Is Life An Addiction? Options

[El Nino]

I ask because we all need air, food and water.

[Mata]

No, because air water, food, and water are neccessary to human functioning.

If you didn't need these things to survive without conditioning then yes, they would be addictions, but since no conditioning is required to make them a biological necessity then they remain just that.

Unless you believe the Breatharians, who say that you don't need food, but there is only a drastically shakey scientific basis for this.

(moving thread to daft)

[El Nino]

No, because air water, food, and water are neccessary to human functioning.

If you didn't need these things to survive without conditioning then yes, they would be addictions, but since no conditioning is required to make them a biological necessity then they remain just that.

Unless you believe the Breatharians, who say that you don't need food, but there is only a drastically shakey scientific basis for this.

(moving thread to daft)

I asked if life (not just humans) is an addiction and definition of addict

addict n. addicts < 'á"dikt > : 1. Someone who is physiologically dependent on a substance; abrupt deprivation of the substance produces withdrawal symptoms

Withdrawal symptoms being Asphyxiation, hunger and dehydration.

[eleraama]

Interestingly enough, I was just thinking about this the other day. I don't think that it is; we could stop if we chose (and indeed some have- Gandhi stopped eating, people lost int he desert stop drinking, and people who suffocate themselves stop breathing). Sure, it may be a little unpleasant, but you can still do it...

[oobunnie]

That would be going down to a very technical level of the definition. But generally and addiction describes an attachment to something which you feel enhances your life, but is not a necessity.
I've never heard people mention withdrawal symptoms that end in death. Mostly they are described as a mental state or weakening of a certain part of the body. For instance shakes, or headaches.
Well by your definition I am a proud aerobic organism who loves me up some Oxygen. Besides the anaerobic organism are always so boring.

[Mata]

Death can be a result of abrupt withdrawal, for example babies born to mothers who are addicted to heroin need to be kept on a slowing decreasing amount of heroin to prevent their system going into shock.

BIC, it's clear that the definition that you have is a limited one. It doesn't account for people who are addicted to actions, only those who are addicted to substances.

By saying something such as 'food' you are implying that this is a clearly delineated group, which it really isn't. It's possible to find nutrition in many forms, some of which are almost as different as two non-animate substances can be. An addiction to a particular substance is one thing, but to a diverse range of substances sounds more like a hobby!

[El Nino]

Death can be a result of abrupt withdrawal, for example babies born to mothers who are addicted to heroin need to be kept on a slowing decreasing amount of heroin to prevent their system going into shock.

BIC, it's clear that the definition that you have is a limited one. It doesn't account for people who are addicted to actions, only those who are addicted to substances.

By saying something such as 'food' you are implying that this is a clearly delineated group, which it really isn't. It's possible to find nutrition in many forms, some of which are almost as different as two non-animate substances can be. An addiction to a particular substance is one thing, but to a diverse range of substances sounds more like a hobby!

Hey mata I was quoting the definition from a dictionary.

[Smiler]

MMmm juicy one,

Life can be given up at any moment as with, say drugs or chocolate. And we're also dependant on life to erm...carry on living. But its not something that we choose to start, as with a proper addiction. (Crack babies complicating issues but again they had no say)

Also, while most people's bodies will fight and do their best to continue life, while kicking a habit, the body is just restoring a balance and a dependancy that has been altered. To kick life is to die so therefore again not really a choice???

[El Nino]

To quote from a song lyric that I have recently posted "I can't justify not breathing air into my lungs".

[Miroslav]

I was asking the same question and googled the Internet to see if anyone asked the thought of this.

The reason I'm asking is that you may have many addictions that you can live with... it becomes a way of life. OK... some of them are shortening your life, but there are some good addiction like... jogging (you don't feel good until you run once a week or so).

But as in any usual addiction, it's hard to give up living... So... living would be a good addiction... and now... who can say which addiction is bad and which is good. If I'm poker addicted and I live with it, why is this a bad addiction?
We could define bad addictions those that controls you... and you can't overcome them. Yes, I think everyone agree that anything that takes our freedom away is bad. From this point of view any addiction is bad (it's a peaty though that we don't make full use of the freedom while we have it)

Back to life... it's a bad addiction as log it constrains you from something (abandoning it...) . But if don't want to, you'll never know this constraint... so it is not an bad addiction for you.

Extrapolating, you have no bad addiction as long you don't want to give up something that you can't.

[leopold]

Hey mata I was quoting the definition from a dictionary.

I think he may have spotted that. But let's just draw on that definition a second. It states a physiological dependance. There are two definitions for this, and we need to make the clear distinction:

1 : characteristic of or appropriate to an organism's healthy or normal functioning
2 : differing in, involving, or affecting physiological factors

Now, we need to make sure we relate addictions to the correct element of physiology.

Our physical beings need to have fuel in order to survive (ie. air, water and food) as this is the physiological make-up of all life on Earth. We depend on these elements to survive, or we suffer withdrawal symptoms, such as delusions, mirage, physical weakness, irritability and ultimately death. However, these are physical needs and we can't be addicted to them per-se. These relate to the first definition, which is our physical needs. The "withdrawal symptoms" are actually warnings of impending death and are to be heeded for survival.

The second definition relates more to substances which alter our physiological condition. The need to take drugs, eat chocolate or run for miles every day; our bodies don't need these things, but our brains dictate that we do. This is a psychological condition which leads to a change in our physiological state, and it's this that causes addictions. The withdrawal symptoms here are cravings, depression, hallucinations, mood swings, vomiting and so on. The ultimate end of these, however, is generally a release from the addiction unless the body is too weak to cope with the shock of withdrawal.

Death isn't a release from addiction, it's as a result of the body not getting what it needs. It needs food, air and water. It doesn't need cocaine, beer, bungee jumps or being hit by a bus.

So therefore, an addiction is to a substance we don't need in order to stay alive.

[Aislinn Faye]

Okay... so we all need food to live, right? But what about people that just can't stop eating? That say they are addicted to food, usually bad food. I mean, is that considered addiction or gluttony? as stated addiction is not being able to constrain yourself, and I guess can be defined by leopold's second definition. But it's considered a necessity, so when does it cross that line from necessity to addiction? When you go pass full? I dunno, I feel like I'm rambling now.

[tekkiegurl]

no. addiction is being dependent on something that you can live without. that my opinion

[elphaba2]

Life isn't an addiction. We can examine the question from a series of different standpoints (I'll use two)--let's start with the most intuitive, which most people have already made reference to: english language.

An 'addiction' to say nothing of the various denotations it's been given by various reference books, always has a connotation of harm. As others have brought up, the substance to which one is addicted is rarely considered either beneficial or useful. This makes sense. If addictions were critical to everyone's daily life and brought good, the english language would be one word short. So clearly it's not just frequency of use that determines use of a substance (or engaging in a behavior) an addiction--it's characterized by the fact that humans don't need that substance or behavior for life. Life's not an addiction.

In terms of pharmacology/biology--an addiction is defined by the presence of four characteristics (or a combination of some of them--for example, the fact that cigarettes don't cause intoxication was used as support for Big Tobacco's argument that boges aren't addictive): intoxication, dependence, withdrawal and perseverance. The last is the most interesting. It refers to the choice to continue using a substance (engaging in a behavior) despite problems caused by that substance or behavior. One could argue that man continues living despite problems caused by being alive (having unpleasant thoughts, for example, are an unfortunate side effect of having the capability to think) but let's take another look at the definition. Do we choose to be alive? If at every waking moment everyone was offered the choice "Alive or Dead?" (cake or death) and given a device with which to chose (machete, suicide pill, cake), well, staying alive would be a very active choice. But as of right now, happily, we merely live. On occasions when one desires to end life and is given an avenue through which to end it--that's choosing life. Stepping down from a ledge is choosing life. Getting out of bed on the other hand--no.

Does life cause dependence, withdrawal or intoxication? Given the various states of mental disarray one exists in on a daily basis, intoxication would be hard to prove. Imagine a pill that caused, with utter variability, all of the mental, physical and emotional states one experiences in a lifetime. We wouldn't call it a wonder drug. We'd call it a placebo. Is death withdrawal from life? Preposterous. One needs dependence for withdrawal to exist, and I think the existence of suicide in the world is sad truth that humans are not dependent on life. One doesn't "crave" life; once more, one simply lives. An alternate way to think of dependence is through a change in state. The substance or behavior awakes in its user a particular state of being; the removal of that stimulus returns one to a normal state or to a state of withdrawal if a dependence exists. There's no state-change involved in living.

Argh. OK. Sorry for the novel, kids. I'm in desperate need to warm my brain up and thought some argumentation might do the trick. (it did).

[mooooooooooopo]

Holy necroposting! Am I the only one who noticed that all of the posts before Miroslav's were made in 2004?

(whoops, this is Cand, not moop)

[Smiler]

no. addiction is being dependent on something that you can live without. that my opinion

You can't live without life! Although that then opens a can'o worms on the undead adn life after necromancy... hmmm

Holy necroposting! Am I the only one who noticed that all of the posts before Miroslav's were made in 2004?
(whoops, this is Cand, not moop)

Way to resurrect for the Newbie! Well done!