• lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Addiction, aside from physical addiction and withdrawal, isnt dependant on continued use of the same substance. If you feel the need (even if you dont give in every time) to alter your state of being everyday, then you are likely an addict. Its an obsession with finding and getting a means to escape reality.

    Usually people will settle on one or two things that are easy to get or provide the desired effect, even when effort is made. Its not something you can control, definitionally. If you can just put it down for a year and dont miss it, then ill concede you are maybe not yet an addict, but daily use of anything points to a reluctance to stop.

      • zikzak025@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I guess it depends on what OP means, though. Different substances can still yield identical or comparable physiological outcomes to cause physical/chemical addiction (as in, you experience withdrawal when not using).

      • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Hey, if you can just hang on a Friday night and it doesnt affect your daily life, Im the last person to say you shouldn’t do you.

        I cant just do a Friday. It leads to Saturday, then next week, and month later I cant get anything else done but get high. Im at the end of the progression. There is no just enjoying an evening for me anymore. Next time I pick up, l die. Last time I almost did.

    • black_flag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      I haven’t figured it all out, obviously, and don’t know exactly the right way to talk about this stuff, but I know this framing is wrong, because when viewed from a certain angle, one could look at any medication for chronic illness this way. I think addiction is a symptom of broader systemic illness, in the same way as body weight correlates inversely to elevation (and hence positively with both toxin accumulation and poverty), or how other diseases corelate with the stress we’re put through.

      • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Im not aware of anyone that obsesses about their blood pressure medication, to the point the will leave work in the middle of the day to take it early. Thats aside from the fact Im talking about altering your mental state significantly, which most medications won’t do (and the ones that do can be abused).

        The obsession to change your mental state often stems from those factors you mentioned, so im not sure why you say you disagree.