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Most people are familiar with how detrimental an addiction to drugs or alcohol can be. It can exhaust all your money, cost you your relationships, land you in jail, and even result in death. But some lesser-known addictions can be almost as destructive. Commenters on an online message board shared devastating stories of strange addictions you may never have known existed.
Gambling
With stories of people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to gambling, it’s no wonder this is a legitimate addiction with serious consequences. The 12-step program Gamblers Anonymous helps many people nationwide stop their dependence on gambling.
Shopping
“A friend’s GF barely leaves the house except for work, and she shops online obsessively. Their garage is a solid cube of stuff, much of it unopened. Every inch of their home is crammed. There must be 150 scented candles in that house. He says he comes home every day to a stack of deliveries,” said one commenter.
Tattoos
People rarely have just one tattoo these days. It seems like people either have none or are covered head to toe. That may be due to the addictive nature of tattoos. Many people report that once you get one, you want to keep going back to get more.
World of Warcraft
This popular multiplayer online role-playing video game allows you to escape reality and be someone else, all with other online players. One user recalled, “Had a friend who’s wife literally had to threaten divorce with bags packed and car running, before he’d quit. He would get up early, play, go to work, come home, play, and then sleep and repeat. Weekends he’d be on 16 hours a day. Ignored his wife and kids the whole time.”
Nasal Spray
Surprisingly, many commenters attested to the addictive nature of nasal spray. One theory is that your nose’s reaction to the medicine will dwindle over time, eventually making you more congested the more you use it, requiring you to spritz your nostrils more to clear them. One user shared, “Nasal spray was far harder to give up than cigarettes for me. I used to have a separate bottle in all my coats, spare at home, spare at work, etc.”
Pudding
“I worked with a guy whose wife signed him up for a pudding of the month club as a gag gift. Turns out the guy really likes pudding. I borrowed a power saw from him one time and he showed me a section of his basement that was just shelves and shelves of pudding. Pudding cups. Instant pudding. The kind you have to cook. He even had a chest freezer filled with some weird foreign kind of pudding pop,” said one commenter.
Relationships
Often referred to as serial monogamists, one user explained their characteristics: “When someone can’t stand being single for any length of time. And once they enter that relationship, they push all other friends aside because that new man/woman is all that matters.”
Social Media
We’ve all been guilty of spending too much time doom-scrolling on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, but when it starts to interfere with everyday life, it becomes a real problem. Some use certain apps with timers to limit your social media usage and lock you out when it runs out.
Diet Coke
Commenters noticed that many people either didn’t drink it at all or drank it obsessively, some with dire consequences. One user said, “A friend drank only Diet Coke this past summer. Has now been struggling with a 6mm kidney stone for two months and waiting for surgery. He no longer drinks diet coke.”
Food
Food addiction is a real thing, and it even has its own 12-step program called Overeaters Anonymous. Some people become so obsessed with food and dependent on either eating non-stop or restricting food that they can suffer major physical and mental health problems.
Candy Crush
It’s no accident that this popular phone app game is so addictive. The rewards, the bright colors, and the thrill are designed to get people to keep coming back and even spending money on the app. Some people have blown thousands of dollars on Candy Crush.
A Toxic Relationship
One mom shared her story of her child’s struggle with a toxic boyfriend: “It was like my daughter was a junkie for him and he treated her like s**t it was horrible. She would cry every day; the littlest thing would make her bawl. Finally, when she was crying one day and said, ‘I feel like I’m dying inside,’ I told her dad we needed to do something. I took her to a far away state where my best friend lives and we gave her a month long vacay, she had a blast. Their relationship didn’t even last 3 days when she got home. I think she realized there was more to life! Which was the goal.”
Exercise
It seems strange that exercise could be an addiction. After all, most of us have difficulty getting to the gym to do a moderate workout. However, in the case of exercise bulimia, some people obsessively use it as a means to control their weight or work off a binge, sometimes even to the point of exhaustion and hospitalization.
Sugar
Some studies have shown that sugar is as addictive, or possibly more so, than cocaine. Not to mention, it’s readily available everywhere you look. Some people develop a dependency on sugar, so much so that they hide it from loved ones and eat it in secret.
Pornography
You hear stories about people who are no longer intimate with their spouses because of their dependence on these X-rated videos. Several commenters personally admitted that their obsession with it ruined their marriage.
Conspiracy Thinking
So many wild conspiracy theories are floating around the internet these days that many people succumb to their convincing nature and become obsessed. “I’ve seen people turn so paranoid they’ve completely ceased to function… But they’re like dead inside now they’re gone,” shared one user.
Anger
Someone who’s addicted to anger is referred to as a rageaholic. They can’t regulate their emotions and blow up into a fit of rage, sometimes seemingly at the smallest things. Thankfully, if someone really wants to change, there is help in the form of personal therapy, anger management, or Rageaholics Anonymous.
Source: Reddit
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