Addiction

How do you know you are addicted to something.

I'm refeering to anything really.

Drugs
People
Things
Substance
Liquid

whatever

how do you know?

Tottaly^^

You know your addicted:

when it starts to run your life. you plan everything in your day around it and when you can see/use/touch/ect it next.

when you are drawn to it every minute of the day and feel like you need it to survive.

when all your free time, money, and effort goes into it.

when it is all you can think about.

when you have to ask if your addicted.

Depends on what kind of addiction mental or physical sometimes both, i guess the easiest way to tell if you are addicted to something is when you constantly think about it and when your not on it or you don't have you get frustrated easier. I'm an addict currently in treatment and like if the stuff runs your life, takes all your money, if you lose friends over it, thats prolly when you would know for sure. The easiest way to know is to try and stop and to see what happens. People say they did this and that for this long and that long thats not what counts ive been doing drugs for years and just recently started going to diversion and counseling, and it's just when the drugs or whatever completely runs your state of mind. I.E. you can't go to work today cause your not high you feel like crap, you r entire physical and mental state is in complete disarray because you don't have it. It comes to the point where you 'need' it. That's an addiction, it;s hard to explain for me, but thats about is good as i can tell ya, hope that helps.

Addictions when you cant go a day maybe even an hour without thinking/doing it. You feel like you need it to do anything. You feel lost without it. It controls your life basically.

Addiction is when you stop something but still feel you need it every second of every day. addiction is when your heart rate goes up just thinking about it. when just thinking about it distracts you from doing simple tasks and you want it no matter how much you know you shouldn't. Addiction is an extreme want(confused with need) for something that distracts you from sad/angry feelings or comforts you or calms you down. Addiction SUCKS!!!

Well addiction can take many different forms - it can be direct and violent (you plan your day around that, you feel you cant function without it) or it can be more subtle (you feel depressed or paranoid when you don't have it or you).

Addiction is really hard to explain, because different people have different addiction patterns. Some fall into it more easily, or are consumed more by it.

Personally, when it came to addiction I felt as though, without drugs, I couldn't really express my mind. Like my mind was being supressed and the only way to let it out was to take pills. Some people suffer from physical addiction, others mental. Its tough to explain.

I agree with Leth..that is how is used to be for me as well...

Idk, evryone who knows of my addiction says "that must hurt" but to tell the truth, it hurts alot less than the pain i experience in everyday life

I think its when you know but can't stop doing it....like me

I smoke and drink and take a lot of pills for some reason....I just do.....

"^addictive people can also find some of the strangest ways to justify their addictions...I smoke because it calms my nerves. I drink to socialize, I take drugs to feel less tense....but the best one I ever heard was, I love being high that way I don't have to deal with reality....

^why was that the best one, because the reality is that person is weak and the reality is, he needs an excuse to justify his weakness which he covers up with his addiction"

Very true. Everyone who slides into addiction has an excuse for it. I realized that my excuse was exactly that though, an excuse, and much like the the situation that you mentioned - the reality of the whole thing was I was too weak to just say no. The key word is was. I'm clean now, and plan to stay clean forever more.

I'm sober now and still write just as much as I did when I wasn't, and in some ways, find my writing to be more clear and, I don't know how exactly to explain it, less... chaotic, perhaps? So, I realized that I didn't need the drugs to express my mind, that was merely the excuse I was telling myself to justify they're use. Obviously though, that wasn't really the case.

You know you are addicted when you
find that you cant cope without
what ever it is.
And also when you use it as a means to "escape"
or if you use it to make "things better"
it all depends but
when you get to a stage where
you are doing what ever it is on a regular basis and find that you cant go with out it, thats usually when you are addicted