Why We’re All Addicts

With the stereotypical addict being a dude with dark bags under his eyes, wearing a hoodie, and clutching a syringe — it’s easy to think that most of us are far from being addicts. 

 But the signs of addiction are much more subtle. As The School of Life defines it, addiction is — the maniac reliance on something, anything, in order to keep our dark or unsettling thoughts at bay.

Everything we do is a coping mechanism— Be it smashing weights in the gym to quell stress, getting lost inwork to prevent undesirable thoughts, tuning into the illusory world of TV to escape reality, or aimlessly scrolling through our social media feeds when there’s nothing to do.

We’re constantly shying away from confronting our own minds. Living in a hyper-abundant world, being “perma-stimulated” has become the norm. There’s always something to do so we’ve forgotten the art of doing nothing.

To get a measure of how addicted we are, it’s worth asking ourselves — when was the last time we sat doing nothing and letting our thoughts, both uncomfortable and pleasant run freely?