Addicted to being myself
Is that not true for every human?
I have a hypothesis and per my usual style, I extrapolate this with a leap of faith to every human. I believe that “I am addicted to being myself”.
Generally, addictions are to external stimuli. One might be addicted to alcohol, smoking, prescription drugs, hard drugs, sex, gambling, etc. And to this, I would in recent times add devices like our mobile phones, browsing, social networks, streaming services, gaming including online gaming, etc. all of which could lead to addiction.
But, ignore these for a moment. Without any external stimuli, arent we all addicted to being ourselves? And, no, I don’t mean in a way of a mental disease (classified by the DSM manual as one such), I really mean all of us.
What do I think that we are addicted to? Work for a start. An incessant focus on work as a stimuli to hide behind in order to escape from the other commitments of life. Addicted to our attitudes, beliefs, things that we hold on dearly to. Addicted to our lack of action on things that we need to act on. Addicted to social order, hierarchy, religion, roles, relationships, genetic traits, physical looks, visual classification, language, age bias, clothing, eating, watching sports, and being fanatic about sports teams, economic disparity and reasons, and the list goes on.
Every bias conscious, sub-conscious, or unconscious is an addiction. Because it is part of us, and we are infinitely influenced by it and we use it for our survival every day. It has become an inherent nature of being human. Us. Who we are.
And if that is so, what do we do to break free of such human addiction in each one of us? Humans Anonymous anyone?
I googled the phrase that is your title because I realised that it's was true this morning and was about to write about it. We are a edifice of habits layered up, interfering and supporting, creating a character. Interesting.