the line between addiction and enjoyment

What's the line between addiction and enjoyment? By this I mean, when does someone cross the line from alcoholic to just somebody who happens to enjoy alcohol?

When they start to rely on it, and use it specifically to the exclusion of everything else.

When it starts having a detrimental effect on their life.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

I believe that you can find definitions of this already from AA and the like, but the basic point is when it starts to have negative consequences for you, but you can't resist.

It's one thing to make a conscious choice, but there's a point where you stop choosing.

I guess when it becomes a problem and starts interfering in the daily maintenance of your own life and means.

So if your listed occupation is "Raging Alcoholic" then you're golden!

But what about other stuff? I mean, if we're using the interference argument, does somebody who is sufficiently rich thereby effectively immune to a gambling addiction?

No more than somebody who is lucky avoids it.

Except I'm pretty sure you can gamble it all away pretty fast if you try.

Yeah I was gonna say, statistically, even if you hit it big initially, the only way to win is to know when to pick up your chips and walk away. Eventually, and in pretty quick fashion, the House Always Wins.

One big warning is when you're lying to cover for it. If you're at the point where you're telling friends/family/co-workers that you're going some place innocuous when you're really planning on sneaking down to the shed for a couple of sneaky drinks, you're pretty much fucked up.

Also when you realize you do not need it, but you can not stay away either away for a reason you can not explain.

Please.

If you modify your lifestyle to solely revolve around it.

(Yes, gamers included...)

Was Jack Mackerel. | i rite gud

Oh no! The earth is addicted to the sun! How shall we break that habit?

This is a wonderful caveat, ackshwally. You can, for all intents and purposes, be addicted, but so long as your addiction isn't affecting your ability to function as a member of society (for example, you maintain your habit on a stable level, keep up with work, maintain your salary which in turn allows you to support your habit - unless something breaks the balance or your addiction breaks your health, nobody may even notice anything!), you're not really counted as an addict. This generally goes hand-in-hand with a lot of stressful jobs around the world and the regional drinks of choice. Once you become irrational and/or your habit gets priority over your social functions, THEN everyone sees you for an addict.

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

It becomes an addiction when you can't stop yourself from indulging in it.

Be not afraid...

As someone for whom this is pertinent, I'll toss my two pennies in the pile.

Addiction is the sad state of affairs that happens when an indulgence becomes your default setting. Two personal examples:

• I am addicted to cigarettes. If I can, I will smoke whenever possible, maintain a functional blood-nicotine level and be what most people consider a normal human. (No jokes please, I'm endeavoring to be serious.) If denied tobacco, I become grouchy, depressed, irritable and my ability to function is impaired. Eating and sleeping become problematic (insomnia's a bitch, and food never sits right) and all I can think about is lighting up. Yessir, that's an addiction.
• I indulge in alcohol. Yes, I like drinking and being drunk more than some...but less than others. Drinking is a part of most of my good times, and I enjoy the mellow relaxation that comes from a stiff drink after a long hard day. But, I can control my use. If I cannot afford booze, I won't buy it. If circumstances force me not to drink, I won't. Driving is a good example. So is work. I've never shown up drunk to a day of work in my life and I intend to die with that record intact. That's an indulgence...and the fact that I enjoy it more than most is not a sign that I'm an addict.

Certainly, some substances have more of an addictive hold on the body than others; heroin's hard to use casually, for example. But if someone has mastered a substance and uses it for enjoyment rather than basic functionality in their lives, it is not an addiction.

To quote Humphrey Bogart (a hard-drinking chain-smoking man if ever there was one): "You can get as stiff (drunk) as you want, whenever you want, as long as you can handle it. You just can't let it handle you."

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

^ That's probably a pretty good way to make the distinction. Another way is if you need it to function — my father-in-law was functionally an alcoholic — he simply could not relax after work until he'd had his martini. He wasn't physically addicted, but he was psychologically addicted.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

To me, that's a habit, unless his martini consumption kept growing. Then again, I've hit a pack a day on cigarettes and have stayed that way more or less since I was 20 or so and haven't increased my consumption. Addictions generally spiral out of control, as built-up tolerance becomes an issue.

Example: while I'd call my booze habit an "indulgence", it certainly takes a lot more to get me trashed than it used to. In my teens and 20s, I was a cheap date; two drinks and I was staggering. These days to achieve the same effect I have to polish off half a bottle of the hard stuff. Granted, I like being able to drink more...but one wonders how this will affect me in the long run.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Addictions often spiral out of control, but they don't always, and he needed that martini the way you (and I) need nicotine — we simply don't function well without it.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

What, no thoughts on internet "addiction" (many doctors wouldn't accept it exists)? If it does, it's a dangerously easy one to slip into - no physical side-effects, only minor social disapproval, and so on.

"Well, it's a lifestyle"

I thought the topic title said "The line between addiction and employment" and that the thread was dedicated to workaholics :P

A guy called dvorak is tired. Tired of humanity not wanting to change to improve itself. Quite the sad tale.

Is it possible to have an addiction in one setting but not another?

When I'm at my Dad's place, I seldom think about World of Warcraft, because I know I can't play it. At Mom's place, however, when computer renovations made me go a day without World Of Warcraft, I felt restless and out of sorts all day.

Not saying I'm addicted to it, but that's a possibility I'm worried about.

edited 25th Apr '11 2:58:00 PM by Ettina

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

To get technical, it's most likely a form of association: You associate being in place X with performing Y activity.

If I understand it, this alone is not a sign of addiction. Association can lead to it though, so be careful.

edited 25th Apr '11 3:14:01 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)