Maya
Member
When we say the word addiction, most people think of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. There are more addictions, like porn, gambling, the internet, social media, gaming, risky sex, shopping, exercise, tanning, watching TV. Typically, compulsively engaging in any behaviour we find relief and joy in the short term, but has negative consequences, while we can't quit it, is an addictive behaviour.
It can have a negative impact on our finances, health, social interactions, legal issues, academics etc. Physical, emotional, mental harm.
But the big question is "why"? Why do we get addicted? Why do we let something ruin a part of our lives? Why don't we always realise the impact of it? And if we do, why do we continue this behaviour?
Addiction is a symptom. See it like fever. Fever is a symptom. Our bodies try to show us that something is wrong. When a person has fever, they take some medicine in order to lower their temperature. This doesn't cure the illness that caused the fever, but suppresses the symptom, the fever in this case. So we feel better again. But the illness is not cured, we can get fever at any moment and feel bad again.
They say "I don't know. I just do it". Then they become angry, they become defensive because you touched this subject. Most people want to escape their reality. They want to feel something else, to be elsewhere. This, most times, comes from trauma. "It takes the pain away", they say, "it makes me forget". A short term benefit but with a cost. We want an escape. A deep down need to escape from the trauma. An escape from something we are not comfortable with. We want to avoid our emotions because we don't know how to handle them. We disconnect from ourselves. And this makes us feel nice again, welcomed. Not the addiction itself as a behaviour, but what we get from that. We get some joy. It’s like a child in a dark room trying not to cry, finding a nice colourful corner there to play for a while, then again sitting in the dark room. This is a short term solution. Instead of trying to find a way out from the dark room, they prefer to stay there, because there is this colourful corner that makes them feel better for a bit. After that, some say "this isn't right", "I need to stop, I don't need this". And then they try to find some time to do it again.
Addictions mostly happen cause of trauma. A traumatic experience that happened at some point in life and we haven't worked on that, we haven't healed. Deep down it is almost always trauma behind it.
It can have a negative impact on our finances, health, social interactions, legal issues, academics etc. Physical, emotional, mental harm.
But the big question is "why"? Why do we get addicted? Why do we let something ruin a part of our lives? Why don't we always realise the impact of it? And if we do, why do we continue this behaviour?
Addiction is a symptom. See it like fever. Fever is a symptom. Our bodies try to show us that something is wrong. When a person has fever, they take some medicine in order to lower their temperature. This doesn't cure the illness that caused the fever, but suppresses the symptom, the fever in this case. So we feel better again. But the illness is not cured, we can get fever at any moment and feel bad again.
They say "I don't know. I just do it". Then they become angry, they become defensive because you touched this subject. Most people want to escape their reality. They want to feel something else, to be elsewhere. This, most times, comes from trauma. "It takes the pain away", they say, "it makes me forget". A short term benefit but with a cost. We want an escape. A deep down need to escape from the trauma. An escape from something we are not comfortable with. We want to avoid our emotions because we don't know how to handle them. We disconnect from ourselves. And this makes us feel nice again, welcomed. Not the addiction itself as a behaviour, but what we get from that. We get some joy. It’s like a child in a dark room trying not to cry, finding a nice colourful corner there to play for a while, then again sitting in the dark room. This is a short term solution. Instead of trying to find a way out from the dark room, they prefer to stay there, because there is this colourful corner that makes them feel better for a bit. After that, some say "this isn't right", "I need to stop, I don't need this". And then they try to find some time to do it again.
Addictions mostly happen cause of trauma. A traumatic experience that happened at some point in life and we haven't worked on that, we haven't healed. Deep down it is almost always trauma behind it.
