Staying Clean and Sober in The Everyday World

     We spoke briefly on the 28^th about WHAT IS AN ADDICTION????.  Today I want to tell you about things that are common addictions other than the typical drugs and alcohol.  These are just as harmful to the body and mind however we do not generally consider them when talking about addictions.  Granted for the most part I will be focusing on drugs and alcohol in most of my posts but today I’m feeling the need to reach out.  There is actually a list about a mile long of things that people are addicted to other than drugs or alcohol.

Here are 20:

1. Sex
2. Coffee
3. Gaming
4. Smoking
5. Eating
6. Credit Card Debt
7. Stealing
8. Lying
9. Pack Ratting
10. Organizing
11. Work
12. Sleep
13. Porn
14. Internet
15. Cleaning
16. Shopping
17. Candy or Gum
18. Clothes or Shoes
19. Sports
20. Hobbies

     “How can some of these things hurt me?” you might ask.  Anything that is done in excess is harmful to you in that you put your whole thought process into that one thing.  Typically these are known as obsessions.  If you are obsessed with something then you ignore other important aspects of your life.  An example from my own life is my daughters’ addiction to the internet game called WOW (World Of Warcraft).  In and of it self playing this game is not bad.  When the problem arises is when she loses sleep, forgets to eat, can’t even leave the game long enough to hold a conversation.  She moves from the game to the bed and back again.  She does take a small time out for her college classes in the evening.  Us addicts call that a “working addict”.  Many addicts take time enough from their addiction to go to a job.      Then there are those people whose job is their addiction.  They are known as “workaholics”.  When work time is over but you just can not seem to pull away from the job or you take work home with you every night and work late into the night you might be a “workaholic”.  This is a particularly hard one to break because such people are share the dual addiction of money.  If you give up those long hours you also give up some of that money.  The family suffers the loss of you more than they do the loss of money.  You will find that out in recovery.  Let’s pick on someone else.     How about pack ratting?  Oh, here is another one I am personally familiar with.  You see my mom was a pack rat.  “Don’t throw that away we might need it.”  The day finally comes when you need it and you can not find it for all the other things that are in the way that you might need.  So you go buy another one (well you get the picture).  After my mom passed away I came back her house.  Now it is my house.  I walk in and there is a very small path to the kitchen, bathroom, and the bed.  In one room you could not add a shoe.  It was piled wall to wall and ceiling to floor.  It took me two weeks to clear that room alone.  The house was a fire hazard not to mention the fact that you could not clean because everything was in the way so it was a health hazard as well.     I will not go through the whole list.  I’m sure that you are intelligent people and can see for your self how each of these things can be an addiction.  The point I am really trying to make here is this.  There are many forms that the spirit of addiction takes other than drugs or alcohol.  It is a cunning and baffling disease which will require some form of help.  As I said in another article there is help out there.  Even for most of these obsessions. 

     A friend told me of a 12 step group she attends called DA (Debtors Anonymous).  There is Overeaters Anonymous and Workers Anonymous and many others.  There is also counseling for these disorders.  Call a counseling center in your area and they will have more information.  We usually do not concern our selves with these addictions because we do not consider them to be life threatening.  Some of them are. 

     I heard on the news last year of a woman who died in her house fire because the firemen could not find their way through the stacks of boxes to get to her.  These boxes were filled with money.  How about the suicides caused by loosing their job. 

THIS IS JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT.  I’m in no way saying everyone who participates in one of these activities is an addict.  Just be mindful of the time you spend and what you spend it on.  Is it becoming obsessive?  If you don’t know for sure then you might want to ask someone else.  So often we do not see the truth in ourselves when it so easy to see it in someone else.

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