I came to a bit of a realization about this topic this morning. Won’t be a very long entry, but maybe this could be beneficial if it helps anyone see a new side of their own vices.
My problematic addiction is having destructive gambling tendencies within my day to day career-based money risking endeavors. And there is such a big difference between a psychological vice like it (and a more combo psychological/physiological vice like drug addiction):
It’s been about a week since I’ve given in to any problematic behavior, and that sort of timeline is commonplace. Whereas a heavy alcoholic usually can’t wait a day to get a fix. Sometimes not even a number of hours.
BUT….
Though I can go long periods of time without sabotaging myself, the major problem is this: even if I spend two years, let’s say, properly grinding away in my brokerage account (and turn $20,000 into $100,000 during that time), all it takes is ONE gigantic slip, or a quick series of big slips, for that 100 grand to disappear. It could be gone in an hour, and the prior two years would be wasted, ruined, and useless.
With a heavy alcoholic or any other strong physiological vice, there’s that need for the regular hit. BUT….if an alcoholic gets sober for six months (and then goes on a bender for an evening), you can only do so much damage in one day. At least your body got a break for all that time.
So basically…..my type of vice sometimes can just hit you at once. The “breaks” from the damage are more intermittent, and it’s easy to be on and off. And just one big mistake (at any time) can easily catch up with you. While for anyone with a more chemical dependency, it seems like more of a steady decline.
Both types of these addictions can naturally be very lethal. As you can probably tell, I’m just noting the differences and not weighing one more than the other.
Awareness of these differences greatly matters though. For the addict AND those treating them.
Mister A's domain 