[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

I have sympathy for all but sex addicts. I always feel like people that cheat use that as an excuse.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Gotta love codeine. It seems to have..antidepressant qualities for me. I always feel good for a fair few hours once it kicks in. Went through a stage of having it every day a few months back, but I realised I was becoming dependent on it so cut back. I only have it now when my rib pain flairs up, but I am running out and I am worried the docs wont give me more

Yeah I feel happy for a few hours as well. Beautiful stuff, I should stay taking it at work

[Kizzy]

I don't see it though....
I don't see this compassion people have filtering down into the real world.
You have people who watch jezza kyle and view it like some medieval bloodsport as he tears into some toothless woman with 6 kids and an addiction to alcohol.... Or the drug addict son who stole from his disabled mother.
That is the ugly face of addiction within communities.
I see scoffing and mocking, strivers and taxpayers baying for benefits to be stripped back to nothing.
Safety nets, child services, rehab programmes, respite, and carers allowance removed.
Everyone loves to think of themselves as so tolerant, but the truth is not many are.

[Vicky.]

Codeine never used to work at all for me. They tried giving me it for my migraines when I was a lot younger. I wonder what changed..unless they were giving me weak ones due to me being like 15

[MTVN]

Find addictions something quite hard to comprehend, especially as I do drink, smoke a bit, and gamble but have always found it easy to control all of these. Must be awful to be so physically addicted to something that it completely disrupts your life though and I'd agree with what Annie said that it's probably impossible to understand if you haven't experienced it yourself, so I do sympathise

I've always thought of gambling as the most ambiguous addiction as well, because it's not a physical dependency it's a lot more of a grey area I think. Like my brother used to play loads of online poker and on the one hand it did disrupt his studies and things like his sleep pattern, but on the other he was winning loads of money and he wasn't completely obsessive over it so I dunno if he was addicted or not lol. He's pretty much packed it in now anyway though which is probably for the best

[Marc]

See one of the reasons I've gone off of it a bit is because it gives me headaches if I use it too much.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Marc

See one of the reasons I've gone off of it a bit is because it gives me headaches if I use it too much.

Yeah same here, it was a vicious cycle

[Kizzy]

My son gets it prescribed for migraine, have to say I've took the odd one when in a lot of pain.
Being an ex alcoholic is a bitch, I have insomnia and back pain but they won't give me anything that could lead to an addiction.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

My son gets it prescribed for migraine, have to say I've took the odd one when in a lot of pain.
Being an ex alcoholic is a bitch, I have insomnia and back pain but they won't give me anything that could lead to an addiction.

I know most herbal stuff is B.S. but I've found Valerian root extract in dropper form quite good for insomnia.

5-HTP supplements also act as a precursor to melatonin and seem to promote deeper, dreamier sleeps once you can actually achieve that state.

[Vicky.]

If he was winning (and cashing out when he won) chances are hes not addicted.

My problem is I can win hundreds, but I always think 'oh I am on a roll, lets keep going' and then lose it all again,. If losing you think 'well I have to win soon' and keep depositing.

I know how ridiculous that sounds to those who arent addicted, but thats how it works.

[Kizzy]

yep heard some really good things about 5-HTP too, taken valerian in the past might give it a go again thanks.

[Verbal]

I've been thinking about this subject, and i've had a sort of epiphany. I am addicted to the Internet and have been for years.
I get up in the morning, first thing I do - turn the PC on. Come home from work, first thing I do - turn the PC on and sit on it until I go to bed. I finished work on Friday and have barely moved from my PC. I've not even been to bed, i've fallen asleep sitting here.
I do my shopping, banking and socialising via the PC.

I was just thinking, if the Internet ceased to exist right now what would I do? And I honestly have no idea, which is quite a scarey thought. I havent even been into a shop bigger than the local corner shop for years because I do it all online. If it wasnt for the internet I would probably be about 6 stone lighter.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Verbal

I've been thinking about this subject, and i've had a sort of epiphany. I am addicted to the Internet and have been for years.
I get up in the morning, first thing I do - turn the PC on. Come home from work, first thing I do - turn the PC on and sit on it until I go to bed. I finished work on Friday and have barely moved from my PC. I've not even been to bed, i've fallen asleep sitting here.
I do my shopping, banking and socialising via the PC.

I was just thinking, if the Internet ceased to exist right now what would I do? And I honestly have no idea, which is quite a scarey thought. I havent even been into a shop bigger than the local corner shop for years because I do it all online. If it wasnt for the internet I would probably be about 6 stone lighter.

...I think it is an 'addiction' for many people...if it ceased to exist for you only then that would be extremely difficult because you would probably feel as though the whole world was existing/living without you sort of thing..?...but if it ceased to exist completely for anyone, then I think maybe we would all adjust to that quite easily...?...

[Verbal]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...I think it is an 'addiction' for many people...if it ceased to exist for you only then that would be extremely difficult because you would probably feel as though the whole world was existing/living without you sort of thing..?...but if it ceased to exist completely for anyone, then I think maybe we would all adjust to that quite easily...?...

When in the house the first and only thing I do i sort of zone out infront of the PC.
I use the Internet as sort of an emotional crutch. If it ceased to exist then I would adjust because I would have to, and I think it would do me nothing but good.

Genuinely going to look up internet addiction now.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Verbal

When in the house the first and only thing I do i sort of zone out infront of the PC.
I use the Internet as sort of an emotional crutch. If it ceased to exist then I would adjust because I would have to, and I think it would do me nothing but good.

Genuinely going to look up internet addiction now.

..I think I have read stuff about internet addiction because obviously the internet is a huge part of most people's lives now..and if we didn't have it then as you say, we would adjust but it probably wouldn't be easy and especially as you're encouraged to use it to sort of conduct your everyday life..shopping/banking etc..and it's a wealth of information and so quickly..how much longer it would take to go to the library and look something up for instance....I don't know, I guess it depends on whether you yourself or anyone is conscious of it and wants to stop/cut down etc because it is just today's social networking for everyone and if we didn't have it..?...some may say that we would 'communicate more' perhaps..but in another way we would communicate less because we're constantly communicating on the internet...and that has to be a good/positive thing..?...

[Kizzy]

I'm surprised really,I thought there would be a lot of info on it as it is such a big problem for some.
There have been stories in the past of cases of deep vein thrombosis due to hours sat gaming, so this to me is a natural progression.
Everything is so damned easy to do online and is made that way for people who have busy lives, trouble is those who don't have busy lives can still access the services! haha.
Admitting you have an addiction to anything is the hardest part, as it affects most aspects of your life I would say you are too.
The most important part of breaking an addiction is thatyou really want to... sounds daft but it is.
And you do so that's a bonus, work out on paper how you could achieve this, write a daily schedule for yourself that fills your day leaving only a permitted window for browsing?

[Verbal]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

I'm surprised really,I thought there would be a lot of info on it as it is such a big problem for some.
There have been stories in the past of cases of deep vein thrombosis due to hours sat gaming, so this to me is a natural progression.
Everything is so damned easy to do online and is made that way for people who have busy lives, trouble is those who don't have busy lives can still access the services! haha.
Admitting you have an addiction to anything is the hardest part, as it affects most aspects of your life I would say you are too.
The most important part of breaking an addiction is thatyou really want to... sounds daft but it is.
And you do so that's a bonus, work out on paper how you could achieve this, write a daily schedule for yourself that fills your day leaving only a permitted window for browsing?

Its not so much admitting it, its realising it. I've never really considered it an addiction, its just what I do.
When I hear addiction my definition of it is if its infringing on your daily life then you have a problem. This does for me, and has for 5-6 years or more. Wanting to do something and actually doing something about it are two very different things. I could turn the PC off now and do 4 or 5 things that need to be done, but I wont and there is nobody around me to tell me otherwise, which just compounds the issue.

[Kizzy]

With an addiction nobody can tell you what to do an it has any effect anyway, you have to tell yourself....
At the risk of sounding totally nuts I spent weeks 'having a word with myself' about it, and reasoning with my subconscious that this was a good idea for both of us.
(I did say it would sound nuts!)
You could switch the PC off now but I wouldn't as aware as you are that it's impacting on your quality of life I would do a bit of preparation first.

[thesheriff443]

good people can get addictions but if its a long term addiction you are no longer talking to the person you once knew! there is only a shell of that person!
if anddiction goes on for so long that person will never return and they are living just to feed their habbit.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by thesheriff443

if anddiction goes on for so long that person will never return

That's a good example of something which has been disproven countless times, yes.

[thesheriff443]

Originally Posted by Stu

That's a good example of something which has been disproven countless times, yes.

so the hundreds of thousands of life long addicts that die from their addictions come back!

[Stu]

Originally Posted by thesheriff443

so the hundreds of thousands of life long addicts that die from their addictions come back!

No, the dead don't rise silly. The hundreds of thousands who beat their life long addictions and disprove your overtly simplistic analysis do, though.

[Kizzy]

I would bite the bullet and go, the more you do it the easier it will be.
Have you ever heard of neuro-linguistic programming?
That's helpful to do yourself inbetween therapy and meds, every little helps

[GypsyGoth]

Is addiction anything more than a handy label to use when someone is continually making bad choices?

In a way it kinda makes the bad choices, like having another cigarette that everyone knows damages their lungs, seem like it's not as much their fault. Like just being a nicotine addict kinda absolves you of directly being responsible for the self harming.

And what of people who are able to give up such things, are they more strong minded than those who don't? Were they perhaps less addicted?

Would any sane person make choices like continually taking something like heroin, even though it results in them losing everything and being left alone and homeless?

Is it all just some type of myth?

Like endorphins are released when we do certain behaviour, some people love the feeling so much they repeat that certain behaviour like a person with ocd.

[Lee.]

Nah, addiction is way more than just making bad choices..

I'd say that having a cream cake with my lunch today was a bad choice.. The cigarette I had after if (albeit an electronic one) was not a choice at all.. In my head, it was a nessesity.