New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 29, 2024

Editorial: Understanding addictions, both the positive and negative ones

By Andre Jones | September 15, 2021 8:03 am

While I can’t speak for everyone, I can tell you that at some point in most of our lives, we have had an addiction to something.

When most people think of addiction, the first few items that come to mind include drugs, alcohol, or gambling. But there are so many more things that a person can get hooked on, and all of them aren’t necessary bad.

Addictions are tough things to deal with, especially when you look at how time has changed our perception of a few areas. A perfect example of this are video games. In the 1990s, I remember my parents telling me to get off the video games and go outside and play. Today, there are many people who literally make millions of dollars sitting in front of their television or computers playing these games. That’s just one example of how an addiction has shifted nature from what use to be a negative connotation to a positive one.

Our telephones are an example of how an addiction can go from a positive to a negative. Phones were essentially communication devices through talking over wavelengths to hear a person’s voice back when I was growing up. Now, talking is probably one of the last things the device is used for. Phones serve as two-way pagers (look it up kids), devices that connect us to the internet, watches, weather forecasters, music players and so much more. Even I just looked down at my phone a few moments ago as I typed this after I saw it lit up from a notification.

The biggest takeaway we need to understand is how to deal with these addictions, both the positive ones and negative ones. For the positive ones, moderation and knowing when to take breaks are key to continue our growth and development. For the negative addictions, understanding that we can get help for them and that we have support are keen. Even when we have negative addictions, admitting that assistance is needed to overcome them is difficult. But it’s a step in the right direction.

Let’s make sure that we take the necessary steps to continue to manage our addictions, both the helpful ones and the harmful ones. Getting a grasp on these concepts will ensure us opportunities to live healthier and stress-free lives for a little while.