The Deadliest Addiction

This week is about addiction on the Conceited Crusade but first I have a few questions…

What defines addiction?

Is it the relentless hunger we feel for something? A need that makes us abandon reason and logic? A desire that is out of control? A monster that must be fed so that it sleeps lazily and the world almost forgets that it exists? Until it wakes.

Is life not the product of addictions? We move forward through life for a series of milestones that we label ‘reasons’. A compulsion for things that we can’t describe or understand. If enough of us agree on an addiction do we call it a ‘need’ instead?

Heroine is an addiction in a very clear cut way. Caffeine is the same but somehow it is labeled a need, the vernacular addiction.

What about things that are less clear cut? Is compulsive social media use a sign of addiction?

Is excessive dieting and exercise in pursuit of health, a possible addiction? Prolonged exercise can release serotonin providing a reward for the body and a subsequent need to find the high again.

Are humans addicted to sex? It is a ubiquitous outlet for every society on the planet. Abstinence is the unicorn that eludes even strictest attempts at purity. What is vice, after all, but a pleasure dressed in another man’s jealousy.

Chocolate. Hoarding. Shopping.Gambling. Drinking. Conquering… Winning.

None of these are as sinister or as undetected as the strongest addiction; Air. The will to live by breathing in sweet and life-giving oxygen. Try and hold a man under water and you will see his addiction. Attempt to bathe a cat and the demon of air will show his colors. Air is the addiction of life.

Men toil away for money and fame; power to live where the air is clean and plenty. They spend their fortunes in the twilight of their lives for the simple pleasure of one more day of air. The pattern is under our noses. Air is moving in and out of us every moment of the day, holding the keys to life like a taunting prison guard. Cruel life, where punishment seems to be the prize for playing.

This universal addiction is all consuming for if we conquer the specter, we become one.

Posted in Life, WritingTagged Addiction, Air, Deep Thoughts, Heroine, life, sex