pink1957girl asked:

There are lots of things that people can get addicted to, besides booze and/or drugs. Why do people discount other types of addictions? What other type of addictions do you think there are?

This is a serious question – I’m not being flipant about this.
The reson for this question is that people don’t understand the physical aspects of addiction to things like gambling or shopping. It may sound like a dumb thing – you just don’t do it – but it’s not as easy as that.

Chris K asked:




What are the moral qualms that base our moral inquisition on addiction. These days, in addition to all of the regular, real addictions, we have the inclusion of “soft addictions”, such as an addiction to shopping, or television.
I mean for this to also question our societal opposition (especially as of these last few years) to regular old addictions. What is wrong with the addiction itself if the addict enjoys it? After all, the unbearable lows that come with addiction also come with comparatively fantastic highs. If a person decides that the highs of said addiction make the lows worth dealing with, then why is it such a problem?
My basic question here is this: What moral authority do those who oppose addictive behaviors/substances have to impose their will on those who disagree with their holier-than-thou hypothesis? Why is addiction such a shameful thing. After all, addiction only causes pain to the addict himself. Emotional pain to family, etc. is not a morally justifiable reason
For after all, if we criminalized everything that caused any emotional harm to anyone, everybody would be a criminal, since nobody is so wholesome as to have never emotionally offended someone, whether they are close family or friends, or otherwise.

Also, I don’t want to hear how your brother, mom, uncle, son or otherwise struggled with addiction, so due to that experience we should hinder the freedom of responsible adults.

Addiction is only bad if the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.