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Don't understand why you're being downvoted; that's exactly right. This is not like cocaine, heroin, or crystal. If anything, it's more like weed. The psycholo

Don't understand why you're being downvoted; that's exactly right. This is not like cocaine, heroin, or crystal. If anything, it's more like weed. The psychological craving may be similar, sure. It's habit forming, not physically addictive.

vertex-four 12y ago
Habit-forming things can definitely be harmful to one's life, and can be extremely hard to stop for some people without external aid. Just because it doesn't outright physically hurt you ("only" psychologically for a while) doesn't mean it is not an issue that requires attention.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  HN, along with soylent news, kuro5hin, some mailing lists, reddit from time to time, all together are quite definitely physically hurting me. It's not so much that I don't get enough sleep as that it is so irregular, and that I don't find sleep to be restful. Also I get persistent headaches; analgesics don't help, I just blew through a whole bottle.
  - nothrabannosir 12y ago
    My friend, if you seriously feel this way, try asking people in your direct surroundings for help. If you have family or close friends, you can let them know you need ("would like", "could use", "wanna try", "see if maybe it would work", ...) their help getting rid of an addiction. No shame, especially not with a drug as light as this one. "What is it?" - "Internet forums, they take up all my time and I can't stop, " + the real life problems you're experiencing. If you can't think of someone right now, feel free to shoot me an e-mail (in profile). I won't be able to make you do stuff, but we can talk.
  - tbirdz 12y ago
    I don't mean to make light of your personal issues, but I don't think the Hacker News comment section for this article is the appropriate place to be discussing them. I wish you luck in dealing with your affliction, and suggest that speaking to a mental health professional would be a better outlet for you. If you really needed to talk to people here about it, then I'd recommend making a new thread, perhaps linking to blog post or something of that matter you wrote describing your addiction, rather than hijacking the comments section here, which I think is being a bit disrespectful to the rest of the HN userbase.
    - nothrabannosir 12y ago
      I'd like to ask you to reconsider your approach to people who talk about psychological problems. I understand what you're saying, and from the looks of the upvotes, you're not alone. However, a common thought for people who experience issues like these is that they bother other people. Their problem is not important, they are being a burden onto others, &c. This leads them to reach out only very late, sometimes not at all. That's why suicide hotlines (just an example, clearly not the case for op) are so adamant about their "we'll just listen, feel free to talk, we won't call the cops" policy. So, to the OP, and to anyone else with similar issues reading this: feel free to reach out, please do, it's no burden. To anyone else: yes, it's a hijack, but please consider ignoring it and just letting it sit naturally at the 1 point bottom of the thread. Downvoting and explicitly mentioning how these cries for help are "inappropriate" or otherwise negative, while conforming to the guidelines, can have a bad effect. Both on the poster, and other readers who identify. I'd posit it's worth it to just ignore, in this case. Thanks.
DanBC 12y ago
Most drugs are not strongly physically addictive. Most drggs have short risk-free withdrawal times. Alcohol is rare in being a drug that has a risky withdrawal that needs medical supervision - and even that's for people who are on the very heavy end of the drinkijg spectrum. (A litre of spirits with an ABV of 40% per day is what you need to get a medically supervised withdrawal in England. That's about 33 US fluid ounces per day). People can be having serious problems with drink and mot reach that threshold. Saying "you can just quit" ignores the severe trouble that a few people find themselves in with things that are not physically addicting. Telling someone with a gambling addiction that they could just stop is an over-simplification. It's such an over-simplification that it's dumb, and thus it's not surprising a few people felt it needed a downvote.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

vertex-four 12y ago

Habit-forming things can definitely be harmful to one's life, and can be extremely hard to stop for some people without external aid. Just because it doesn't outright physically hurt you ("only" psychologically for a while) doesn't mean it is not an issue that requires attention.

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
HN, along with soylent news, kuro5hin, some mailing lists, reddit from time to time, all together are quite definitely physically hurting me. It's not so much that I don't get enough sleep as that it is so irregular, and that I don't find sleep to be restful. Also I get persistent headaches; analgesics don't help, I just blew through a whole bottle.
- nothrabannosir 12y ago
  My friend, if you seriously feel this way, try asking people in your direct surroundings for help. If you have family or close friends, you can let them know you need ("would like", "could use", "wanna try", "see if maybe it would work", ...) their help getting rid of an addiction. No shame, especially not with a drug as light as this one. "What is it?" - "Internet forums, they take up all my time and I can't stop, " + the real life problems you're experiencing. If you can't think of someone right now, feel free to shoot me an e-mail (in profile). I won't be able to make you do stuff, but we can talk.
- tbirdz 12y ago
  I don't mean to make light of your personal issues, but I don't think the Hacker News comment section for this article is the appropriate place to be discussing them. I wish you luck in dealing with your affliction, and suggest that speaking to a mental health professional would be a better outlet for you. If you really needed to talk to people here about it, then I'd recommend making a new thread, perhaps linking to blog post or something of that matter you wrote describing your addiction, rather than hijacking the comments section here, which I think is being a bit disrespectful to the rest of the HN userbase.
  - nothrabannosir 12y ago
    I'd like to ask you to reconsider your approach to people who talk about psychological problems. I understand what you're saying, and from the looks of the upvotes, you're not alone. However, a common thought for people who experience issues like these is that they bother other people. Their problem is not important, they are being a burden onto others, &c. This leads them to reach out only very late, sometimes not at all. That's why suicide hotlines (just an example, clearly not the case for op) are so adamant about their "we'll just listen, feel free to talk, we won't call the cops" policy. So, to the OP, and to anyone else with similar issues reading this: feel free to reach out, please do, it's no burden. To anyone else: yes, it's a hijack, but please consider ignoring it and just letting it sit naturally at the 1 point bottom of the thread. Downvoting and explicitly mentioning how these cries for help are "inappropriate" or otherwise negative, while conforming to the guidelines, can have a bad effect. Both on the poster, and other readers who identify. I'd posit it's worth it to just ignore, in this case. Thanks.

DanBC 12y ago

Most drugs are not strongly physically addictive. Most drggs have short risk-free withdrawal times. Alcohol is rare in being a drug that has a risky withdrawal that needs medical supervision - and even that's for people who are on the very heavy end of the drinkijg spectrum. (A litre of spirits with an ABV of 40% per day is what you need to get a medically supervised withdrawal in England. That's about 33 US fluid ounces per day). People can be having serious problems with drink and mot reach that threshold. Saying "you can just quit" ignores the severe trouble that a few people find themselves in with things that are not physically addicting. Telling someone with a gambling addiction that they could just stop is an over-simplification. It's such an over-simplification that it's dumb, and thus it's not surprising a few people felt it needed a downvote.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]