What Are Your Addictions?

In today's world we deal with addictions on a daily basis. Sometimes we might not even realize how addicted we are to something. Whether it be the pot of coffee that we drink on a daily basis or the cell phone that is always with-in arms reach. Think about your life and the things you could not live without. These are addictions. Some people think that addictions are only things that are bad for us like drugs ,alcohol, gambling ,or one of the many others. This is a misconception, addictions can be anything you find yourself having to have.

Do you tend to feel uneasy until you drink your first cup of coffee in the morning? Maybe you start to panic if you leave your cell phone laying on the counter at home. Can you leave the house without your makeup and hair being fixed just so? What about your credit cards? Do you leave the cash at home use the plastic for every purchase? A lot of the addictions we have are harmless. They don't pose any physical danger to anyone. You might find you can't go a day without checking your email, or getting your fix of POGO. These addictions are not to be concerned about unless they start to interfere in your life or the lives of your family.

If you find you are spending several hours a day on line and not doing the things that you need to be , this could be a problem. When an addiction starts to come between you and your family then their is a need to worry .It is time to examine if there is a serious problem. If your cell phone has come to replace family time, or personal time with a spouse or loved one ,there needs to be some changes made. These types of addictions can be just as hard to give up as an addiction to alcohol. The need to have it can become overwhelming and there can be physical symptoms of withdrawal when trying to give up the addiction.

For example when trying to give up an addiction to coffee/caffeine a person can experience headaches, become irritable, anxious, moody ,and tired. While you may feel terrible remember it's a temporary feeling and with time you will begin to feel back to yourself. Sometimes a person might require help to overcome an addiction. Even though these addictions are not what one would normally think of, they can be just as hard to give up. Don't be embarrassed to ask for help from friends and family when trying to overcome an addiction.

Addictions can be to many things such as to computers, cell phones, coffee/caffeine, sex, pornography, and anything else you find you can't seem to do without. Ask yourself what are the things I can't live without? Do they affect my daily life? Do they interfere with my daily activities? Do they cause me to take away time from my family? If you can answer yes to these questions you might need to consider if you have an addiction that needs to be given up or at least cut down.

I recently did a survey of 20 men and 20 women and asked about the things they just could not go without. I was surprised by some of the answers I received. Some of the addictions might not seem like anything to some ,but when asked to go without the people responding to my survey began to panic. Here are some of the responses I have gotten.

Men
The men's answers about their addictions were POGO, religion, coffee, Pepsi ,beer, cigarettes,and porn.
Women
The women had some of the same addictions as the men including POGO, coffee, cigarettes ,religion ,love, makeup ,computer programming ,and a few cell phone addicts among the respondents.

It just goes to show that men and women are not all that different when comparing their addictions. What about you? What can't you live without? What are your addictions? Could you give up your addictions?