All of us have addictions, but do we realize it? When I say addictions, I’m not talking only about substances (like drugs, nicotine or alcohol), I’m also talking about addictions to actions (like playing video games, watching movies or reading books) and addictions to certain people.
I think that, in essence, addictions are ways to briefly escape the cruel reality. All of us have problems and all of us need a break from those problems, but how can we achieve that? We can do that by keeping our minds busy with something else, which will create a feeling that our problems don’t exist anymore. Having a substances addiction is the easiest way to achieve the relief we’re all looking for because their effect is from the body to the mind, while all other addictions have an influence from the mind to the body.
Video games and movies are so popular because they can successfully take us from our reality. This way, we can all have access to alternative realities much more interesting than ours. Each movie can get you to a different reality while video games can give you different powers and you can do whatever you want. That way, your mind is busy and you totally forget about your real world and you are free from it. The feeling you get from that alternative reality is so great that you want more. Isn’t that what an addiction is all about?
Addiction to people is the hardest, in my opinion. That’s because people are unique and different and when you get to know someone and you get addicted to that person, you might not find another one exactly like that in the whole wide world. Why do you think that getting over someone is that hard? It’s because you feel that you might not find anyone like that. You’ll find similar people, but not identical (sometimes it’s a good thing). When you get to know someone and have great time with that person, you’ll forget about your problems, or at least, they won’t matter anymore and if that person disappears from your life, all your problems seems to intensify.
Getting over addictions is hard because most of the time an addiction creates another one. For example, you can get over someone by starting to drink, or you can stop smoking by starting to chew gum. The hardest part for us is to choose the right addiction. A right addiction might be one that is not hurting your body or your social status.
Always living in the future might be an addiction because we’re having strong feelings about things that might happen, but this is a problem for another day.