with the tasks they have to do. Each and every task must be done to perfection even if it means taking work home. Work becomes this unhealthy addiction because as you know work-life balance is extremely important.

The morning cigarette, the cigarette after you eat and in between after you finish demanding work tasks as well as the cigarettes you smoke in the day is in a smokers itinerary. Don’t forget the cigarette when they are on the toilet and the one before bed. Smoking is an addiction – that is an addiction most people know about and are more cognisant about it because of it’s health implications. People who smoke are looked down upon but what makes them different to every other person with an addiction?

Medication reliant people are deemed as pill poppers and the guys that smoke cannabis are considered drug addicts. What is the difference between any other addiction and the ones we scrutinize in public?

Waking up in the morning and scrolling on your phone and less to anxiety for the day and it’s also an unhealthy obsession because you are sucked into a fantasy world that doesn’t exist. It takes away time from your family and keeps you way to invested in other people’s lives – which you shouldn’t have time for.

The booming paracetamol business is also extremely dangerous as it can cause harm to your organs. Reading the above different type of addictions put things into perspective because now we can see that any kind of addiction can harm your body.

Usually, an addiction starts when you are trying to fulfil something in your life that’s missing or if you have a mental health condition. If we take anxiety, the person will look for anything to calm themselves down even if it means double dosing on medicine or even resorting to excessive consumption of alcohol. You are trying to fill a void in your body that stems from a condition you haven’t accepted so instead of facing the problem head on, we tend to rely on unhealthy things that bring us instant gratification.

As the name suggests, it doesn’t last long and after a few hours you tend to feel miserable and you start the process of unhealthy living all over again.

Maybe the examples above didn’t resonate with you and that’s completely fine. Everyone is different. Maybe you are addicted to collecting stationery like pens or you have to shower with a specific shower gel only.  It’s important you understand why you need or rely on these things on a daily basis and what exactly it is that you are trying to cover up. Everyone has addiction, it could be harmless or detrimental to your health. 

If you are comfortable, share your experience in the comments section below and let me know what you think. 

Be kind. Always.

Till next time!