Addiction is a pretty serious issue in society, and there are plenty of addictions that carry a lot of stigma. But what about the addictions that are kinda treated like they're NBD?
Reddit user u/Russian_lover1 opened up a pretty interesting conversation when they asked people to share the addictions they think are accepted as normal in society. Here are some of the top-voted responses:
1. "Caffeine is probably the most widely-accepted addiction. It’s no big deal when someone says, 'Man I can’t even think until I’ve had a cup of coffee.' Replace coffee with almost anything else addictive, and you’ve got yourself an intervention."
2. "Shopping. I don't think a lot of people even realize this is a thing. My ex-husband had a shopping addiction and it ended up costing me a ton of money over the years, plus when we divorced."
3. "Phones. I'm addicted to mine, my girl's addicted to hers, along with my siblings, parents, friends, and most people I know. The first thing we do when we wake up is check our phones, it's the last thing we do when we go to sleep, and we check them every time something isn't happening. I'm not saying phones are bad, but there's a real issue with addiction to them."
4. "Sugar. It doesn't help that the food industry dumps tons of sugar into foods for the sole purpose of making them addictive."
5. "Alcohol. It's insanely abused, and yet I'm the weird one for not drinking."
6. "Functional gambling. If you pay all your bills and buy groceries, people don't seem to bat an eye when you blow the rest of your paycheck at the casino."
7. "Definitely materialism. The overuse of phones and social media, traveling just to have pictures to post online, and having expensive items to show wealth and a high social status."
8. "Wine. Being a 'wine mom' is a fun, quirky expectation, with cutesy artwork and decor showcasing how much you love wine."
9. "Pornography. Just like alcohol, you can probably consume without being an addict. But, just like alcohol, you don't need to be an addict for it to be unhealthy."
10. "Being a workaholic. It's just as destructive as drinking daily, and will absolutely send you into an early grave."
11. "Marijuana. Nobody talks about this! They'll say things like, 'it's natural,' 'it's impossible to be addicted,' and 'I'm not hurting anyone by getting my child high and smoking around them.'"
12. "Junk food. No one really cares if you kill yourself with shitty food. I could leave right now and get a 2,000-calorie meal for under $10 at 3 a.m. I find that junk food is not only accepted, but also treated as a reward and trained into our lives from a young age."
13. "Despite the odds, nicotine. Thanks to vaping, it’s still going strong."
14. "Tattoos. You can’t stop at just one."
15. "Hustle culture and the constant obsession with self-improvement, only to end up upset because you never feel good enough. It's okay, you're human. Self-improvement has become an epidemic."
16. "Television. If you tell someone you binge-watched a whole season of a show in a day, they'll be totally fine with that. That's usually like 13 hours of TV, and yet no one will even question it, other than to find out what awesome show it was so they can do it too. Tell someone you just played 13 hours of video games, and they'll look at you like you're throwing your life away."
17. "Health and weight obsession. As in, people counting calories for everything, and feeling the need to exercise in order to compensate for the sauce they put in their salad. I'm not talking about people eating healthy and exercising normally, I'm talking about people who are obsessed with it."
18. And finally, "Approval. It's what drives social media, and many industries thrive off of it (clothing, cosmetics, tech, etc.). It's also why kids and adults alike develop social media-derived anxieties that bleed into school, work, real life, and their social circles. It's strangely widely accepted that we must dress in the newest trends, keep up with celebrity gossip, have the newest cell phones, etc. All just to 'fit in.'"
What are some addictions you think are accepted as normal in society? Share them in the comments.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.