To get addicted, you don’t need the ‘white powder’. Here is my story.
In my early days as an IPS officer, when I was back home after an intense, stressful day, I wanted a break. Since I never partied or socialized, watching TV became my ritual.
And before long, I started looking forward to this episode or that movie. I even started experiencing the fear of missing out (FOMO).
Those days, digital addiction was not yet a ‘thing’ but I knew in my gut that something was wrong. I was wasting my life, I hated it, and yet I was doing it.
One day, I disconnected the TV, expecting the fear of missing out (FOMO) to smack me in the face — instead, it was gone in a few days and I never felt that craving again.
It has been 20 plus years since I have watched TV — good riddance.
Is indulgence wrong? Not really, as long as it is deliberate and balanced.
You decide to watch two Netflix shows — that’s cool. You couldn’t stop yourself from watching 8 more? That is a problem.
Feeling compelled to do something even when it harms us, is addiction. We can get addicted to food, social media, messaging apps, video games, and heck, even to people!
The drug dealer of the old would sell crack cocaine or heroin in small packets.
The new-age drug dealer sits right in our pocket — our smartphone.
– Rajan