Episode 121 • Addiction
Be addicted to something
Addict
Quit cold turkey
Withdrawal symptoms
Urge
Story
Max: Hey Will!
Will: What’s up, dude! It’s so good to see you!
Max: I know! When was the last time we hung out? It must’ve been, what? Three, four months ago? How’s the family? How are the kids?
Will: Oh, you know, teenagers. Actually, I’ve been having a little trouble with Jonah lately.
Max: Why? What happened?
Will: Well, I mean, you know how kids are with video games, right? He started playing Fortnite a few weeks ago and I’m telling you, he‘s totally addicted to that stupid game. I don’t get it.
Max: Oh come on, it can’t be that bad.
Will: I’m telling you, he acts like an addict. He goes crazy whenever we tell him to turn that thing off.
Max: Listen, the best thing in this case is to quit cold turkey – take his PlayStation and just put it in your room or something. He might be mad at first but it’s the only way.
Will: Yeah, I guess I have no other option… [sighs] Alright, I gotta run…
Max: Alright, I’ll call you in a couple of weeks to see how it’s going.
Will: Alright! Bye!
Max: Bye, dude!
[Phone ringing]
Will: Hey, Max!
Max: Hey, how’s it going? I texted you but I never heard back from you. I wanted to know how Jonah was doing…
Will: Oh, uhm. He’s doing fine. I did what you told me. I just took his PlayStation and put it in my room.
Max: That’s great. How did he react? Any withdrawal symptoms?
Will: Uhm, no. No, he’s – he was fine.
Max: Are you busy? Is this a bad moment?
Will: No, I’m just- I’m playing…
Max: Wait, are you playing video games?
Will: I like it so much, man! I tried to quit but then… every night I get this crazy urge to play and once I start, I can’t stop!
Questions
Be addicted to something
'...he’s totally addicted to that stupid game’m telling you, he acts like an addict.'
• Is “addicted” a noun or an adjective?
Addicted is an adjective. Sometimes people get confused so just remember addicted is an adjective.
• If you’re addicted to something, can you easily stop doing a certain activity or using a certain thing?
No. If you are addicted to something that means that it's really, really difficult for you to stop doing a certain thing or using a certain thing. It almost feels like it's impossible to stop that behavior.
• What’s the difference between liking something very much and being addicted to something?
I am no expert, obviously. I'm not a therapist, but I'm pretty sure that the difference between liking something and being obsessed with something and being addicted to something is that when you are addicted to something whatever you're addicted to starts interfering with your normal life. When you feel like you are obsessed with something and you keep doing something to the point where it's preventing you from leading a normal life that, I think, is considered an addiction.
• Is there anything you’re addicted to?
I know that I'm definitely addicted to two things. There's probably more that I'm not aware of and I haven't discovered yet but I know I am definitely addicted to sugar and then I'm also addicted to, I guess, Netflix or TV in general. I would say number one, the number one thing for me it's definitely sugar. I am definitely addicted to sugar, no doubt about it.
Addict
'I’m telling you, he acts like an addict.'
• Is addict a noun or an adjective?
This is why I asked you the question before because addict is the noun. You would say. "He's an addict," or, "She's an addict," but addicted is the adjective, so you need to say he's addicted to blah, blah, blah. An addict is obviously someone who is addicted to something.
• What things could an addict be addicted to?
One might think that an addict is simply someone who has an addiction and to a certain extent that could be true. However, the word addict is mostly used to talk about people that are addicted to drugs. There is, I guess, other terms for other types of addictions. If you have a drinking problem, you would probably be referred to as an alcoholic but not really an addict. Addict has more to do with drugs. That's why in the story I said, "He acts like an addict," because you can't really use it, I guess, for video games.
Quit cold turkey
'Listen, the best thing in this case is to quit cold turkey.'
• If you quit something cold turkey, do you quit little by little or all at once?
I love this expression. Not really sure where it comes from but if you quit something cold turkey, you quit it all at once. Not just like five cigarettes today, four tomorrow, three the following day. No, you go from smoking a pack of cigarette to smoking none.
• When trying to quit something, do you think quitting cold turkey is the best way to do it?
can guess there is really different opinions on this matter. There's people that say, yes, you should quit old turkey. It's a lot easier if you just remove something altogether all at once. Then there's also people that say, no, that's not sustainable because you then get obsessed with it and you don't give your body enough time to adjust. I really don't know what is best. I think maybe because I am the type of person that I am and I'm a very black and white type of person, I think it's much better for me if I quit cold turkey because otherwise I'm just not going to be able to control myself.
• Do you know anybody who in order to stop smoking quit cold turkey?
I am pretty sure my aunt quit cold turkey when she stopped smoking. She was having health issues because she was smoking a lot. I guess she decided to quit cold turkey. It's not like she really had a choice. The doctors told her she had to if she wanted to keep living and so she quit cold turkey. She still misses it to this day but she was able to do it so it's doable. If any of you out there are thinking of quitting smoking then just know it can be done.
Withdrawal symptoms
'How did he react? Any withdrawal symptoms?'
• When do you experience withdrawal symptoms? When you try to quit something you’re addicted to or years after quitting something you used to be addicted to?
When you try to quit something that you are addicted to, you might experience withdrawal symptoms in, I guess, the following hours, days, or even weeks after trying to quit. You might be fine as long as you are using a certain type of substance or whatever, and then the moment you quit is when you start experiencing these withdrawal symptoms. Again, it depends on how serious the addiction was. It depends on even the type of substance that you were addicted to. These withdrawal symptoms can vary.
• What are some common withdrawal symptoms?
Like we said, it really depends on the type of substance that you were addicted to. If it was drugs, you might experience sweating or goosebumps or nausea. If it was nicotine, you might experience headaches or frustration, anxiety. All sorts of things.
• Have you ever experienced withdrawal symptoms? What were you trying to quit?
This one time, maybe, I think it was last summer, I tried to quit sugar. I knew that sugar was important to me, but I think I had no idea how important it was to me. I used to joke about, "Oh, I'm addicted to ice cream," and this and that, but when I tried to quit, I realized that I started getting these really painful headaches and they wouldn't go away. They wouldn't go away until I had something sweet. That was a big withdrawal symptom for me. It was headaches and just frustration in general and that's why it didn't last very long. If you followed me on Instagram you knew that I was struggling at the time. I think I was able to quit sugar for a full seven days, which it's still a record to me. I'm still proud of that, but I need to do something about it because I definitely have a problem.
Urge
'Every night I get this crazy urge to play.'
• If you get the urge to do something, what do you experience? An uncontrollable desire or need to do something or you simply think about doing something?
If you get the urge to do something, you are experiencing this almost uncontrollable desire to do something. It's almost like an obsessive thought of, "I need to do this," or, "I need to have this right now. I have to."
• Is it easy to resist an urge?
I can tell you from experience that, no, it is super hard to resist an urge. I know when I get an urge to eat something sweet, it's just like, okay, I got to have something within the next five minutes otherwise I'm going to start obsessing over it.
• When was the last time you felt the urge to do something?
I guess it was yesterday. I'm here at my mom's. She doesn't have a lot of sweet things in the house, but she does have this Nutella jar and I got the urge to eat something chocolaty and so I went, grabbed a spoon, and I did what had to be done.
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