I think of addiction as a dependence on an activity or substance that has negative consequences. Some of the above answers appear to just be dependence.
There are many things I engage in daily that I don’t see as having any unwanted consequences.
My real addiction, however, is thinking. Although I am making great efforts to break the hold this has on me, I still find myself too often thinking through life, rather than experiencing it. It’s not uncommon that I find that much of my life has passed without me having experienced it in real time, in the present.
Hi, I’m Tom and I am a thoughtaholic.
And most so-called addictions are actually just mild obsessions. Some of them perhaps compulsive obsessions.
Real addictions are quite serious and many do change the personality of people, but not all. Nicotine for example is addictive, but people don’t change their personality.
Rubbing my cat’s belly, Earl Gray tea, nachos, Taco Bell hot sauce, finding the perfect recipe for mushroom soup, watching re-runs of The Nanny, trying all of the exotic mushrooms at our local Korean market, thinking about camping, listening to Libera, thinking about baking a rum cake, thinking about using my crockpot and listening to Alan Rickman’s voice.
@Bellatrix I just went to 3 Asian markets yesterday, one Korean, one Chinese and one Japanese. They had all of these wonderful mushrooms and they are quite inexpensive, compared to if you buy them (same exact ones) at a regular American grocery store. Even though these schrooms are more recognizable to people from Asia, most of the schooms at these stores are grown in the United States. I just got some delicious, and oh so cute, Japanese Bunasmeji schrooms and some big giant trumpet mushrooms!
Oh I am coming to your house for dinner. I should do that here. Go round a few different asian stores. I have been in some looking specifically for mushrooms but they didn’t have much of a range. I will try again.
@Bellatrix This is what I got: Bunasmeji Mushrooms (the whole bunch is about as big as a man’s fist and they have tiny little tops on them which are good for eating raw or for topping a pizza or for soup) and Giant Oyster Trumpet Mushrooms which usually come 4 or 5 to a pack. They’re pretty big, as you can see by the comparison of the hand holding one. These look so much like the Dancing Mushrooms from Fantasia that I couldn’t help myself. They have huge tops, but the stalks are also perfectly fine, if you don’t care what they look like (presentation-wise) such as chopped up for soup. I also saw, but didn’t buy (even though I swooned when I saw them) was fresh (not dried) Black Woodear Mushrooms. They also had good old shiitake mushrooms for about a third of the price that you’d pay at Whole Foods! The other schrooms were very inexpensive too.
oh wow… those Bunasmiji mushrooms look really interesting. I think I have a bit of a mushroom thing too. I saw a recipe once (I think it was Jamie Oliver’s) for a mushroom risotto but he had so many different types of mushies, but I can never find a really good range. I will search further. What will you do with your mushrooms?
@Bellatrix I’ve been trying to perfect a mushroom soup. I’ve tried a few already and they were pretty good, but I just love mushrooms so I’m going to keep trying different kinds of mushrooms soups. Everything from Tom Kha (coconut milk based Thai soup) to hot and sour soup (which is where the black wood ear shrooms will come in handy) and cream of mushroom soup.
I also put sauteed mushrooms into my lower-fat macaroni and cheese that I make from scratch. They add a depth of flavor that will amaze you.
Booze. It is the perfect mind eraser and makes you say and do stoopid things. I had to give it up because I was tired of doing stoopid things. Still working on the saying stoopid things part. ;)