Say the word addiction and the mind generally goes to drugs, alcohol or gambling but according to Aislin Davis soft addictions are on the rise.”They’re not life threatening but they do take up a significant amount of time,” said the Revere Technology teacher.During a recent health fair at Revere High School, Davis invited students and adults alike to sit down and answer a few questions on the computer to determine if they have a soft addiction.A soft addiction can be anything from excessive video game playing to compulsive texting, Internet surfing, watching TV or even shopping or watching sports, Davis said.According to Judith Wright, author of “The Soft Addiction Solution,” who is credited with coining the phrase, “soft addition,” they are seemingly harmless habits that end up stealing your time, costing you money, relationships and numbing your feelings.Davis said she had a student some time ago who realized he had a problem after he spent 500 hours over the course of a month playing a video game. He knew it was 500 hours because the game logged the number of hours played, she said.”He had a child on the way,” she said. “He was worried he couldn’t be a father if he was playing video games all the time.”Davis said it’s difficult for people to recognize they have a soft addiction, and difficult to control it once they do.”There is not much help out there,” she said.Because not everyone views extensive TV watching or texting as a problem, health workers are only just starting to take notice of soft addictions, she said. There are organizations like shoppers anonymous and over-eaters or debtors anonymous, but there’s little focus on video games, television or social media addictions.”We are lucky here in this area though,” she said “McLean Hospital is an out patient program.”Treatment centers are opening up across the country to help with Internet, social networking and video game addiction, but, ironically, much of that help today is available online, Davis noted.Treating soft addictions is not unlike treating any addiction. There are commonalities such as being able to admit you have a problem, asking for help, identifying trigger-behaviors and replacing those with healthy ones.Davis also put together a pamphlet for the health fair to help people recognize if they might have a problem.The rules of thumb state that anyone who spends an average of 15 hours and 33 minutes per month logged onto Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or any other social networking site has a problem. Some of the signs are if you find yourself updating your status at inappropriate times like while driving, in the middle of a wedding, at church or even while socializing with friends.One risk of such behavior, according a pamphlet Davis handed out, is a possible inability to develop a sustainable relationships face-to-face.If you spend excessive time at the mall and spend money you don’t have, showing no impulse-control – you have a problem.If you are spending hours in front of the television watching sports to the point of ignoring relationships and other daily tasks and or missing family events – you have a problem.While some students took advantage of the program at the health fair and took the quiz, Davis said many told her they were well aware that they have a problem. It was some of the adults who weren’t sure.If you want to determine if you have a problem or for more information on the issue, visit the website softaddictions.com.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected] you have
a soft addiction?From the “Are You Addicted to Soft Addictions” pamphletdistributed at Revere High School:Calculate how much time you spend on soft addictions:
How many hours a day to you spend watching TV?
Multiply that by 365:
How many hours a week do you go to the mall?
Multiply that by 52 weeks:
How many hours a week do you play video games?
Multiply that by 52 weeks:
How many times an hour do you check your phone for text messages?
Multiply that by (
