David: Are you currently addicted to anything, Louis?
Louis: Don't think so.
David: You don't think so? I was doing some research into different aspects of addiction,
and usually addiction is associated with substances, being addicted to alcohol, or some kind of
drug. or, etc.
What's the definition of addiction? Well, one is being abnormally tolerant to and dependent
on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. That's pretty broad, OK? So
I think that that's a broad enough definition that it would encompass, for example, exercise
addiction, right? Or maybe addiction to video games, that type of thing.
Any behavior, I would argue, though, that you can't simply choose to stop for psychological
dependence could arguably be considered an addiction, could it not?
Louis: Yeah, generally I think it is.
David: I mean, in other words, let's say one has an addiction to, I don't know, see, a
lot of these would border on other types of compulsive disorders, but let's say you have...
you really like... every day you need to get out there and drive your car around for a
half hour, no matter whether you need to go anywhere or not.
And really, you are in some way dependent. The activity has been habit-forming to the
degree that even if you found it kind of annoying to go out and drive around for the half hour,
you wouldn't just be able to stop, it would start intruding on your thoughts, it would
really start getting in the way, the fact that you feel this desire to go out and drive
around, putting aside that there may be other types of conditions that are causing that
to happen.
So I think addiction is actually a much broader thing than many people would normally assume.
And the question I have is when does something go from being just a habit to being an addiction?
Louis: A habit or something you just enjoy doing.
David: You enjoy doing, right. And at what point does the habit-forming nature of that
enjoyment, in other words, the fact that it gives you pleasure, is that something you
can be addicted to? And I think it's difficult because the word addiction has a negative
connotation for sure, which is in that you're relinquishing some control, you're not really
able to just stop it.
But under this argument, does any activity that gives you pleasure that you regularly
do become an addiction, if it is something that upon its removal, you would feel negative
about? Do you see where I'm going with that? I mean, what do you think about that, Natan?
If there's something that is not an addiction, I really like going to the movies and I go
twice a week, and I get so used to that that it becomes the norm, it becomes my baseline,
if I don't go to the movies twice a week, I now feel like I am lacking something, am
I addicted to movies?
Natan: Yeah, I mean, it seems like that's more... that could be defined as a passion.
I mean, a lot of people would say, you know, if they don't paint 30 minutes a day then
they'd go crazy.
David: Right.
Natan: Is that an addiction, or is that just something they're passionate about?
David: I don't know. What do you think?
Louis: Well, I mean, it's like, if we're using that broad a term for addiction, yes, it could
be, and are there different levels of addiction?
David: Are there levels of addiction that are not unhealthy maybe is the question.
Louis: Right.
David: There was an interesting article on www.Cracked.com which addressed that when
you actually listen to pop music, the brain reacts in a way... the pleasure center reacts
in a way that is similar to somebody who is addicted to, for example, cocaine, and that
a lack of that music can actually cause a much lower but similar reaction to lack of
a minor addiction to a drug. So could we say to somebody who regularly listens to music
that they are addicted in that same way? Their brain is treating it in a pretty similar way.
Louis: Tough to say. It's strange.
David: Yeah.
Natan: Well, that seems to be the wrong argument. I mean, their brain is treating it in the
same way? I don't think we understand the brain well enough to say that oh, the same
areas are lighting up on an MRI, so we can say that listening to...
David: With certitude, it's the same.
Natan: ... listening to music is really bad, just like cocaine.
Louis: I don't... yeah.
David: I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying is it the same type of
habit-forming behavior that you would have difficulty not doing, that you would experience
a sort of withdrawal from not doing?
Natan: But the real question is whether something that's habit-forming is necessarily bad.
David: That is a question. This is one that we're going to have to keep open for discussion.
Send me your thoughts, david@davidpakman.com.
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