Read "A Healthy Obsession" and post your reaction to the article. Do you believe that we can overcome harmful addictions by replacing them with healthy ones?
Please post by October 23.
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This blog is intended to enhance your learning experience. We can share thoughts and ideas which, I hope, will expand our perspectives on not only topics in psychology but also in our everyday lives. Good luck and have fun!
12 comments:
Well, Focusing on this issue, I think it depends on how you are going to define "harmful addictions". For example, if you have a nail-biting problem like I do (a harmful addiction); you can replace this harmful addiction with a healthy one by chewing on gum instead.
For people who are addicted to alcohol or nicotine, it may be harder to replace these harmful addictions with healthy ones. For smoking, it would be good to try to quit by using the patch. For alcohol addictions, it would be better to go to a rehab.
Depending on what the harmful addiction is, as in the article, the addiction to heroin or the addictions to compulsive shopping are sort of different kinds of addictions. Heroin is harmful and can cause death. Compulsive shopping just makes you broke and in the need of more money. Even though it would be hard to overcome these harmful addictions, I believe that they could be overcome if you have enough perseverance.
Augie Diana made a good point that “The assumption is that if physical activity is activating the same centers of the brain that drugs do, then it’s potential to minimize actual [drug] use and progression to addiction is great.” I think that what she said here is true and it makes a lot of sense showing that even harmful addictions can be overcome with healthy ones.
~Natalie D., period 1
When i first read this article, I couldnt help but think of how I have a healthy obsession with horseback riding. I love horses, and love to be around horses, and look forward to riding every weekend. It's healthy and it makes me happy to do, so it's a win-win situation. It also helps with better balance, posture, coordination, and demands your attention, which helps with everything that you work on.
Also when reading this, there was a sentence stating "This particular pathway has been linked to reward and motivation, and it contributes to how we pursue healthy and unhealthy behavior,” -Daniel McGehee
This statement reminded me of how I love to eat junk food, and imedietly got me thinking of how when I eat Doodles, they taste good, and make me feel good, so I continue to eat them. This is going to lead to an unhealthy obbsession,...but Doodles are just sooooooo good.
~nunes
Mr. Yip,
After reading this article, I believe that we can overcome harmful addications. However, everyone is different. Some are able to overcome it and some arn't able to, and it's especially to overcome an addication such as drinking and drugs. I believe that any harmful addication can be stopped, if you work hard at it, and replace these addications with healthier ones.
For example, if a person is addicted to drinking, I believe they could get over it, but not only by rehab, they could try drinking something better, such as water, juice, etc.
- Chris E. (Period 1)
Well, If it really does work, then sure I think its an awesome way to treat drug addiction. I'm not sure it will have the same effect on everyone but its worth a shot. I mean i cant remember feeling that great while bike riding (yes Mr. Yip I know you love riding lol). But this article was really interesting and like I said I hope it really does work. That would be cool.
* Remember Don't support bike paths, they are bad for the environment...but since theres one already here, go ahead :)
Michaela Laliberte
Michaela,
I am so confused.
Are you being sarcastic about not supporting bike paths?
What's wrong with bike paths?
I rode my bike on the bike path the other day... ??!?!?!?!?!
*****I SUPPORT BIKE PATHS 100%*****
~Natalie
after reading the article I thought back on some signs of addiction, and i realized something, I'm addicted to playing my guitar, When I'm not playing im constantly thiking about what im going to do when i get the chance to play it, and if i havent played in a while i get irritable, really, REALLY irritable, and if Ii miss a day I feel this wierd urge to play it, like muscle tension in my forarm until I play. more proof of this addiction is that I forwent a career in law to pursue a career in music JUST SO I COULD PLAY MY GUITAR FOR A LIVING.
I don't know if it's really harmful, but I DID give up a career as a lawyer to play
At first glance I did feel this article was fairl farfetched. After returning home from hockey practice today I found myself visualizing what next weeks practice would consist of. Whyen thinking about what an addiction is, I realized hockey could be an addiction. Because sports are healthy and a good thing, I do feel it is able to replace bad habbits with healthy ones. By getting kids involved in good habbits such as sports, we can prevent bad habbits, such as drug abuse.
~Michael A
After reading about the other Theorists i believe that in some ways they both are right and they both make sense. the neo-freudians seem to have the same basic theories as Freud , but are less sex based and do not revolve as much around sex. the different theories from different sides fit different people differently and who you are as a person can make a certain theory make sense.
Getting rid of a harmful addiction is can be easier in some situations as opposed to others. Natalie gave a perfect example in her first few paragraphs about nail biting vs. alcoholism. While one is not so serious, they can both be replaced or totally destroyed if the person with the addiction 1. wants to get rid of this problem hard enough to do something about it and/or 2. actually makes an effort in doing so.
The best way to avoid harmful addictions are to preoccupy yourself with positive addictions, like being involved in a sport or hanging out with a group of good friends. If you spend all your free time not worrying about problems like drugs and alcohol, you will not get involved in things like that and you'll be able to live a healthy life. In the end, I believe a bad addiction can be overcome with the right amount of determination and help. Sometimes it's just physically impossible for someone to get over an issue without medical help, for example nicotine addictions. Therefore, if one gets the help they need and makes an effort, it can be done.
- Katherine Gannon
I think determining whether a person has a harmful addiction depends on what they are addicted to. Obviously, a person who is addicted to alcohol or drugs suffers from a harmful addiction. This addiction will most likely harm the person both physically and mentally. Therefore, it will be much more difficult for the person to overcome the addiction.
While many people probably believe that compulsive shopping is not considered a harmful addiction, i believe it can be. If the need to continuously shop begins to take over your life, it can be very harmful. As previously stated by some classmates, you may need to attend rehab to treat an alcohol or drug addiction, but i believe that this can also be true for compulsive shoppers. If the shopping addiction gets to the point where it is taking over your life and ruining your life because you have no money left, you should definitely attend rehab or therapy. All types of addictions, large or small, can essentially impact your life for the worse so it is best to try to minimize your problems by getting help right away.
marissa mardo
I feel that it is possible to replace healthy addictions with harmful ones. I also feel that every does have healthy addiction, in that every likes to do something healthy. Its just that when you do something healthy often, its not viewed as an addiction. Take running for example. Some people love to run and they run all the time. Running is certainly helpful to ones health. However no one really feels that this is an addiction, they just feel its a healthy activity. Therefore, maybe every single one of us has a healthy addiction, its just not viewed as an addiction.
Yours truly, Benjamin Miguel Pickering
I found this article very interesting. I am proud of the woman who got off of drugs and alcohol and began to ride a bike. It shows ambition. Many people struggle forever with drug and alcohol addictions and sometimes never recover. A cure like this is certain to be healthy if you are replacing unhealthy things with healthy exercise such as biking. I believe that this can work in some cases. Weening yourself off an addiction can be difficult and not all people have it easy enough to just replace it with exercise. Quitting smoking and/or drinking is challenging. A person who can overcome that is strong and by replacing it with a new healthy habit, is even stronger than just giving on thing up in turn for nothing.
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