What is a Soft Addiction
Soft addictions can be habits, obsessive behaviors, or recurring moods or negative thought patterns. They satisfy a shallow want but completely disregard or block the deeper need. The soft addiction brings a superficial high instead of true feelings of accomplishment.
Numerous soft addictions have to do with basic activities like eating, reading, and sleeping. These activities become soft addictions as soon as we overdo them and start using them for more than their intended purpose. Soft addictions are seductive in their softness. E-mailing, shopping, and talking on the phone all appear to be completely harmless, enjoyable activities while we're engaged in them. If we open our eyes to see the amount of time and energy we give to them, however, we can understand how they hurt the quality of our lives.
You should know that an almost infinite variety exists. A soft addiction can be as idiosyncratic as any individual personality. Though a universal soft addiction may be watching TV, a more personal form might be doodling geometric figures or counting items for no reason.
Some individuals have a hard time differentiating an infrequent behavior or fleeting mood from a soft addiction. If you watch television one hour per day, is it only a harmless habit,while if you watch three hours per day (the national average), does it become a soft addiction?
Remember the following: The incentive and the function of your behavior decide whether it is a soft addiction or not. For example, television can be a window into new worlds -- or it can be used to escape this world. I know a lady who's extremely selective in what she watches. She uses TV as a tool to gain knowledge about foreign cultures and to better understand the behavior of animals. Another lady I know vegetates on the couch in front of the television daily, channel surfing and letting the programs wash over her. She leads a tough, hectic work life, and she mistakenly thinks that watching TV all night will reduce her stress. Very rarely does she have a specific show she desires to view or a valid reason for watching it. When you contrast the two television watchers, the differences in motivation and function are easy to see. The first woman's motivation revolves around very specific learning goals; the second woman's motivation is to numb herself.
Don't allow soft addictions to take over your life.
About the Author
JUDITH WRIGHT is hailed as a world-class coach, inspirational speaker, best-selling author, and corporate consultant. She is cofounder of the Wright Institute for Lifelong Learning. See her press release her book, "One Decision".
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