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The broadest definition of addiction I've heard is "When you do something compulsively enough that it's affecting the rest of your life" - the implication being
by klik99 4y ago
The broadest definition of addiction I've heard is "When you do something compulsively enough that it's affecting the rest of your life" - the implication being that everyone compulsively do things and that's fine but it's only really a problem when it damages your relationships, careers, happiness, etc. All brain stuff has a chemical component but chemical dependency/addiction is a particuarly dangerous subset of addiction, and not necessarily what I'm talking about here.
Many people here have the super power to focus on a problem relentlessly, it's kind of the trademark of the nerd stereotype - Addiction is the dark side of that superpower and one that I have to constantly keep in check. But I don't want to kill that superpower by squashing whatever thing I'm deep into at the moment, so I always use the litmus test - "Is this affecting the ability to keep my life in order?"
As long as there isn't a strong chemical component to whatever addiction you're trying to purge, a book like "Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg has a lot of practical ways to adjust your unconscious compulsions.
- ransom1538 4y ago"When you do something compulsively enough that it's affecting the rest of your life" Similar to what I was told: "When you compulsively do something despite it having negative impacts on your life"
- klik99 4y agoYeah this is better actually, because "affecting" might be a positive thing :) But I like framing it this way because if you only think about compulsion you're going to waste a lot of time shutting down things that don't actually matter. We're creatures of habit - we've gotten this far BECAUSE of compulsion, not in spite of it.
- thomastjeffery 4y agoThat "superpower" you mentioned is a good description of ADHD hyperfocus. People with ADHD are naturally at a constant deficit in stimulation/dopamine. That's why we get distracted mid-conversation: the conversation wasn't stimulating enough to fill that deficit, so the brain started looking for more stimulation, thinking it could just multitask to compensate. The deficit in simulation/dopamine is why people with ADHD can hyperfocus: as soon as there is a satisfying source of stimulation, the brain tries to squeeze out as much dopamine as it can.