Re:The Sugar Addiction Taboo
by vezzy-fnord on Thursday January 02, 2014 @04:51PM
(#7002572)
I draw the line on addictions which produce no withdrawal symptoms. They exist. As I mentioned in my previous post, Internet addiction can be like this for some people. They compulsively spend excessive time on the web due to inertia or some emotional issue. But if you take them away on a long-term vacation without regular access to the Internet, they will feel no withdrawal or overbearing need to do so.
That's a pretty reasonable line. I'm guessing this is a case-by-case basis then, though? Some internet-addiction-withdrawals can be severe (or specifically, sometimes cause rather severe depression), though of course that's cherry-picking.
edit: not to imply case-by-case is bad. People are weird and very varied, any hard-line is likely to have straddlers.
(serious question, btw. I'm not sure where I draw it, so it usually ends up subjective, which I would like to minimize.)
There is of course the extreme, like with our physical dependence on vitamin C. Somewhere back in our evolution we lost the ability to synthesize it, probably because it was abundant in food. Now we die if we don't get it. I doubt you are referring to that, though.