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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: Ensapa on May 20, 2013, 08:25:11 AM
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Everyone has an addiction, but what happens if you have addictions towards something other than alcohol or cigarettes like your own urine, snorting baby powder, chewing sticky tape, to your car or even being a big baby? To me, addiction is addiction...the object one is addicted to is irrelevant because it will always bring suffering. All of these addicts confessed that they do so because it relaxes them and its a way for them to deal with stress.
Comments? thoughts?
Most WTF Strange Addictions! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2DFKhDJzeE#ws)
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This is very fascinating because it shows how the human mind can find new and often bizarre ways to express its insecurities, anxieties and attachments. What you said is true, addiction is just addiction and it doesn't matter what way it is expressed but the ones you presented are just bizzarre but the real problem I suspect lies underneath it.
I believe that many of them are either trying to numb a secret pain or distract them from something they do not want to face. That's just my hunch and I believe all of us do the same one way or another and that's why we need Dharma. We don't want to avoid the truth and end up becoming like of these folks who rather risk all social conventions and alienate friends and family in order to engage in these bizarre activities. That's how I see it anyway.
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Hmm.. fascinating.
I would say some people do have very bizarre characters. I remember reading about a guy that eats nails as well, I guess he is not featured in this video but he was pretty popular at one point of time.
Although I would say it is bizarre, but in actuality, there person that eats her husband's ashes should not receive more funny stares than a person that smokes... addiction is an addiction... it is not the object they are addicted to which is in question, but more of the attitude of addiction itself that causes them to be non functional most of the time because they are so fixated about it... and when it is taken away from them, they become severely stressed.
Really pity them... to ween them off these addictions would be as bad as helping someone to get off their drug addiction.
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This is very fascinating because it shows how the human mind can find new and often bizarre ways to express its insecurities, anxieties and attachments. What you said is true, addiction is just addiction and it doesn't matter what way it is expressed but the ones you presented are just bizzarre but the real problem I suspect lies underneath it.
I believe that many of them are either trying to numb a secret pain or distract them from something they do not want to face. That's just my hunch and I believe all of us do the same one way or another and that's why we need Dharma. We don't want to avoid the truth and end up becoming like of these folks who rather risk all social conventions and alienate friends and family in order to engage in these bizarre activities. That's how I see it anyway.
To me, it is more or less a way for them to deal with their own issues and pain. Instead of dealing with the actual problem, they choose to hide away and distract themselves from it and once they start, they have to keep doing it again and again every time they feel stressed or when their unhappiness is triggered as a means to cope with it. Needless to say, this is not a healthy way at all in dealing with such problems, but unfortunately, for these people, they dont really have a choice anymore as their minds have been weakened by distractions.
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Oh dear.. these are really strange addictions. I agree with what Big Uncle says about these people trying to numb something secret. I find the part about that lady being addicted to her urine and the last part where the lady brings her husband's ashes with her everywhere and start eating "him".
What is surprising though is the part where the young man is addicted to eating glass ... he mentioned that he had the occasional cut on his lips and some splinters getting embedded in his gums - but do not these glass pieces cut the inside of his body? How did he manage to stay OK all this while?
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Oh dear.. these are really strange addictions. I agree with what Big Uncle says about these people trying to numb something secret. I find the part about that lady being addicted to her urine and the last part where the lady brings her husband's ashes with her everywhere and start eating "him".
What is surprising though is the part where the young man is addicted to eating glass ... he mentioned that he had the occasional cut on his lips and some splinters getting embedded in his gums - but do not these glass pieces cut the inside of his body? How did he manage to stay OK all this while?
Yes they are. But one thing that we have to remember is that everyone is an addict in some way as all addictions have the same mental process, only the object of addiction differs. Whether or not someone is addicted to drugs or cigarettes or being a grown up baby, the objective of being addicted to something is to numb or distract a pain or to distract us from something that makes us unhappy. As long as we do something to distract us from something we do not like, we are an addict in some way which is why we should not discriminate those with odd addictions.
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I do agree with Big Uncle. Most of the person that show on the recording have some past very painful experiences. They have no other ways to express the pain but to put on action. Back to our situation,
whose in this world have not have pain. Lucky enough we have known Dorje Shugden , he who willing to guide us through this degenerate age. I wish the people in the recording video above able to find a way to ease their pain. Pray for them
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How about this addiction
--- she drinks fresh blood!!
--- she smells deadly moth balls
--- she is addicted to bee stings
See... http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-strange-addiction (http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-strange-addiction)
There are many more strange addictions that have been reported. If you would search from the Net, you would come up with very strange ones!
http://chronicfatigueandnutrition.com/brain/strange-addictions/
A similar brain chemistry imbalance will support a “strange addiction” where it pertains to a strange habit or compulsion or attachment to an object as opposed to eating a strange substance. There is often an obsessive compulsive nature to the addiction where the person feels that they cannot live without their addiction or habitual action. Examples include keeping excessive numbers of one particular animal, or an excessive collection of some type that disrupts one’s lifestyle or causes one to live in secret about it, or having an unusual relationship or attachment to an object such that it begins to replace human relationships.
When a strange addiction includes an unusual attraction to a substance or an unusual behavior, there is often an underlying subconscious emotional link the person is not consciously aware of.
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I see many post here in the direction and agreeing that people having addiction is way to hide some secret, because of insecurities, anxieties and attachment subconsciously? i presumed? How do we conclude that? Like for example smokers. Smoke addicts have the above issues? They smoke because they are hiding something. But i do come across people smoking more when they are stressed which may relate to anxiety. Anyone want to share their findings?
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In my opinion, I reckon addiction it's a kind of distraction or an escape from the real truth or situation that they would want to avoid. Maybe a certain chemical reaction or odor may have caused them to feel relaxed or divert their discomfort from the stressful condition for a while. So the next time they face a similar problem again, they would again look for the same escapism to help them through. In some cases, I think it is a way to attract the attention of other people to them.
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Here's another strangest addiction story.
Forty tear old Natasha shared her addict to powdered clay face masks. It is not the love of putting the clay to her face that she is addicted to.For the past seven years she has been consuming up to a jar of the clay everyday.She even substitute it for meals and says it tastes wonderful,like wet rocks.There are risks as expected to congesting clay masks as they include alluminium and titanium,which can lead to kidney and nervous system damage.But the doctor gave her a clean bill of health despite the volumes of clay she consumed.Critics said they can't imagine how her body processes the clay.
It is so weird that a normal person can have this strange addiction and this is only one mention here .There are many more on the different websites.
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well, here's another story that is quite scary:
New York Woman Nicole Jones Addicted To Eating Deodorant?! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IngxxLdJUKk#ws)
she eats deodorant!
With all of these, please do remember that we all have our own addictions, so dont get too disgusted over the different addictions these people have. only their object of their addiction differs from ours :) this is just a reminder and to help us develop equanimity.
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Strange is defined as being "unusual or surprising in a way that is unsettling or hard to understand". In this these cases, that is certainly so. Most can understand addictions to certain food, cigarettes, gambling, drugs and alcohol because these "normal" addictions bring certain "benefits" to the addicts. All has physical effects and psychological effects. Addiction can also be defined as "the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something".
The common thing with both "normal" and "strange" addiction is the addiction itself ie the compulsiveness. All has physical and psychological effects in different degrees. The difference with these "strange" addictions is that we find it unsettling or hard understand. But even in religion, some find some practices unsettling and hard to understand as well. The key is to find out why.
For these "strange" addictions, strange though it may be we; apart from the possibility of poisoning; there are very little difference with "normal" addictions". Both are forms of habituations. But then this is what Buddhism is trying to get rid of. Habituations!
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Wow...some of the mentioned above are giving a Bizzare food a run here. I guess most of the addiction started off being playfully about it and we somehow or rather thought we will be able to control it, but unknowingly we naturally adapted to it which became addiction. Yes, there are some unusual addiction which is bizzare like eating deodorant or gambling which eventually have a bad effects on us depending how serious and to what extend the addiction is. For some it may causes harm not only to ourselves but to others. Bottom line is we are all leaving in samsara and i think so how or rather we have our own kind of addiction; like watching tv or simply having a coffee every morning before work. Although it is not unusual to have a cup of coffee but it is still consider an addiction, as to the person who is swallowing away a deodorant away although it is not normal but it is an addiction.
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Wow...some of the mentioned above are giving a Bizzare food a run here. I guess most of the addiction started off being playfully about it and we somehow or rather thought we will be able to control it, but unknowingly we naturally adapted to it which became addiction. Yes, there are some unusual addiction which is bizzare like eating deodorant or gambling which eventually have a bad effects on us depending how serious and to what extend the addiction is. For some it may causes harm not only to ourselves but to others. Bottom line is we are all leaving in samsara and i think so how or rather we have our own kind of addiction; like watching tv or simply having a coffee every morning before work. Although it is not unusual to have a cup of coffee but it is still consider an addiction, as to the person who is swallowing away a deodorant away although it is not normal but it is an addiction.
Anything that we do to make ourselves feel better and to forget about the truth for a short while (because it hurts) and we keep obsessing over that to get our fix for our imaginary pain is addiction. So it could be being addicted to the internet, listening to music, reading, smoking for stress reduction, or just having a mental escape, but it is still addiction and so there's not much difference from whatever other funny addictions that people have. It is only the object that differs. Some people is just addicted to different things. There was the story of a jain ascetic during the Buddha's time that was addicted to eating feces, which was a result of his previous bad karma and the Buddha helped him overcome it and he became a monk at the end. We should be aware of this.
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Attachment can be defined as a deluded mental factor that observes a contaminated object, regards it as a cause of happiness, and wishes for it. Contaminated object refers to any object that gives rise to delusions or that causes them to increase. Examples contaminated objects are the environments, beings, and enjoyments of samsara. Hence addiction to own urine, snorting baby powder, chewing sticky tape, to our car or even being a big baby etc are merely different examples of attachments. As attachments are a root of samsara and the cause of sufferings, they must be eradicated.
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Any addictions are scary...there are many weird addctions, but most of it are not because they are addicted to an object they like to behold but rather they are attached to their habituated mental afflictions that followed them many many lifetimes. No matter how heavy or light the addiction be, we still need to remove from it, if not immediately but progressively.