Addictions/Healthy Living

Science, Engineering, & Tech
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Nicotine, Sugar, and Caffeine. I used to be addicted to cigarettes. But not cigars as soon as I started smoking cigars. In fact cigars were far more enjoyable than cigarettes but I did not feel like crap when I did not have a cigar for 2 weeks or a month. Sugar is found in candy and alcohol. We let kids have candy. But the only person that is allowed to be the voice of reason on limiting the sugar intake on kids are their parents. And that is somewhat concerning to me. Then we have alcohol. More of a necessity because it can be be used in medical applications and can be used for good times. Ain't we glad we got em.

Their seems to be a lot of bias that nicotine is addictive. If it is in cigarette form and it is inhaled through the lungs then yes. But nicotine smoke is never to be inhaled though the lungs as it is quite harmful. Because you are not suppose to do such a thing with cigar smoke. Then their is chewing tobacco. I have never chewed tobacco before. But I would have to think that it is the most natural and carcinogenic free way to absorb nicotine. I also never vaped. But it still seems slightly safer than smoking because of the tar production from cigarettes. Of course their are the nicotine free ones and the ones that are used without the other stuff I hear can give you popcorn lung.

Sugar is one of those addiction's that you probably do not know about. But I have done my best to keep as far away from something that has high fructose corn syrup and beet sugar like it's the plague. Because they have a severe impact on you liver and lower intestinal wall. And can cause holes to form in your lower g.i. tract. The same goes for white bread as the flour from unbleached white bread will stick to the lower intestinal tract causing inflammation and ulcers. By avoiding all these sugars I have enjoyed fruit and vegetables far more than I used to thinking that they were just junk.

Alcohol like sugar can be bad for the liver and lower intestines in mass quantity's. I for one think that they should be lumped into the same category no matter what. But I think that wine and other forms of alcohol need to be left open for discussion and debate. I think that two to three beers a week are not bad for you. Or one to two shots of Saki are not bad for you provided you have them with dinner at the end of the day. But I feel that it is only okay to have alcohol if you have a clean daily diet free of gluten and super concentrated forms of sugar like high fructose corn syrup. And if you lead a active lifestyle. Having alcohol will simply add to your quality of life. Because you will be able to enjoy less because your body will have less impurity's through excessive and healthy eating.

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Is carcinogenic. Grampa chewed and had lip cancer.

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Did he brush his teeth? Did he take good care of his mouth? Remember moderation is always key. But when you make a habit out of something it can become bad for you. But above all else that was his decision. So take from it what you will. But remember that it was his decision to make it a habit. Nicotine can be good for you. But if you want the effects that it provides daily. You can take vitamin B3 supplements which give the same effect. Or as you might know it by it's name Niacin. It can also be found in vegetables. This highest amount of Niacin can be found in really leafy green vegetables like spinach and nicotine plants. To much of anything is bad.

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Gambling / Social Media addiction.

Surprisingly they are the same thing.

When posting in the forum I am addcited to waiting for the ramdom payoff I get when someone clicks LIKE on my posts. It's a problem.

I read an article that explains that it is a feedback loop that goes back to our days of exploration and trying new foods. If is wasn't for early humans leaving their comfort zone and getting a big rush when successful, society wouldn't have advanced so fast.

"Dopamine has been traditionally considered the “pleasure chemical” of the brain, it is now understood to be a chemical that creates “want”. It has been found that social media navigation is associated with a surge of dopamine; Dopamine is stimulated by unpredictability, by small bits of information, and by reward cues, all of which are characteristics of social media use. The release of dopamine during online social networking makes it much harder for people to resist the activity."

I also watched a light hearted movie about gambling addition today.

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Any thing that takes advantage of the sunk cost fallacy

With things like, Videogames that have rewards for playing like Overwatch or TF2

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I am very much embracing my sugar and caffeine addictions. I have limited alcohol (that stuff is a real problem for me) and I dropped cigarettes around four or five years ago. Cigarettes were super easy to give up for me. I know lots of people struggle but I got lucky there.

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I read the wiki about sunk cost but liked the way the sub-head was a perfect TL;DR...

Escalation of Commitment

Been there done that.
I had a nice car that was a lemon. I kept putting money into it instead of bailing and getting a good car because I had already spent so much fixing it to keep it running. Then it died completely and I was out thousand$. I didn't want to admit I made a poor choice that was making me even poorer.

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I think that their is no such thing a lemon if you vehicle is a 94 jeep Cherokee. Those things are built like a tank and have monster torque for a in line 6 4.0. And with small upgrades only get better. I only consider that jeep a lemon if the engine is shot. But in that case I will just drop a Cummins diesel engine in it.

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I think this isn't true for things that cause physical addiction or things to which you become tolerant so you have to up the dosage perpetually. Even habits have addiction-like power over you.

Addiction and habits are tricky things and saying that it's someones decision (a conscious, "free will" decision) to make something a habit is like saying it's your decision to eat every day several times. It's not exactly like you think about that "decision" too much:

You crave food > you eat. Probably the only real decision you make in that equation is what you choose to eat. But extend that to sugar addicts and it's the same non-choice:

You crave sugar > you eat sugar. But what sweets do you choose? A sugar addict is 80% of the time not going to skip an opportunity to stuff himself with sugar and not even be aware of what he's doing.

Similar to how people light cigarette after cigarette and only after they notice 4 butts do they realize that they didn't smoke 2, they smoked 4 cigarettes. (either they notice the butts or they just run out of cigarettes faster and later wonder where half of their box disappeared, lol).

Btw, I'm not a smoker, but some of my friends are and it's the same story over and over again. This is not true of all smokers though and I've noticed that if the cigarettes are more expensive (relative to your budget) people tend to be more aware of what they are doing.

Note: It's a different situation if you're at work and entered the "flow" state, or playing a "fun" (read: addictive enough to overshadow your food craving) video game. Then your state of mind or another addiction simply overpowers other addictions. But you can incorporate cigarettes into the flow and produce piles of buds as you work, without realizing it. I've seen that happen too.

Cool, I was wondering what this thing was called.

It's probably the only reason I got my Bachelors AND Master's degree, lol. I was two years in and wanted to switch to a completely different field, but I couldn't accept wasting two years for nothing so I just continued till the end. And in the end they told me "dude, you do know that you ain't gonna get the good jobs without a Master's degree?" So I continued on and got my Master's because I couldn't accept wasting 4 (actually 6, it was slow progress) years studying that shite and not being able to cash in something decent, lol.

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