By that logic I think I might be addicted to video games

Gonna sound like a Tony Robbins seminar or something here but maybe it'll help some people. haha. I've been analyzing all this for the past year now, in my own life. Not there yet, but got some handled. Threw out the tv several years ago. However, you may slip but as long as you get back on track. The monkey guy brain is hard to handle, man.

Was doing the dishes earlier and was thinking about the video games. You can still have similar addictive behaviors but the negative side effects aren't as pronounced so we think it's "ok".

With me, I blew most of the 2000's decade playing multiplayer video games with nothing to show for it afterwards. Had to put the kibosh on that and start working on the tunes instead. I can go play them anytime now, or booze it up.. but that's losing. I gotta work on trying to win instead. Tried 30 years of losing, not workin out for ya.

Same thing with the social networking or surfing around the internet for interesting stuff. Blew a lot of the later 2000's with social networking.

It's not like smoking where you have black lungs or drinking with the liver. How about the sex thing, I talked about STD's but how about having a kid!? Is it really worth the 15 minutes of it feeling a little better and then ruining the rest of it.

With these other subtle addictions the negative side effects may not be as obvious. But in the long run, if you keep doing that too much, too often, it takes away time where you could be doing something more creative. At least instead of doing that you could have something to show for it later.

Same thing with watching tv, especially sports. What about people staring into their smart phones as they almost get hit by cars when crossing the street. Now you're getting into the addiction to distractions.

Why do they do that? Usually it's to get their mind off how their life sucks. If you put it away, the reality starts to creep in. Can't get away from it when it's time to go to sleep, so what do they do then, they take sleeping pills.

To clean up your life is a long term project. They just go "fuck it" instead and do these instant gratification things to get their mind off it. Who wants to sit around and put together one piece of the puzzle per day.

The opposite of all this, is things which are better later but suck now. Doing the dishes, for example. Any chores. How about being lazy instead of going to work more to get increased money. Always the bare minimum.

Me it was trying to working on tunes instead of surfing around the internet. At first it's like, continously, ever moment in the present, my monkey brain throws in a thought of "this sucks", it's "boring". Really hard to get into the groove. Your monkey brain really is going to throw in the thought of it's "boring". That's why people stare into their smart phone instead, if they turn it off, it's "boring".

So stuff like long term projects, if you're all hammered and try to work on it, you go duh. Too complicated this software. If things get difficult you go, let's go play video games instead. If you're boozing it during most present moments with the bit of spare time you have during a day, next thing you know you blew a decade and never put together a piece of the puzzle at a time.

With the booze or pot, if I've got it in the house, I'll be cracking open a beer. But if there's none, no problem. I went a good year and a half up till this past summer, with none. No big deal. But if there's some around, it's more "fun" now to have some. I'm not like one of those hardcore alcoholics who think about it all the time when they don't have it. They key is to just not have it in the house. Same thing with the pot. So don't really have to totally quit, then you don't get this panic of I'll never be able to do it for the rest of my life. If you relax about it and can maybe have some once in a while, then it's no big deal. The problem is when you pick up beer every few days. Now it's costing you more days in the hole later in the future.

Food too, if it's around, you're gonna be snacking on it. Just don't have it in the house. Then you're too lazy to go get it, like going to the vendor for beer. The food though, you have to get used to that feeling of being "hungry" even if some is around. This is where people run into problems where they're always snacking. Just man up, it's called being "hungry" and eat when you haven't for a good chunk of the day. Otherwise you'll just get fat. People don't have too much exercise in today's society so only way to deal with that is to just calm down with stuffing your face all the time.

Same thing though, all of it.. the addiction to distractions. The reason you do all of them is because you want to get your mind off how your life sucks. If you're busy with trying to fix it, then you're busy with that instead of doing all of them. So once I'm working on the tunes, I'm fine, then there's less of this desire to go pick up beer. That's like the opposite of a vicious circle, now it's a positive circle. Once you start fixing how your life sucks, you're busy with that instead of doing all those negative side effect things.