We are all addicts

[inside the sun]

I believe we are all drug addicts. whether its smoking a joint or sitting for hours playing a computer game, having sex, running, drinking coffee, eating a bar of chocolate etc. All of them fit the definition of a drug, and have addcitons. They can be used, but also have the potential of being abused. You're concerned about health issues, what is more healthy going up in the mountains and tripping on mushrooms or acids, thinking about life, exxpanding your mind, excercing your mind adn body, or sitting for hours at a computer getting fat eating shitty food and playing WOW. So my question, is do you agree we are all addicts?

[CraigD]

… what is more healthy going up in the mountains and tripping on mushrooms or acids, thinking about life, exxpanding your mind, excercing your mind adn body, or sitting for hours at a computer getting fat eating shitty food and playing WOW.

How about going up into the mountains and tripping while sitting at a computer playing Warcraft and getting fat from eating shitty food? :lol:

So my question, is do you agree we are all addicts?

The most useful definition of an addict, IMO, is one who’s quality of life is severly damaged due to a compulsive need to engage in a repetitive behavior. Addiction is more a personality disorder than a pharma-physiological phenomena. By this definition, yes, we are all to some degree addicts, but some people are to such a degree that most people would label them such, while others so little that few would.

[inside the sun]

man i love this kid

[ughaibu]

Quality of life being severely damaged due to a need to engage in repetitive behaviour sounds to me like an accurate description of the requirement to work imposed by cash economies, not so much about personality disorder as about dysfunctionality of a society in which the means have taken priority over the ends.

[Boerseun]

We're all addicted to dihydrogen monoxide.

 

And the scary part is that 100% of cancer victims consume it every single day in some form or another.

 

Accidental inhalation of dihydrogen monoxide will kill you, and very quickly. And the really scary bit is that Government knows about it, but isn't doing anything at all to curb the availability of it.

 

It can definitely be seen as a drug, seeing as when a dependent individual doesn't get his 'fix', he'll become irritable, and even violent if it is in short supply. Addicts will actually die in a pretty short time if access to this deadly drug is denied for a couple of days at a stretch.

 

What scares me is the cancer connection.

[questor]

From Wikipedia:

''Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences. A person who is addicted is sometimes called an addict.''

from this definition, it is obvious we are NOT all addicts. those that try to claim so are probably trying to excuse their own behavior. life is made of choices, if you choose to engage in self destructive behavior, don't try to make the excuse that it's ok because others do it. you are responsible for your own success or failure.

[inside the sun]

Drug: #

 

1. A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication.

2. Such a substance as recognized or defined by the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

 

# A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.

let me rephrase. we are all drug users, addict is a strong word. We all use drugs. We are all dependent, and parasites if you look at it negatively but that is another subject. I dunno why i went straight to the word addict, probably because i'm an extremist especially with words. but what i orginally meant is this. We are all drug users, whose to say their drug is better or worse, healthy or unhealthy. Yes one person can take mushrooms and kill someone, but another can build the pyramids. Yes one person can sit at a computer playing video games and _____(some productive and good about it)

or one person can just sit there getting fat and not go anywhere in life.

we have our opinions, our ideals, our this our that, but in the end we are all drug users

[ughaibu]

Questor: Attemping to reduce the issue to one of moral responsibility is facile: http://www.tgorski.com/news_analysis/Treatment/genetics_of_addiction_confirmed%20(2-10-01).htm

[Boerseun]

''Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences"

Exactly. Therefore, we're all addicts, as far as the deadly drug dihydrogen monoxide is concerned. The average human will kill if denied access to this drug, regardless of gettin' convicted for murder and receiving a free ride on ol' Sparky.

[CraigD]

From Wikipedia:

''Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences. A person who is addicted is sometimes called an addict.''

I think that’s a good, if imprecise (due to the “sometimes” qualifier) definition.

from this definition, it is obvious we are NOT all addicts.

I agree. From this definition, however, I doubt that many of the people commonly labeled “addicts”, either informally by friends and family or formally by health care clinicians, actually qualify. Most “addicts”, in the common and technical usage of the word, will stop repeating a behavior if its consequences are sufficiently grave.

 

Some will not. For example, there exist heroine addicts who, absolutely convinced that taking their next hit would result in immediate death at the hands of a father nearby with a loaded pistol (practicing an extreme variety of “harsh love”), will chose to anyway.

 

People who’ve not witness such severely addicted behavior personally often doubt that it exists. It does.