Can addiction ever be pleasurable?

[superweirdo]

In my experience, whenever we are being addicted, we end up doing it even when we don't want to and deeply in the heart, we don't like it. Now don't get technical as in we are addicted to happiness or success. I mean addiction as in sex, crack, etc.

 

[Outlandish_Existence]

So, you are referring to addictions that would be diminishing either to our bodies or our minds? Pleasure is found within the experience of the being that is under the influence of such a beholding. This is a matter of subjectivism and relativity. Only the true desire of any single being in question will ever give you the answer that you require.

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

Addiction is BASED on pleasure. Maybe emotional pleasure sometimes, and physical pleasure other times. The reason why people are addicted to smoking and drugs etc. is because when they do it they get a rush, it feels good. If every time someone smoked they had an allergic reaction they would NOT get addicted, no matter how much they were forced to smoke because it is so unpleasureable.

 

[Outlandish_Existence]

Are you sure of that? As he just stated, aside from alcohol, many of us have a reaction of regression subsequent to interacting with mind altering substances. So, perhaps addiction is based on the lack of pleasure, creating an exigency toward drugs. Rather, in your statement, addiction is based on the lack of pleasure, and not of pleasure itself.

Accurately: Addiction is BASED on the lack of pleasure.

 

[superweirdo]

What I am saying is that in limit, you enjoy everything, but if you overdo, the it isn't fun anymore. I have had days when I couldn't stop myself b/c of pleasure but even though I was hating it, I couldn't stop. Now since I have grown up(17), I have better will power and I can keep myself under control. But when you are addicted, you do it too much and it isn't fun anymore. Don't be specific, I am just saying that i have seen the same thing to everyone and everything. Is there an exception where you actually like being addicted?

 

[Outlandish_Existence]

Sure, but that only applies to people who don't yet realize it's an addiction. Once noticed it becomes a psychological battle. Again, it's a matter of subjectivism. One may discover endless amounts of glee in inducing such an addiction. Others may not.

 

[superweirdo]

But when you think about it don't you want to be the person who addicted to infinite amound of pleasure that doesn't do you any harm like sex?

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I'd argue that being addicted to sex could do you all sorts of social and psychological harm. That's why it's considered a mental illness in some cases. I wouldn't know though I've never had enough to become addicted but if anyone wants to try and experiment pm me and I'll be happy to be a guinea pig j/k

 

[superweirdo]

lol, havn't you have had any crack addicts friends. Well I have and all of them have the same story. That they don't enjoy it anymore(physically they do) but they want to stop but they can't they are so addicted, it is the craving that takes over them. I am talking about the same thing. DOn't you think that whenever someone becomes addicted, he does it to stop his craving, not to enjoy, but to simply stop that pain( I am giving craving my own imaginative name)

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Oh without a doubt, but that's when it becomes a physical rather than a mental addiction. For example chocolate can be very addictive, but unlike crack it's impossible to become physically addicted AFAIK, over use of chocolate can still do you harm though. I guess what I'm saying is all physically addictive drugs start off as pleasurable experiences, but sooner or later they desolve into a self destructive need to feel normal, as the body begins to tolerate higher and higher doses without effect.

 

[superweirdo]

so what you are saying is that physical addiction ends up being nonpleasurable but mental addiction always is?

 

[Mickey]

superweirdo, I will never underestimate your persistence to make simple things complicated.

These questions aren't that philosophical. There are volumes of scientific literature about them that you should consult, if you are really interested.

 

[superweirdo]

The thing is, I have got lots of question and I can't PhD in everything so I just ask questions from one field to another. Btw, I am almost done, my last question in this thread is, is mental addiction pleasurable unlike physical?

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

No not exactly they both come from the same source, one leads to a lack of eventual pleasure the other is always pleasurable. It's a difficult subject that requires some real research. Smoking for example only becomes physically aditive after a considerable amount of time, there has been some serious research (I live with someone who did a PhD in it and produced some papers on the subject) That leads to an eventual conclusion that it is physically addictive given the amount of time the brain takes to make it so, it's mainly a social pleasure, if you remove the particular reasons for said drug taking, then even long term abusers can lose the addiction, it's not widely understood, but it is scientifically accepted. You don't become addicted to cigarettes overnight, it is a very long term process, that comes from long term behavioural cueing, i.e it's a learned physical addiction.

Some drugs become physically addictive only because of the way the brain adapts to a long term situation, others simply are because they mimic certain chemicals already present in our brains. But there's a wild, wild world of difference between one drug or another. You need to distinguish between mental and physical addiction, you won't get that unless you take each drug indidvidually.

 

[Moonbear]

Addiction is BASED on pleasure. Maybe emotional pleasure sometimes, and physical pleasure other times. The reason why people are addicted to smoking and drugs etc. is because when they do it they get a rush, it feels good. If every time someone smoked they had an allergic reaction they would NOT get addicted, no matter how much they were forced to smoke because it is so unpleasureable.

Not really. The definition of addiction is that you cannot stop something that is harmful to you (more or less). When you're doing it just because it feels good, it's generally not yet an addiction. It's when you're doing it to stop the bad feelings without any longer getting the same degree of pleasureable feelings that it's truly classified as an addiction.

 

[superweirdo]

I believe when you doing something to stop the craving, not to get pleasure from it, then it is addiction. What I was wondering is can you have craving and addiction at the same time? So you can enjoy it and do it all the time. B/c you know, not all addictions are harmfull.

 

[Moonbear]

B/c you know, not all addictions are harmfull.

Name one that isn't. Again, that is in the DEFINITION of addiction, that someone is unable to control their use of something despite negative or adverse consequences. If it's not harmful, it's not an addiction.

http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com/article1.html

 

[Evo]

I'm afraid superweirdo is no longer with us, so thread closed.