RE: The Science of ADDICTION - And Why We Might Be Treating It In A Totally Wrong Way
I have a theory that we are all addicts. We may only use that word to describe people that are addicted to things which have been deemed socially unacceptable, but in truth we are all addicted to at least one thing. Not every addiction has to have a negative impact on one's life though. You can be addicted to socializing and making friends. You can be addicted to learning new things. You can even be addicted to seeing other people smile because of you. We humans are creatures of habit. Any task or action that we repeat strengthens the neuron-pathway associated with that particular action. Repeat any one task more than all the others and it becomes the most prominent pathway in our entire neural network, making pretty much every aspect of our lives revolve around that newly formed addiction.
So the trick really is to ensure that your predominant habit is something that is beneficial to your life rather than detrimental to it.
Great piece. +1 upvote
You're right, that's a great theory.
If you put the word 'addiction' that way, everyone is definitely addicted to something - for most people it would be food, entertainment, or the internet.
We should focus on being addicted to learning new things and improving ourselves, and striving towards our goals!
Absolutely. No one calls morbidly obese people addicts even though a lot of them are addicted to eating. No one refers to avid movie watchers as addicts even though they are clearly addicted to watching TV/Movies to some degree. For some reason society has decided that the word addiction should only be applicable to particular habits, and with that they have also assigned a negative connotation to the word. I'm actually rather fascinated by neuro-plasticity, It may be a good subject for you to post on in future as it is really interesting. Beyond that, when you understand how the brain works and how addictions are created, it becomes easier to rewire your brain and break those habits that you no longer want to be subservient to.