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How to know if you’re addicted

psyche.co

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Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#151

Post by standardUser »

The most important thing for people to understand is that everyone is different, and different people can have very different experiences with the exact same substance. Some people can smoke cigarettes on the weekend for years and never get addicted, which sounds insane to someone like me who couldn't go for more than a hour without a cigarette for twenty years and went through hell for 6 months to finally quit. But I can binge cocaine for weeks on end (in college it was meth) and then stop when I get bored (or my nose hurts) and suffer no withdrawal beyond occasional thoughts of "it would be nice to get high!". Yet other people end up in rehab for using far less than I have. I drink absurd amounts of caffeine every day and will get a mild headache sometimes if I skip it, and I thought this was normal until a friend quit caffeine and described it the way I would describe quitting nicotine! It's all over the map.

Wild variation is the norm, but a lot of our public health messaging and "conventional wisdom" ignores this entirely.

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#152

Post by stryan »

petercooper wrote: post #85
pdenton wrote: post #65

The worst of the bunch is tobacco. The effect is basically nothing, but it hurts ones health and wallet. I've done cocaine, marijuana, mdma, speed, xtc pills, and some research chemicals. Protips: don't smoke, and never combine any two drugs. If you really want a certain substance, do at least the first session with someone sober to keep an eye on you. Never accept drugs from strangers and don't give in to peer press…

I've never tried tobacco, but I did try nicotine last year after seeing it discussed in ADHD circles. Noticed no effect (beyond perhaps a mild caffeine-esque sensation early on) but forced myself to try it for a few weeks. The "cloud" aspect was amusing, but I forgot about the experiment months ago and have suffered not a jot for it since. Different strokes for different folks, because apparently it's usually one of…

IIRC Tobacco has MAOI-inhibitors that help amplify the addictive/pleasurable properties of nicotine. So if you just consumed nicotine through gum/patch/old-school vape juice it would be more "difficult" to get addicted to it.

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#153

Post by rmbyrro »

Mezzie wrote: post #30
rmbyrro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the dopamine doses associated with the activity is what causes the addiction on the area.

My ancedotal evidence says yes. I've never had a porn problem (I'm a homosexual female, I'm not sure there's enough material for me to sustain a porn problem...), but I've had other psychological addictions and one interesting thing I've noticed is that if I take modafinil when I'm trying to break one that my cravings/desires are much less. I think it's dopamine (as opposed to the other nts modafinil is theorized to…

Makes sense. It's certainly a blessing not having enough material. My impression is this kind of addiction can get particularly depressing if you can look at yourself from the outside...

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#154

Post by simon1ltd »

standardUser wrote: post #151

The most important thing for people to understand is that everyone is different, and different people can have very different experiences with the exact same substance. Some people can smoke cigarettes on the weekend for years and never get addicted, which sounds insane to someone like me who couldn't go for more than a hour without a cigarette for twenty years and went through hell for 6 months to finally quit. But…

I just had a discussion with a friend about this last week.

Some people (we call it addictive personalities, not sure if there’s a better term) seem to get hooked almost right away. Others, can stop whenever they want with little trouble.

The problem is that you don’t know which of those possibilities applies to you without trying it, and then it’s too late. Since my immediate family members have had issues with substances, I assume I would be one of the people with a problem.

That’s the message I’m trying to pass along to the next generation too. You might not have a problem, but you won’t know if you do until it’s too late.

YMMV

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#155

Post by leetcrew »

Mezzie wrote: post #33
aurbano wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the definition should just be "Addiction can be defined as a persistent, compulsive need to use a substance". Surely one can be addicted even if it doesn't have negative consequences right?

Yeah, this is a major omission and it is also why you see so many functional addicts who don't think they have a problem. Also it means that who is considered an 'addict' is partially socially constructed: Some people have jobs that will randomly drug test for weed, so if they smoke daily and lose their job, they're addicts, but since my job is remote and doesn't care, I could be high as a kite most nights and not be…

I mean yeah, different jobs come with different obligations. showing up high to a construction site is a problem in a way that being high during your shift at a dispensary is not. I dunno if that's "socially constructed"; it seems like a very real safety issue to me. it's unfortunate that we can't test for acute cannabis intoxication the way we can with alcohol, but I'm sure we'll get there in time.

more generally, I would push back on the idea that someone isn't experiencing consequences just because they manage to hold a job. spending all your nonworking time intoxicated is not usually the path to a fulfilling personal life. the consequences are there whether the person sees them or not.

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#156

Post by phs318u »

kolla wrote: post #146
oceanplexian wrote: post #139

It’s a lot harder than you would think. I’m not a big drinker, not even a daily drinker, maybe once or twice per week.. and decided to do a month without drinking for fitness reasons. After two weeks it was hard to resist the urge every time I’d see people drinking on a TV show, or at the airport, or with dinner at a restaurant. While it may not be a full blown addiction it made me realize I’m much closer to addictio…

Same here, I'm probably considered an alcoholic because of the ammount of liquour I drink per week/month but I can work out every single day and stay in great shape but come friday and saturday I do empty quite a few units. Stopping the weekend urge is hard.

Speaking as an addict in recovery, this definition is the most practically useful. It’s step 1 of every 12-step program.

If you really want to stop doing something, and are trying your hardest to not do that thing, and yet despite that desire you feel an overwhelming compulsion to do that thing, even though you rationally know the consequences for you or others will be bad - that’s addiction.

Or as I once put it to my daughter when she was a teen, “If you are making a choice that feels like an exercise of your own free will, and yet every single time without exception, you make the same choice - is it really free will?”

(I was trying to get her to reflect on her own weed usage. Almost a decade later she acknowledges her addiction).

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#157

Post by kaycebasques »

Just started Urge: Our History Of Addiction yesterday!

I am doing a sober February this month as an exercise in contemplating my own addictions and for the pure sake of challenge. No beer, no marijuana, etc. Not even caffeine! Caffeine is much harder for me than any other.

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#158

Post by empthought »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #49

I’d like to throw this out there to see what comes back; has anyone thought about coding and development being an addiction? In my experience, it has fit all of the characteristics of a deeply addictive loop… There’s a strong period of hard effort for variable reward - and much of the time that reward is just the dang thing compiling. I know without a doubt I’ve hurt myself doing this more than I should and am curren…

Science and the Compulsive Programmer (1976)

https://www.sac.edu/AcademicProgs/Business/ComputerScience/P...

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#159

Post by crypt1d »

JimWestergren wrote: post #50
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they're considered less harmful to your physical health and society as a whole.

Yes, ok. But such an article with such a title should at least mention them I think. Otherwise some people keep thinking it is normal spending hours daily on social media, or checking their phone 50 times a day. We should speak up and say that it is NOT normal.

You are nitpicking. Not every article about addictions and drugs needs to read like a disclaimer. Mentioning phone and social media addiction here is certainly not going to change anyone's mind - people tend to ignore facts that don't fit their worldviews.

Re: How to know if you’re addicted

#160

Post by wwweston »

oceanplexian wrote: post #139

It’s a lot harder than you would think. I’m not a big drinker, not even a daily drinker, maybe once or twice per week.. and decided to do a month without drinking for fitness reasons. After two weeks it was hard to resist the urge every time I’d see people drinking on a TV show, or at the airport, or with dinner at a restaurant. While it may not be a full blown addiction it made me realize I’m much closer to addictio…

Did it get easier over time?

I've quit sugar for months at a time and found that 2-4 weeks was the most difficult spot for cravings, after which it eased off (though never went away).

I don't have experience with alcohol, though, and I hear it's higher on a scale of risks for physical dependencies than a lot of substances, so sugar may be a poor comparable.

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