What about addiction?

Hi L.B.,
Well, I know for me at this point my addiction IS my computer - not so much playing Farmville - just being on in, researching etc. And yes, it's to fill a "void". I'm waiting for a mentor (volunteer) program to come together & had expectations it would be up & running by now but it's taking longer than expected. I have toooo much time on my hands at the moment & HATE IT! I do have events scheduled through the month that take up some of that time but I need to be busier! Facebook is a HUGE time suck but I do it to pass the time!
So I hope when this volunteer position finally happens it will fill some of that "void", (a.k.a. addiction) & I won't be on the computer so much!
Interesting topic - I see not many have contributed yet.

LLL

I think I'm addicted to volunteering (LOL). I started about 40 years ago with the Cub Scouts and haven't stopped since. Tonight I'm at a local theatre wherea touring b
Broadway Production Company of Cats is playing, but I'm in the lobby as I've ushered for this for several nights now and don't need to see it again.

I know that I need to find things to do or I'd go nuts, stay in bed and spend all my time reading trash novels (another addiction). After I retired, due to a bad injury OTJ, I found myself unable to get up and out. I began to join internet boards and found my exercising being taken over by keyboarding. I finally joined a gym and began to work on becoming healthier and working thru the injury/surgery and job loss. So I guess you can say I became addicted to exercise too but prior to that I was addicted to advice boards-to the point where I moderated 7 of them!

Where I live, the weather is pretty miserable in the winter and going to the gym is the only way we can keep active, but when there is an occasional nice day, I am addicted to taking my dog for a hike, which I did this morning.

So I guess what I'm saying here is that I don't see every compulsion to do something (which is what an addiction can be considered) as a bad thing. I have a friend who is addicted to AA meetings. She HAS to go and has gone for 27 years. She believes if she misses her 7am meeting, she'll drink that day-so when we travel, we make sure there is a meeting she can go to. I'm cool with that as shes a fun girlfriend and boon companion when it comes to beach hikes with dogs.

It seemed during the 1980s that there was a AA type meeting for everything! From actual AA to co-dependent people, to Adult Children of Alcoholics (which I went to for quite a long time) to a bunch of others..not sure if it's still like that but for a while there, every thing was considered an addiction.

Just thinking....

I stumbled on this thread because I was following my only friend, HorseLady's threads. I cannot believe that there are so many people addicted to this Farmville thingy on Face Book. I refused to be drawn into it by friends who have become so addicted, they don't even responde to normal everyday queries from you. I listen to a local Radio as a background noise and one of the DJ's report locally on what he's doing on FarmVille. Big mistake - he had to beg fans and listeners to stop sending him stuff for his farm!

I am afraid it is going to be mighty difficult for anybody to suck me into anything addictive be it alcohol, drugs or Internet Marketing get-rich quick schemes, where I have lost my pants and shirt trying to follow each and every latest IM guru in the past. I know them all, but not before maxing out my two Credit Cards and my savings account for my boy's college education depleted. I even refuse to sell on eBay because more often than not, what you see is not what you get for the marketing program offered to help you.

As for drug addiction, I was once in a relationship where I never knew that my partner had addiction problem. I used to be a dog breeder and we went to a dog show together, A club member called me later that day to warn me of what or whom I was getting involved with - I didn't believe him until it was too late. I helped pay for a rehab. treatment on two occasions - hopelessly devoted to the hope that he would be cured. Four rehabs. later, I had to move on with my life because you can't love who doesn't love himself. I moved on but not before knowing every trick in the book that addicts use to defraud and hurt their most susceptible devotees.

That experience made it very difficult for me to fall in love easily again with a physical person, and I find myself turning to virtual dating sites instead. I refuse to become addicted to the idea of meeting Mr. Right on any site and don't intend to extend my subscription when it expires in 2 months' time. I find it amusing that despite the 29 dimensions used by EH in match making, the bulk of my 'matches' are without photos, do not have the box listing what we may have in common, and when it does - besides loving similar meals, sense of humor, sharing news junkie properties, love to arrive just on time, love to spend and save money equally or whatever, you then find absolutely nothing that interests you in the 'match', or what you may have in common.
Personality profiles are more often than not inaccessible, and when they are, they all appear so similar you wonder "if them record stick" as we say in Jamaica. Yet it is all in good fun for all its worth.

I much prefer another dating site that is far cheaper than EH and although it caters to introducing Africans, the whole selection process is transparent and you get to choose whom you like by contacting them directly on the site, and BTW the site caters for all races. I actually met a very nice Canadian whom we could have hit it off for keeps if not for the distance.

Well, I recently met a person that appears to be very nice while in a Bank line in Kingston, who unfortunately is partially visually-impaired and on top of that is a wage earner, sharing digs after his divorce with a number of other guys in similar situation. He has pursued me relentlessly since January 2010. I once met with him for lunch to break it very gently that we do not belong to the same social class and that the last time I dated a person living in a studio/bedsit was when i was at college. My man isn't giving up and I really don't know how else to drop him. I went to his FB page and discovered that he had about 24 friends - yet nobody has written on his wall but he had Farmville and about 3 other addictive activities that took up all of his time on FB. I never requested to be friends and hope that he doesn't suddenly locate my page because I visited his.

I think I have digressed here, so I am going to hop off and welcome contributors' comments to what I have written - any part of it. Thanks in advance.