Once I was addicted to cigarettes and smoked twenty to thirty a day but finally, in early 1988, I managed to chuck the habit for good simply by deciding to become a non-smoker. My determination was bigger and more powerful than the insidious effects of nicotine upon my brain. I have not smoked another cigarette since that January morning when I destroyed my last full pack of Benson & Hedges, breaking up the cancer sticks and watching the golden tobacco hidden within fall into our dustbin with the rest of the rubbish.
And I was addicted to the British soap opera "EastEnders" from it's very first episode on February 19th 1985 until the summer of 2013. That's when I finally decided it was taking up too much of my life and the commitment was plainly ridiculous. I have never watched a single episode since then. A bit like giving up cigarettes.
Once I was down at our local pub four or five nights a week supping the elixir of life - "Tetley's Bitter". Each time I would drink between three and five pints. I just could not get enough of the stuff and Lord knows how much dosh I spent on my habit. Today, I have not given up drinking beer entirely but my input is massively reduced. On Sunday, I had four pints at the quiz in "The Robin Hood" but I haven't had any beer since and that's been story most weeks in the last two years.
I have had other addictions. I was addicted to reading and studying when I was at university. When I discovered Indian curry meals, I could not get enough of them. Nowadays I seem to be addicted to walking and taking pictures as well as blogging but I am cool about that and have no immediate plans to give up. These addictions seem healthy enough.
And while I am on the subject of addiction, let me refer to the blogpost I wrote last week about Shirley, my "Wife". I neglected to mention that she is an addict. The problem began over a decade ago now and gradually the addiction has got worse. I am at my wit's end and have no idea how I can help her to give up and get clean again.
I am talking about smartphone addiction. When she got her first smartphone, she was able to handle it pretty well but gradually the addiction has grown.
I get up in the morning and ask if she wants a cup of tea. She's there on the front room sofa, glued to the smartphone.
She goes out to the greenhouse to potter with her plants and seedlings. I look outside and she's standing there in the greenhouse - on her smartphone..
I am cooking in the kitchen, stirring this and checking that. She brings me her smartphone to look at - a meme, a photograph, a message but I am a non-addict and so I am not attuned to this smartphone obsession. I never want to know what people are looking at in the depths of their little screens. It is all so alien to me.
As I look around the world - in parks, on buses, in pubs or cafes, outside Phoebe's school, at football matches, I see the smartphone addiction everywhere. It has swept across the planet like fentanyl or something . So many people are completely hooked and do not seem able to function without checking out their bloody smartphones every five minutes.
I used to roll my own fags. I never licked the sticky bit of the cigarette
ReplyDeletepaper in front of anyone else. I was in my twenties. Kept tobacco in a tin.
Smoking away in a pub, I talked to a nurse who drew a diagram of the lungs,
explaining they were made of soft tissue, and that mine were mired in tar.
I'd be dead if I hadn't listened to her advice. A pal died of emphysema.
He slept sitting up in bed. If he lay down his lungs deflated like a frayed balloon.
I never owned a mobile phone. But they're kind to lungs.
Shirley is a dream wife and Mother Courage too. She deserves her Smartphone.
My addiction is sugar. I have eaten sweet things my whole life and lately I have learned that my liver is having troubles and am desperately trying to cut back. I have given up ice cream, chocolate, white bread and my five cups of very sweet coffee have become two.
ReplyDeleteMy other addiction is the blogs I read and probably I could cut back on those, but who do I cut? That's a thought for another day. My phone is always with me, but I am not "glued to the screen" , I have it only for text messages, calls and taking photos.
Surely your use of AI is leading to your addiction for Smart technological gear;) I must admit I have gone off blogging, I was a bit addicted there. But my knitting obsession still lingers. Sadly chocolate also still calls.
ReplyDeleteI was once addicted to Maynard's Wine Gums. I would eat huge amounts. I can't remember how I weaned myself off them, but I'm 'clean' now.
ReplyDeleteWe used to watch Eastenders here but then I suppose for financial reasons, our ABC stopped broadcasting it. I'm sure I could watch it somehow, but to me it is a nice history. Dot Cotton's son Nick was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have my own addictions, and I generally understand addictions, but I do not understand an addiction to gambling.
If everyone around you is staring at their phone screens, aren't you the one who is out of step? Is Shirley not giving you the attention you rightly deserve? Or does she manage her phone usage? What she does on her phone in the greenhouse, stays in the greenhouse.
My brother used to smoke a lot until one day his two young nieces (my daughters) found an almost full carton of his cigarettes and broke every single one in half and left them in a pile on the floor for him to see. They also gave him a good scolding when he confronted them about their deed. He did quit smoking after that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to argue with you- most of us are addicted to our phones. For me, it's my phone and my laptop. I'd like to say that the benefits I reap from my phone balance it all out but I'm not sure about that. I call it my back-up brain and it truly is. And the ability to listen to books as I go about my days has been a childhood dream come true. So. There is that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I quit cigarettes and haven't missed it. In the 1990s I quit drinking alcohol and haven't missed that either.
ReplyDeleteI can spend too much time on my computer or phone but I'm not as bad as others I see. My favorite habits now are reading books, reading blogs, and taking walks.