"Everybody Is An Addict!"

"Everybody is an addict of some kind or another."

It's not pretty to hear. Even offensive, isn't it? But that's how well-known psychotherapist and author of bestselling book "When Society Becomes An Addict," Dr. Anne Schaef, put it.

My experience tells me she seems accurate in a sense. We all appear to have our own respective "drugs-of-choice." Workaholics. Alcoholics. Nicotine addicts. Shopaholics. Prescription pill poppers. Sex addicts. Person-addicts. Caffeine addicts. Rageaholics. Sports addicts. Book addicts. Drug addicts. Gamblers. Foodaholics. Co-dependents. Cybergames addicts. And many more!

Aside from personal dynamics, society plays a role in our "addictions." My theory is that even those rare individuals from loving, healthy families are not safe from the clutches of what Dr. Schaef calls an "addictive society." We begin the first seeds and learn our compulsive behaviors from television/radio/print/internet, neighborhood, school, office, friends and relatives, even church and various other places of our culture and society.

Come to think of it. My perception is that if "addiction" is the norm, we better start looking at it in the eye. See what it really is.

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