Sunday, December 13, 2009

Are you addicted? I found I am

Too much of anything is good for nothing.

Certain problems arise with use of alcohol, psychoactive drugs, other substances and generally anything taken "too much". These problems maybe physical, psychological, social even economical but most are characterised by being repeatedly ignored in our effort to satisfy our primal need, our "id".
Hence realising that the behaviour is problematic and that your dependent upon it is the first step in modifying the behaviour.

In medicine there are explicit criteria for figuring this out.

1) A strong desire or sense of compulsion to take the substance.
2) Difficulties in refraining from using the substance, stop using it, or limiting the amount taken.
3) A physiological withdrawal state(symptoms and signs) occuring when the substance use has been stopped or been reduced.
4) Evidence of tolerance, in which increased doses of the substance are required to produce the effect originally produced by lower doses.
5) Progressive neglect of alternative pleasures or interests due to use of the substance.
6) Persistent use of substance despite clear evidence of harm.

If you've experienced at least 3 of these characteristics in the past 12 months, you're dependent on it.
I have at least 5 out of them. My addiction- twitter.
Now the big question, knowing it, what am i going to do about it?



Reply and tweet this if you're addicted too.

3 comments:

  1. ah so was I... sooo badly! :D

    I stopped altogether... just changed my password to a random string of letters, saved it in a corner of my email account, and deleted my twitter bookmark... :D and 2 months later I don't even feel like going back there! ;)

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  2. Will I also have to take some drastic method like that I wonder...
    I'd have to throw away my phone.

    ReplyDelete