We all have addictive behavior but we do not experience addiction in the same way. For years I have been trying to explain to people that I could start and quit smoking cold turkey and not experience any physical withdrawal or side effects. I know others for whom this is simply impossible and I think it’s all about having a specific biochemistry that makes one more physically dependent on substances. So for some people a physical addiction to food, drugs, alcohol, nicotine is how their addiction takes place.

OTOH, I always said that my addictions have more to do with the realm of feeling and emotion – meaning that I get addicted to how an experience makes me feel (for example: seducing another, falling in love, engaging in a deep conversation with someone new) and want to have that experience over and over. I have a lot less control over that so my addiction is emotional.

We have also been discussing gaming as of late – and I think that kind of an addiction is visual and mental at the same time but it also has to do with rewards and instant gratification. Does all addiction amount to reward and instant gratification? I think an addiction to porn or watching others strip or masturbate is something like that as well – a visual trip leading to a response within the body that goes beyond the visual…

More, for others the addiction is oral/touch-based which is different from a physical addiction I described in the beginning, in my mind. It’s about tasting something with your tongue and lips or taste buds or finger tips or other parts of your body – that’s more of a contact addiction – I have a bit of that when it comes to close embrace Tango.

So what kind are yours? Are there others? How do you experience your addictions?

Topics: food, eating, people, body, culture, sex, drugs, addiction, feeling, gaming, mental, emotional, physical, doing, visual, touching, obcession