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Hi, I’m Eddie and I’m an addict.
The specifics don’t matter, the key thing is that my brain responds in a very specific way to certain patterns of triggers, and if I’m not very careful, it affects my behaviour and the choices I make.
I quit smoking a few years ago, which is overall a good thing, but it left me looking for an addiction trigger, something to satisfy that part of my brain. Enter the fediverse, in my current case, and my doomscrolling became pretty problematic for a while there. I’m trying to manage it, with mixed success.
Anyway, I’ve noticed a pattern of growing addiction in society; even faster than people drop smoking, they’re picking up vaping and gambling and doomscrolling and whatever else. It feels like we took a wrong turn, using vice taxes and whatever else to deter people from smoking but without addressing the underlying addiction. For me, it doesn’t matter what it is, really — I’ve been addicted to a few things in particular, and I’ve recognized the pull of many more. The addiction part of my brain will take what it can get, then it will seek more.
I think we need to look at that, in society and each other and ourselves. Nicotine pouches, vaping, gambling online and in person, opioids, chatbots, they’re details. In my experience the addiction is its own thing, and if you don’t manage it itself, it’ll pop back up in a new guise at the first opportunity.
Doomscrolling addiction is perhaps less harmful than some, but still uncomfortable. I'm trying to "cut down" while maintaining the positives, but it's hard.
The pull to open up my phone and start scrolling is pretty intense, physical, it's very much like a nic fit when I was smoking and went too long without. The feeling is the same, a cold sort of whole-body ick, trembles, etc.
Not sure posting through it is 100% helpful, but we use the tools we have.
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