[ExI] addiction

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mar 21, 2016 12:40 PM, "William Flynn Wallace" <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I might accept gambling as an addiction but not sex or shopping.  It
can't just be something that one overdoes.  It has hurt one's life in some
way.

Sex: ill-considered relationships with the some intent of getting laid
(STDs and pregnancy among the most obvious consequences, but by no means
the only ones).  Potential justification of and predilection toward
socially unacceptable (even with context) actions, most notably rape.
Spending to potentially ruinous degrees on things that promise sex whether
or not they deliver, without regard for side effects.  And that's just the
potential harms I can immediately think of.

Shopping is more of a spending addiction.  Say, spending $1000 that was
needed for rent or mortgage on shoes, in pursuit of immediate
gratification: you have stuff right away, and that you're going to be
kicked out of your home at the end of the month doesn't directly harm you
until the end of the month.  This is essentially the same problem as
gambling addiction, save that gambling has the small chance of paying off
to further the addiction.  Window shopping is only harmful if one spends so
much time on it that it affects one's ability to hold a job, or similarly
important alternate uses of time...or if, as is more likely to be a
problem, it builds temptation to actually spend money (in amounts that
hamper one's ability to pay bills) to irresistible levels, and/or disguises
an ordinary shopping addiction ("I won't actually buy."  "That's what you
told yourself the last 10 times."  "But THIS time...").
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