What is your addiction, whether by choice or not?

Fluther. I should take a long break. I don’t treat it because I have been a little paralyzed in life, and because I have a lot of change going on right now.

I’ve been eating too much, maybe that counts too. I did do something about it. I got my thyroid tested, it was a little fast, which explains why I have been so hungry, and I am not letting myself eat as much and I switched back to a healthier diet, plus I started weighing myself daily.

I used to be addicted to caffeine, I still LOVE it when I cheat. It’s been over 15 years since I quit. I quit to not be dependent on it. Now I think when I cheat for more than just a few ounces once in a great while, when I start drinking some daily, I think maybe it increases my chance of a shingles outbreak, which has encouraged me again to not cheat. That chance, plus feeling crappy when I stop the caffeine isn’t worth it for the most part. Even if I drink caffeine just 4–5 days in a row, in a relatively small amount, when I stop again I look and feel a little under the weather. People ask me what’s wrong just looking at me,

I don’t think I have a very addictive personality. I just probably need to occupy myself with more productive endeavors.

I’ve recently become addicted to weaving.

I was gifted an inkle loom, which makes about 95 inch long straps of warp-woven cloth. Since being given this loom in April, I’ve killed it. The base split from wear, and I had to repair it with nails and construction adhesive. Now I’m kind of afraid to set it up again, at least until I get my hands on a less stretchy material than acrylic knitting yarn. Plied crochet cotton is a better idea for inkle bands anyway.

I want a full-size warp-weighted loom now, so I can make cloth medieval style.

@Seek A gentleman I worked with gave Jhane Barnes seed money to buy her first large looms to start her fashion design business. Are you going to turn your addiction into a business, or you just want it for personal use? I think the money might have actually gone to a computerized loom, I don’t remember.

I’d love to make money by weaving. I’m currently bartering my inkle bands, but the idea of selling them has been on my mind, as well as sewing tote bags and purses with inkle bands used as the straps. I have a set now that I made for myself and I’m pretty pleased with the result. Being able to make the totes from handwoven cloth would be even better!

And now I’m babbling.

@Seek In some cities I think you can rent looms, I don’t know if that would interest you. Maybe some craft stores have them where you come in and pay for time used? That’s an interesting business idea by itself.

No such luck in Tampa. However, for the primitive warp-weighted loom shown above, I have friends who can show me how to build one and how to use it. So it’s just a matter of having space to do it, and the investment money for materials. And, of course, paying customers.

I’m addicted to Fluther, purely by choice. And you know why I don’t treat it.

I’m addicted to film-noir, half by choice. There is a long story behind it, but it can be summarized like this: Sherlock Holmes -> detective fiction -> Philip Marlowe -> film noir. I don’t want to treat it, as it’s part of my hobbies and it does harm to no one.

Recently I’m addicted to the Mafia, completely not by choice this time. The story behind it is an extention of the film-noir story, with some more unrelated elements. But to make the story short, it’s a classic “you get to like the thing you are close to after an extended period of time”. I don’t know how to treat it, and not sure if I want to treat it at all.

Hentai. And the treatment is Hentai.

Food. Sleep. Hugs. Water. Oxygen. There is no choice and there are no cures for those.

Money. Not much choice here, either, as I was born into a time and culture where colorful paper represents something of value which we trade for the things that sustain us.

My treatment has been to find a career which I enjoy, and which fulfills me by providing a health care service to others as well as a paycheck. I then use the money I’ve earned to pay for a safe place to live where the air seems clean. In that place, I have a comfortable mattress, bedding and climate control system to help me sleep comfortably. I share that place with the two people I love most in the world. We have relatively clean, safe water; but we choose to filter it further. We exchange our dollars with farmers who give us the fruits of their labors, and we thank them for doing the hard work that gives us high-quality, flavorful nutrition.

The only cure for money would be to become self-sustaining, which I am not capable of; so this lifestyle seems to be a good compromise. Any dollars we earn, we try to be mindful on what it is spent as a vote in support of the kind of world we want.

@Seek Troll craigslist for folks cleaning out their garages, who bought a loom but never really got into it. That’s how I got my 60” LeClerc Fanny II for $150. Admittedly it’s taken a bit of refurbishment – they let it get rusty somehow. But it’s still been the most amazing secondhand find ever.

Coffee. I enjoy it so it is by choice.

Caffeine and sweets. I don’t try to curb the caffeine addiction – I drink tea, coffee and Diet Coke. I do try to curb the sweets, because they’re not good for the hips (size of the hips, I mean).

I am probably what you might call addicted to the internet. I check Facebook and Fluther several times a day, depending on what I am doing otherwise. At least one hour twice per day. I definitely like it and use it to get information, but I also feel like time spent on a computer is not productive time. I feel I should be cleaning or exercising or reading books or something else.

I like to shop but I try to curb that. I don’t really know the definitive definition of addicted, so I can’t say at this time whether or not I am addicted to shopping.

Listening to new music. In the past week I’ve discovered 5 bands/singers that I like, and I’ve been trying to find the albums at discount music stores.

@Seek: One of my neighbor friends just got a Rigid Heddle loom, 32 inches. She loves it. I know zero about looms so I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. I have to google it later.

I’m a hedonist at heart and have a little bit of every addiction. lol
I’m a foodie, enjoy a few beers a couple times a week, indulge in a bit of marijuana now and then, smoke a few American Spirit cigarettes, have to have my coffee. Nothing that’s taken over my life, but, I’m a slide out sideways, wine in one hand, chocolate in the other, body all used up, saying “Wheee, whatta ride!”
We have to die of something and living an austere and extremely self disciplined life is not my idea of living.

Food. Well comforting food like sweets and carbs.
My other is sleep. Both are coping mechanisms. I don’t care about fixing the sleep one.
The food is tough for me. The stress that causes it needs to be addressed. Some of it is deep seeded and I need more therapy for it.
But I can’t afford therapy and there are no cheap/free options on my area. Other stresses that causes it just cannot be alleviated such as financial.
I have tried to “fix” the food one on the surface and it never works.

Sugar. I eat lots of sugar.

Facebook. I think my internet/social network addiction is partially by choice, because I am lacking a good social network in real life and haven’t figured out how to build a better one, so I use it as a substitute. In the past, when I have managed to develop a more vital social life I use the internet much less, if at all.

I have a very addictive personality, I think it comes in hand with my obsessive nature, but it’s also handy in the reverse. I am very disciplined when I commit to change and have successfully broken multiple addictions over the years.

Electronic gadgets.

If I’m following the definition of the word, I am not actually addicted to anything that I don’t need in order to stay alive.

Science Fiction, Fluther, my girlfriend, my car and Coca-Cola.
For the Science Fiction and Fluther there will be never be a known cure.
As for my girlfriend, I don’t want a cure, instead I am doing everything in my power to encourage my addiction to her!
As for Coca Cola, I dropped from 12 cans a day to 2 cans a day. I am drinking lots of water instead.

@antimatter good for you on the Cola drop! That’s excellent!

Sex. Though I have become part demi part sapio sexual over time. So that is actually part of the treatment. But I do have substitute it with an active fanatasy life.

Books. I am an avid reader but being somewhere on the dyslexic spectrum I cant read too much faster then I speak, at least not when it comes to abstract ideas. It means I can spend all day with my nose in a book, I also almost always carry one with me where ever I go and there have been times I read a book at red lights… I treat it by wearing myself out or getting involved in something past me. But I do spend a lot of time indulging.

My addictions are Skinny Cow chocolate caramel squares and Tasty Cake cereal bars. They are so good! To bad it is not healthy if you eat the whole box in one day. My addiction is by choice and I don’t treat it because they are so good.

Beer beer beer beer, tiddly beer beer beer, a long long time ago, way back in history, when all there was to drink was nothing but cups of tea, a man came along they called him Charlie Mopps, he invented a wonderful drink and he made out of hops, beer beer beer…

I get very drawn to fruit machines/one armed bandit machines. I avoid places that have them and I avoid playing if I come across them. I limit my spending to a fixed budget on them if I do start playing them.

Also books. I spend a lot of my limited spare cash on books. I don’t want to do anything about that.