Soft Addiction

Soft addiction is a human inherent characteristic much like creativity, intelligence, love, sleeping or breathing air. We all have it.

We are all programmed, genetically coded and chemically wired, to seek things that are essential to our survival and well-being.

Why do you think sex is so damn good?

Because that is one sure way for mother nature to ensure the survival of our species.

Sugar, fat, and salt are essential elements of our diet.

Yes, contrary to the popular belief, sugar, fat, and salt are very good for you.

For million years, we have been fighting to get them in our diet and it is only in our modern time that we have chastised them and label them as bad.

Sugar, fat, and salt are not bad for you, their excessive consumption is.

Yes, I know you’re convinced that you are not an addict, not even a soft addict.

You don’t stick needles into your arms, don’t sell your body for drugs and you are not losing your teeth.

But then again, no addict has ever admitted to having a problem even if the facts are very clear:

We are all soft addicts. We have no choice in the matter, we are programmed, genetically coded and chemically wired so.

OK, maybe there are some things that we “crave” more than others but what harm is to have a sweet tooth, to have a slice of cake or a glass of wine? What harm can that be?

There is no harm in having a propensity for certain things. As a matter of fact, soft addiction is good. It helps our species to survive and thrive.

Denial and ignorance are bad.

Modern life has given us the means to abuse a lot of things and here is where the problem lies.

Our disposition for seeking pleasurable things can easily get out of control.

We have to review what addiction is and what role it plays in our lives.

We must realize we are all soft addicts and keep our soft addictions under control before they become big time addictions.

Soft addiction becomes a problem when it interferes with our physical, mental, financial and social well-being.

Soft addiction becomes a problem when it slips under the radar unnoticed and uncontrolled.

Here is a concrete example to illustrate my point.

I found myself late one night in front of my computer.

Not only that I was tired and frustrated but I realized that I lost a lot of time on social media and I didn’t accomplish a lot of the tasks I was supposed to do that day.

Sounds familiar?

Being “social” is a soft addiction. We are wired to be social and the social media is taking advantage of our predisposition much the same way the fast food industry is taking advantage of our predisposition to sugar, fat, and salt or the porn industry is taking advantage of our sex soft addiction.

A lot of soft addiction manifests this symptom of time shortage.

Do you find yourself short on time, unable to finish the things you have planned to do?

Stop and look. What caused your time crisis?

So I spent a little too much time on social media. Is that a problem? Did I lose control of my soft addiction?

Here is how to find out.

The soft addiction denial test:

Whenever you suspect a soft addiction suspend it for one week.

In my case – one week without social media.

Well, it turns out that I really have a problem and the one week of the social media was much harder than I anticipated but like everything else, once you are aware of the problem and accept the responsibility for it, a solution is always in reach.

BTW. If you think you don’t have to do the denial test because you “know” you don’t have a problem it means that you have a bigger problem that you think you have,