Offhand, I haven’t seen any LWers write about having chemical addictions, which seems a little surprising considering the number of people here. Have I missed some, or is it too embarrassing to mention, or is it just that people who are attracted to LW are very unlikely to have chemical addictions?
As usual, caffeine addiction is so common that it needs to either be explicitly excluded or else its inclusion pointed out so readers know how meaningless the results may be for what they think of as ‘chemical addiction’.
I wouldn’t say so. The definition of addiction is foggy enough that some discussion first would be a good idea if I want to do a more substantial poll.
Nicotine, caffeine, simple carbohydrates. (Didn’t even realize the last one until I started getting hit with withdrawal—I’ve never been addicted to sugar before. But since I’ve cut it out of my diet this last time, which I’ve done many times before without issue, I’ve started getting splitting headaches that are rapidly remedied by eating an orange.)
I have alcohol cravings from time to time, but I’m not addicted, since drinking is actually infrequent for me, and not doing so doesn’t cause me any issue. That’s another recent development which is making me consider clearing out the liquor cabinet. (I did have alcohol cravings once before, after my grandfather died. And my grandmother just died after a few years of progressive decline—she had a form of dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s—so it may be depression. I don’t -feel- depressed, but I didn’t feel depressed last time I was, either, and it was only obvious in retrospect.)
Thanks for writing that up. I probably should have realized that cravings can vary a lot for individuals, but I hadn’t thought about it. I’ve also never heard of a sugar craving which manifests as headaches—my impression is that typical sugar cravings manifest as obsessive desire without more obviously physical symptoms.
I’ve actually never had a desire for sugar. Not even when I was a child—we kept a bowl full of candy and chocolate which I almost never touched. (I preferred, odd as it may sound, things like brussel sprouts, although I’ve stopped having any desire for -those- after getting moldy ones once too often)
I crave spicy foods the way most people crave sweet foods. My favorite is spicy pickled asparagus, which is impossible to find. (Spicy pickled okra is easier, and almost as good, though.) That may actually count as an addiction as well, come to think of it. (Apparently spicy foods induce endorphin and dopamine production?)
Sometimes something similar happens to me with food in general—if I have eaten very little in the past dozen hours, sometimes I start feeling dizzy, lazy, and sad but not unusually hungry. (I haven’t tested whether different food groups have different effects.)
(For example, I woke up at noon this morning and now it’s almost 2 p.m., but I don’t feel particularly motivated to getting out of bed; but I know that if I got up and went eat something I’d feel much more energetic.)
Sometimes something similar happens to me with food in general—if I have eaten very little in the past dozen hours, sometimes I start feeling dizzy, lazy, and sad but not unusually hungry.
This is starting to remind me of the dihydrogen monoxide joke.
Does my caffeine addiction count? If I stop drinking coffee, I anticipate mild withdrawl symptoms. I periodically do this when I find myself drinking lots of coffee; a few days without increases the effectiveness of the caffeine later.
I take prescription adderall, and am decidedly less functional without it. I sometimes skip a day on the weekends. I anticipate no withdrawl symptoms, but would be far less willing to stop taking it than the caffeine.
One evening a number of years ago, I smoked a couple cigarettes at a party. For almost two weeks afterwards, I reacted to seeing or smelling cigarettes by wanting one. I didn’t have any more, and those thoughts went away.
Which of those would you count as addictions? I can imagine plenty of obvious cases either way, but the boundary seems awkward to define, and very common in the case of things like caffeine and sucrose. (I answered yes in the poll, because of the caffeine.)
For what it’s worth, what I was interested in was getting deep enough into the obvious life-wreckers that it was urgent to stop using them. Even that’s vague, of course. Alcohol has short term emotional/cognitive effects which cause much more damage faster than cigarettes can.
It may be worth creating another poll which clarifies whether or not to count socially accepted addictions such as caffeine; some people seem to have answered on the assumption that it doesn’t count, while others have answered on the assumption that it does.
I used to be a smoker, and I went through a phase of drinking too much alcohol when I was younger (this was especially worrying as there are many alcoholics in my family). I managed to give up smoking and my alcohol consumption is much healthier now.
I’ve also noticed that I haven’t seen many people on LW worrying about how to cut down on/give up drinking, smoking or drugs. My impression is that LWers are not all that likely to do things that are self destructive in that way.
I answered “No”, but one might quibble about whether I actually qualify as not addicted to caffeine. (I’m operationalizing “addiction” as ‘my performances when I don’t use X for a couple days are substantially worse than the baseline level before I started regularly using X in the first place, or when I stop using X for several months’. I am a bit less wakeful if I let go of caffeine for a couple days than the level I revert to when I let go of it for months, but not terribly much so and there are all sorts of confounds anyway.)
Offhand, I haven’t seen any LWers write about having chemical addictions, which seems a little surprising considering the number of people here. Have I missed some, or is it too embarrassing to mention, or is it just that people who are attracted to LW are very unlikely to have chemical addictions?
To busy with the internet addictions?
Could be, but it seems worth finding out.
Add a poll to your top-level comment. Suggested options: no chemical addiction, had one in the past, have one today.
Caffeine addiction is pretty popular, and I bet we have quite a few on adderall. Is that not what you mean?
Have you had a chemical addiction? [pollid:422]
Unfortunately, the poll options don’t seem to include ticky-boxes, so I don’t see an elegant way to ask about which chemicals.
As usual, caffeine addiction is so common that it needs to either be explicitly excluded or else its inclusion pointed out so readers know how meaningless the results may be for what they think of as ‘chemical addiction’.
My original thought was to phrase it as “chemical addiction generally considered destructive”, but that’s problematic, too. What about sugar?
Sugar is incredibly destructive. It is a major, perhaps the major, cause of diabetes, heart diseases, obesity and other diseases of civilization.
*wants to change answer now*
I get withdrawal symptoms if I miss too many antidepressant pills. Does that count?
If that counts I have a serious dihydrogen monoxide problem as well...
Yeah me too, I drink the stuff like water.
I wouldn’t say so. The definition of addiction is foggy enough that some discussion first would be a good idea if I want to do a more substantial poll.
Nicotine, caffeine, simple carbohydrates. (Didn’t even realize the last one until I started getting hit with withdrawal—I’ve never been addicted to sugar before. But since I’ve cut it out of my diet this last time, which I’ve done many times before without issue, I’ve started getting splitting headaches that are rapidly remedied by eating an orange.)
I have alcohol cravings from time to time, but I’m not addicted, since drinking is actually infrequent for me, and not doing so doesn’t cause me any issue. That’s another recent development which is making me consider clearing out the liquor cabinet. (I did have alcohol cravings once before, after my grandfather died. And my grandmother just died after a few years of progressive decline—she had a form of dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s—so it may be depression. I don’t -feel- depressed, but I didn’t feel depressed last time I was, either, and it was only obvious in retrospect.)
Thanks for writing that up. I probably should have realized that cravings can vary a lot for individuals, but I hadn’t thought about it. I’ve also never heard of a sugar craving which manifests as headaches—my impression is that typical sugar cravings manifest as obsessive desire without more obviously physical symptoms.
I’ve actually never had a desire for sugar. Not even when I was a child—we kept a bowl full of candy and chocolate which I almost never touched. (I preferred, odd as it may sound, things like brussel sprouts, although I’ve stopped having any desire for -those- after getting moldy ones once too often)
I crave spicy foods the way most people crave sweet foods. My favorite is spicy pickled asparagus, which is impossible to find. (Spicy pickled okra is easier, and almost as good, though.) That may actually count as an addiction as well, come to think of it. (Apparently spicy foods induce endorphin and dopamine production?)
So you’ve got a strong withdrawal reaction to sugar without having a desire for it?
Sometimes something similar happens to me with food in general—if I have eaten very little in the past dozen hours, sometimes I start feeling dizzy, lazy, and sad but not unusually hungry. (I haven’t tested whether different food groups have different effects.)
(For example, I woke up at noon this morning and now it’s almost 2 p.m., but I don’t feel particularly motivated to getting out of bed; but I know that if I got up and went eat something I’d feel much more energetic.)
This is starting to remind me of the dihydrogen monoxide joke.
Does having ATP withdrawal symptoms count as an addiction?
Does my caffeine addiction count? If I stop drinking coffee, I anticipate mild withdrawl symptoms. I periodically do this when I find myself drinking lots of coffee; a few days without increases the effectiveness of the caffeine later.
I take prescription adderall, and am decidedly less functional without it. I sometimes skip a day on the weekends. I anticipate no withdrawl symptoms, but would be far less willing to stop taking it than the caffeine.
One evening a number of years ago, I smoked a couple cigarettes at a party. For almost two weeks afterwards, I reacted to seeing or smelling cigarettes by wanting one. I didn’t have any more, and those thoughts went away.
Which of those would you count as addictions? I can imagine plenty of obvious cases either way, but the boundary seems awkward to define, and very common in the case of things like caffeine and sucrose. (I answered yes in the poll, because of the caffeine.)
For what it’s worth, what I was interested in was getting deep enough into the obvious life-wreckers that it was urgent to stop using them. Even that’s vague, of course. Alcohol has short term emotional/cognitive effects which cause much more damage faster than cigarettes can.
It may be worth creating another poll which clarifies whether or not to count socially accepted addictions such as caffeine; some people seem to have answered on the assumption that it doesn’t count, while others have answered on the assumption that it does.
Caffeine here; based on serious withdrawal symptoms on quitting.
I used to be a smoker, and I went through a phase of drinking too much alcohol when I was younger (this was especially worrying as there are many alcoholics in my family). I managed to give up smoking and my alcohol consumption is much healthier now.
I’ve also noticed that I haven’t seen many people on LW worrying about how to cut down on/give up drinking, smoking or drugs. My impression is that LWers are not all that likely to do things that are self destructive in that way.
I answered “No”, but one might quibble about whether I actually qualify as not addicted to caffeine. (I’m operationalizing “addiction” as ‘my performances when I don’t use X for a couple days are substantially worse than the baseline level before I started regularly using X in the first place, or when I stop using X for several months’. I am a bit less wakeful if I let go of caffeine for a couple days than the level I revert to when I let go of it for months, but not terribly much so and there are all sorts of confounds anyway.)