My favorite concept and oxymoron: positive addiction.
William Glasser, author of “Positive Addiction," once said, “a positive addict uses his extra strength to gain more love and more worth, more pleasure, more meaning, more zest from life in general."
However, according to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, addiction can be defined as a having “compulsive needs" that are "habit-forming" and may be harmful. But what if there were addictions that instead of making you weaker, made you stronger?
Addiction is not a new concept, and no two addicts are the same. Since 1599 — when the first known definition of addiction was expressed — this concept has carried with it a negative connotation. The impression in today's society on recovered addicts sets discrimination by employers, health care providers and the government.
In turn, negative connotations about having an addiction cause people to like they have a problem when, in many cases, they are experiencing no trouble.
Today, when we hear the term, we generally think of a negative behavior, in which a person is fundamentally incapable of stopping. But 75 percent of alcoholics recover without treatment, according to the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol abuse.
However, in cases where there are addictive drugs involved that change one's body composition, physical addiction can be a serious problem.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 43.8 million adults were current smokers in the year 2010. On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.
"While there are plenty of cases where addicts struggle for years to overcome a drug addiction, many more cases reveal the opposite: short-term users who manage to put the the past behind them and lead normal and productive lives," said Adi Jaffe in a CNN article.
Contrary to belief, addictions that do not necessarily have a negative effect on someone's life and physical well being can be positive. Outlined in Glasser's book, criteria for a positive addiction includes being addicted to something noncompetitive, easily accomplished and is something that does not depend on others. Also, the individual with the addiction must believe that it has some value — physical, mental or spiritual — to them, and that the addiction will improve the individual in some way.
With self-realization in the mind, there are plenty of pros to being positively addicted to something. Monomaniacally speaking, as an addict, an individual learns how to not be so selfish. Addicted people learn to feel remorse for others and feel that it is necessary to share with others.
In that sense, some of the little addictions, like eating chocolate or collecting comics, are really the pleasant things in life that are worth repeating without hurting anyone's life. For example, a drug addict is determined in their hunt for drugs but weak in the mind for anything else — blindly giving up on love, family and their friends. A positive addict enjoys his or her addiction, but it does not dominate and prevail on others. Positive addicts gain mental strength in order to accomplish their needs and wants in order to become successful.