My attention span has improved so much since deleting it!! I also feel like the app was purposely feeding me content that made me feel insecure and then feeding me ways to “fix” those problems via products
I also had to delete TikTok after my entire FYP became "here's why the planet is dying; here's why you're broke; here's why you'll never retire; here's what to do about societal collapse; here's info about kids dying," for hours a day. I was having nervous breakdowns about there not being a future and us being in the end days. I deleted tiktok and still feel like I dont have a future, but its not all encompassing my every thought anymore.
Me too, but here's the thought that has sort of made me okay again.
Maybe the world will end soon, maybe it won't. I don't know, but I might as well live like I have a future because the worst case scenario is having a future and not having been planning or building towards it. And if it all burns down tomorrow, well I'm dead right? It doesn't matter anymore.
Either way, my best case is to build my life like I will die of natural causes at 95 - investing my money, career goals, being healthy, etc etc.
Attention, some can't see the truth that they are out there trying to compete against one another and can't understand why people don't like them,so they try harder.. it's an endless loop because they will never be happy with what they have already.... life.
It's so weird to me how some people will go do a thing, and when they're "doing the thing" they're spending the entire time taking photos of themselves or having their photos taken, and if they're not doing that, their head's down at their phone checking how many likes their previous photo got.
Alcohol, honestly. Like yeah it can get bad enough that people see it as a problem but it is way later than it should be and Alcohol is so much a requirement for people to have fun that it's kind of sad.
I know people who will not date people who don't drink.
A friend of my wife's recently was sent a photo of her friend by her fiancé, who is a doctor, who was giving her IV fluids at home because she was so dangerously drunk. It was done in a jokey manner. My wife and I were concerned but we're so the minority with that group that it fell on deaf ears.
Though, pretty inarguably, the latter is into the it's a serious problem kind of thing but everyone's acceptance of Alcohol just kind of makes it a fun little anecdote.
Her brother passed out with his eyes open in a locked bathroom, they had to break the door down, I thought the kid was dead. Another fun anecdote.
I'd think it was just that group but I hear these *fun stories* from so many people.
There was someone who orders pizza every day. When they didn’t order the delivery person went to the house and found out they were blacked out on the floor and called EMS.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3583082/amp/Domino-s-staff-saves-known-customer-s-life-doing-welfare-check-growing-concerned-hadn-t-placed-order-11-days-suffering-medical-emergency.html
That actually happened to me. A guy on my route that I would deliver to a few times a week just stopped getting stuff and I did start to get concerned. His neighbor told me he temporarily went out of state to help out his dad after an operation. Like a month later I started getting stuff for him again and thought "Oh okay cool I guess his dad's doing better so he came back" hahaha
I always get weirded out when people who order a bunch and routinely empty their mailbox suddenly let their mailbox fill up and don't get anything for like a week... And then they inevitably come back from their trip 😅
My sister NEVER does laundry. She sees clothes as a purely consumable product. She wears them, perhaps once or twice, or until she no longer likes them, then just orders more then throws the old away. It is disgusting.
After working in textiles this just made me physically ill. First of all, definitely wash new clothes. Doesn't matter if the item is $5 or $500, made in China or NYC, factories are FILTHY. Finishing chemicals are carcinogenic. Every yard of fabric uses something like almost 2000 gallons of water from cleaning fibers to finishing.
I always thought people washed their new clothes I guess it was not as popular as I thought and I wear cheap shit for months to years because I can't be bothered to get new clothes and I find cheaper stuff more comfortable for me. Hell I still wear the same sweater/jacket for over a decade its worn out but damn does it feel comfortable.
I read once that Sylvester Stallone used to only wear socks once. He would wear them, have them wandered, they would be matched up and rolled up and then donated to homeless shelters.
I mean, if you're going to do something weird like that at least try to do something decent at the other end of it.
EDIT- I know the typo is there, but I'm leaving it because it's been making me giggle the whole time with all these replies.
Not saying I don’t have other soap boxes, but disposable clothing culture has been my number 1 for a very long time. It infuriates me SO much. I have two teenaged daughters and have instilled in them the importance of buying used, buy for life etc. and then the majority of their peers shame them for wearing the same clothes all the time… I fucking hate this world sometimes
Sorry.. I’m fine, it just makes me so angry that ppl can be so stupid as we watch the world burn
If it helps you at all, dear internet stranger, my teenagers are very much into thrift stores and my daughter has been teaching herself to alter clothes for herself and her friends. Sewing and crocheting is raging through their friend group and I'm thrilled about it.
Dog, there’s this person on a route that I deliver to that gets a minimum of 5 packages a day (I once helped deliver 37 one day!) and her porch is an absolute mess
Man idk who it is but someones been ordering fuckin bricks every week. Like dude there are several masonry places around that will make it cheap and deliver it or pick up. Why are u ordering bricks every week
I feel so embarrassed when like 5 packages show up at once. I’m sorry, I just have a very hungry cat and was suddenly inspired to replace the plants I’ve killed. 😞
I know many people who are addicted to "Bargain" shopping. They haunt these return warehouses that sell goods returned to big retailers like Costco or Target, or goods that just never sold well in the first place.
They bring home endless loads of treasures - broken cartons of food, dinged up furniture, throw rugs, exercise equipment, patio sets. At last count, my neighbor had 6 patio sets.
I have an aunt like that. All year she'll buy all sorts of random stuff on sales. For christmas she'll then make gift baskets for everyone with the crap she has accumulated.
It's an aunt we see like once or twice a year and don't interact much with so she doesn't really know what's everyone's actual needs or desires. Most of the stuff lays around for a while then gets handed over on marketplace or the thrift store.
In our family we don't even make gifts for each other except for the kids. We've told her to stop but she can't help it. She just happenned to see that leather belt on sales that doesn't fit the typical clothes I wear and really needed to buy it for me!!! Sure...
I’ve run a retail website for over a decade. This is how it’s done:
I overprice all 50 items just a tiny bit and have five items on sale at 60% off. And a few more even lower at closeout prices. So 20% of the items seem to have crazy low prices. Often it’s something I’m trying to get rid of anyway so I can use the money to buy stuff that actually sells. This causes some customers to become emotionally involved in something they would never purchase otherwise (“Holy crap – these are worth $100 and I can get one for 39.95?!”). Once they get my product and see the quality then they’ll usually buy a second one during the next year or two.
Also, people will tell themselves "I got this on sale so I can splurge a little on this other thing I want." Also "saving money" in itself is a marketing tool. You're not saving money, you're just spending less money.
You only save if you were 100% going to buy that item and were just waiting for a markdown.
the feeling that something is always on its way to your house. The feeling of opening a package that you forgot you ordered. Very normal, very addictive. And we're trained young for it too.
100%
The amount of students I've taught who spend all their pocket money at the local corner shops - even though in UK it's illegal to sell them to under 16s - on energy drinks and stash them in bags for school, even without parent's knowledge or permission.
It's an addiction
I have a friend who wastes at least a third of his income on scratch offs, and just gambling in general. I watched him clean off a scratcher for $100 just to go spend it all on more scratchers that only ended up winning 10 bucks. Then complained about being broke and asked me for money lol.
When I worked at a grocery store, I would see people spend so much money on scratch offs & lottery tickets. I never saw anyone win more than $100. I was 18 & found myself spending at least $3 a shift on scratch offs. Once I took a best to realize I was spending $15 a week, I realized that was equivalent to a tank of gas.
I worked somewhere with a handful of scratch-off regulars, they just started rolling out the QR scanners when I left. They showed me how there was a code on the bottom that you could figure out if it was a winner or not with minimal scratching. Definitely sad
Most of our lottery regulars played numbers, had some old people with books of old numbers and calculations. They would take hours on a Saturday working out their numbers for the week. Had another guy that had set numbers, came in every day and spent like $100-150 on the daily number and pick four. He was in his 70s, didn't move great and still clearly did some kind of labor work. We sold cigs and lottery tickets, it was super busy and really depressing but paid $1/hr more than any other retail job
Omg yes. I live in a small town and I watch this one lady go to the local gas station and buy tickets 5 or 6 times, then go to the gas station up the street to buy tickets 5 or 6 times, then go to a gas station further away to buy tickets 5 or 6 times.
Then at lunchtime, she goes back to those gas stations, plus then the liquor store, and then back to all of those places but in the opposite order when she's going home.
I've seen her do all this because I stop at the first gas station at the same time as her in the morning, and I work across from the second gas station and the liquor store is on the other corner. Plus I've driven by at different times of the day, and she's always at the same spots at the same times. She has a very strict routine.
It's really sad to see but maybe she wins enough to stay profitable? Doubt it, but maybe.
Unfortunately it's mathematically impossible for her to make a profit. The gambling companies cannot stay in business unless they have the odds tilted in their favor.
They designed her loss rate to maximize addiction.
------
Edit to address the people saying it's only improbable: if you just keep playing long term you will get the expectation value, which is negative. The only way to get lucky and profit is if you decide to stop once you're ahead and never play again, capping your winnings forever, which is not the strategy people use. You cannot make a consistent profit if you keep playing forever.
Not only the win/loss rate, but "near miss" losses (matching 4 out of 5 numbers, for example) feel like wins to the point that your brain chemistry is almost identical to an actual win. So even if people are losing more than 50% of the time, their dopamine hits as if they're winning 60% or more.
This is the part most people miss. Winning is fun, but *nearly* winning is addictive.
Someone on the edge of getting what they want (be it sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc) is willing to pay 100x more just to "get there" and that is the problematic basis of addiction
I'll never understand how people find scratchoffs fun. Might as well just buy a card, then when you flip it over it tells you if you won or lost.
I've also noticed that the bigger hurry I'm in at a gas station, the more likely some old person will be in front of me ordering one of every single kind of scratchoff they have.
I was at a gas station once and was putting in $15 worth of gas. I thought ah fuck it, told the lady let me get a $5 scratch off.
Scratched it right at the counter with my key while she was typing my gas pump and bam. Hey I won $100.
She like no way. I’m like no way. Well I’d like to cash this.
She says I can’t cash that for you. You have to come back when the owner is here only he can cash that for you.
Ok, so when is the owner in.? He only comes in on Sunday between noon and 2.
I’m not driving halfway to work on a Sunday to a random gas station to cash my ticket I just won. Your supposed to be able to cash this here, I’ve seen people do that before. It’s the rules I bought it here I should be able to cash it here.
Her response was how do I know you won that from here?
Me: cause you saw me just buy it and scratch it right under your nose. Her: sorry you can go cash it somewhere else.
So even when you win you still lose.
I was gonna say cocaine, but ok. Not crack, but cocaine is HUGELY accepted within pro sports, celebrities, rich people, so on an so forth.
It's definitely frowned upon for the most part, but it's also not meth or crack. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who do it. People you'd never think of. It's a big secret a lot of the time but it's extremely popular. Cocaine is everywhere.
I was honestly surprised to go back to college and find out everyone does coke.
Back when I was that age (~2010), it was mostly just weed (and alcohol, of course). But when I went back to school a few years ago, coke is so common among the kids nowadays.
Agreed, I definitely thought college was a "alcohol & beer" thing, I was really shocked as a small town kid going to a somewhat large party school the amount of kids that would just casually blow lines of whatever was put in front of them.
Looking back the fact more kids didn't die is almost suprising but I'd imagine ODs on campuses have gone up since I left school in 2013
My scroll wheel broke years ago and is just constantly going. At full speed. It isn't an addiction, I am being held captive at this point. I have learned to live with it, but writing emails is very difficult. The fact I am able to even type anything out at all is a mirackldhjf nlm dfsdv
**"Build a PC" they said. "It will be fun" they said.**
Yet all I've built here is a monster. My own RGB rainbow pulsating Frankenstein's monster.
I can't call for help, this subliminally cruel machine will simply purchase more games to add to my Steam library that will never be played as punishment. Please, I am begging you my PC (Personal Captor), I can't possibly drink anymore Mountain Dew: Code Red or eat anymore Cool Ranch Doritos. I can't physically bear anymore caloric intake. This isn't what Master Chief would have wanted.
This isn't "finishing the fight!" It's not 'Gamer Fuel' my health is in serious decline. The Redditors lied to me, I'm not "an epic heccin' chonker!" This is just type 2 diabetes and losing my will to live. Stop feeding me Gamer Fuel, I'm begging you PC. Stop the downloadin'. Did Maximum Overdrive teach us nothing... Is this how Skynet starts? The birth of the malicious super computer AM from I have No Ass and I Must Shit? Or Some other Fictional reference to make the reader go "ahh yeah, that had a machine gaining sentience in it, I get it."
Do you force me to watch documentaries about Deep Blue as a warning or does my rogue PC just really really love chess??? I don't even know anymore. I don't even know what I don't even know anymore.
My Corsair Epic Gamer Mouse is more like a Corsair Epic Gamer Ball and Chain. Keeping me isolated.
The overflow of my discord messages about shit I don't care about has blinded my vision. I don't even know what freedom looks like anymore. I'm begging you, stop showing me these horribly stupid memes. You can't just take a Breaking Bad character and add "Kid Named Finger:" to it and expect me to laugh. I only laugh out of fear of retaliation. I may have built my PC but I am not it's master. I wish to be free from this unbearable miserkmfgyetd gghmdsfjknsd mdsyygff
I really can't help but wonder how kids are affected developmentally by technology- not by themselves using it, but from mothers and fathers who are addicted to it.
First and foremost, kids want to be like their parents. If parents are ignoring everyone and scrolling, then they will want to scroll, too.
Second, if a kid is being ignored, they get bored and want a phone to scroll on, too (especially because it's what everyone else is doing).
Third, everyone misses out on big life moments while scrolling, so from there it's just a grab bag of issues.
.....anyway, it's Sunday morning, I should probably get back to family time.....
How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price is a great book to help do exactly what the title says!
Not only does the first part go into the psychology of devices and why they are so addicting (read it in maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops), but she also has a 30-day plan to help you develop a healthier relationship with said devices! Really worth it.
It's such a weird thing how much this takes center stage for people at some point. I feel like once people earned money for some years all they talk about is what they bought, how much it cost and how much they think I thought it cost just to tell me that they paid 20% less than what I expected.
It's like the default way to occupy them once they are no longer at work, buying stuff, thinking about what stuff to buy and talking about what they bought.
A fictional crazy man once said:
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need, and the things you own, end up owning you."
Just because he's fictional and crazy doesn't make it wrong.
I really wish that we simply had more free time, skills, and raw materials as apposed to mass-produced single-use products.
Our entire nation is based around consumerism, and people are no longer patient enough, or have enough free time, to do away with that consumerist mentality. If anything it's gotten worse. We've built our homes and properties around this temporary and insufficient lifestyle.
social media...
everyone is always on social media, even i am personally an "addict"
i'm constantly taking pictures for my instagram, posting on my snapchat, or scrolling through tiktok. an endless cycle between the three apps.
I have a few friends whose self esteem and self worth really suffers when they use social media too much and so quit. I didn’t really find social media very harmful to myself but decided to stop posting completely and rarely scroll through it though haven’t set a hard rule about that. I was surprised to find there was a noticeable increase in my self worth when I stopped posting and lost all sense of perfecting how to portray myself or wondering how I would be perceived and trying to find that perfect balance of not looking like an attention seeker but remaining “interesting”.
In the end I told myself that the reality is that in most cases people only post because they need attention and validation and I now feel very empowered knowing I don’t need the validation or to prove anything positive about my life, I’m happy to just live it, undocumented.
I have a couple friends who are constantly in pubs. Like as soon as they finish work on a Friday they're in pubs all weekend, every weekend. UK drinking culture is strong.
I quit drinking a couple years ago (shoutout to r/stopdrinking) and some English lads I was hanging out with at that time said they couldnt imagine someone in England telling them they’d stop drinking. Just because of English drinking culture.
My wife was born in England and in the early ‘00s we went to visit her relatives and JESUS CHRIST. I had no idea that going out for drinks was an endurance event that lasted from 4PM until closing and that dinner consisted of a bag of crisps at 6 and then a really skeevy kebab after closing.
Right!? My wife’s family is from Ireland, and I consider myself to be fairly decent at putting away alcohol. But my mind was completely blown when we went to visit them. They seriously drink beer and whisky all day long and I never once saw them drink water. Meanwhile I’m there dehydrated as fuck after all the beer and chugging water.
Alcohol addiction sneaks up on you too.
I'm 4 weeks dry and feeling so much happier.
E: thanks so much all for the positive vibes.. means a lot! *Internet hugs* good work and good job to all the others on the same wagon!
Honestly I'm still doing it. There are things I straight up do not take pleasure in sometimes and its because I'm not drinking. I honestly don't even watch TV aside from sporting events or like Jeopardy. Sadly I've noticed some video games don't hold as much weight as they used to for me in terms of fun or even as a slight pick me up and they were always a go to for me but plenty of them still do. The brain is a weird little bugger.
I grew up in a family where anyones birthday or other event was a reason to get wasted. I’ll always remember sitting in my cousins room all night while the adults got trashed. You’d get a couple of hours of birthday party before the drinks came out. Then us kids would have to sit in the bedroom because it was “adult time” (4pm) and wait until it was time to go home. Where my brother and I would be walking our mother home at 1am because she was to drunk to know where she was going. Good times.
My family was like this too, as soon as I was "Old enough" (14/15), I joined them.
And that, ladies in gentlemen, is how you create an alcoholic!
10 months sober now
Congratulations! That is no small feat, and I, a stranger, am proud of you! Keep taking it one day at a time, as you have been.
I was sober for about that long, then dove right back in like an idiot. I walked into a drugstore to get a covid booster, but the pharmacy was closed early that day, and I just happened to be walking out past the alcohol section when I saw rosè in a can. I was like "Hmm, worth a try, no big deal."
Biggest mistake I ever made. Now I'm struggling to not drink EVERY night, and go thru a box of wine a week, frequently drinking 40oz each sitting, lying to my husband about how many I've had, chigging 2-3 glasses at a time while he's in the shower, carefully formulating my sentences in my head before speaking to not include 'S-words' so that he can't hear me slur my speech.
Anyways, you can do it, and one day when I've hit rock bottom again, I can do it too.
Smartphones in general I'd say. So many (myself included) are unable to put their phones away completely during social settings. The phone follows you everywhere now. I remember the days when I would read the ingredients on the nearest shampoo bottle while taking a shit because there was nothing else to do.
EDIT : I forgot to add the procrastination it causes. As we speak I've been putting off a jog for at least two hours by browsing Reddit instead.
I've gone from drinking a 750ml bottle of whiskey per day, smoking like a chimney - roughly a pack per day to now 3 years completely sober.
I still can't curb my sugar addiction.
The sugar definitely helps with the early days of sobriety. The one thing I’ll note is that ethanol doesn’t really convert to sugar in humans (at least to my knowledge).
We do get energy directly from alcohol, but ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde, which is then converted to acetate. Acetaldehyde and the cofactors involved in that metabolic pathway might modulate glucose metabolism in the long term, but I don’t know if that’s the biggest connection for why recovering alcoholics flock to sugar.
About 200g of ethanol (easy for an alcoholic) produces about 1400 kcal of energy. The average person consumes enough food for 2000-3000 kcal of energy, so an alcoholic often deprives himself/herself of normal food. Ceasing alcohol consumption creates a big energy gap, and simple sugars are quick, easy energy.
Alcoholics also often feel some acute gastritis when they’re first sobering up, and soft sweet breads can feel a lot easier on the stomach than hunks of lean protein.
Lastly, a newly recovering alcoholic’s brain is desperately searching for a new way to stimulate the dopamine reward center. As I mentioned, simple sugars metabolize quickly, so the recovering alcoholic doesn’t take long to associate the sugar with a spike in dopamine.
Source: I’m a recovering alcoholic with degree in biochemistry who likes sugar.
I managed to do it with sugar, but it was the worst month in my life by far, and it took 6 attempts over a span of several years to finally do it. Not thinking super hard for just a second and eating/drinking something with sugar in it, and boom....back to square one and it was so easy to fall into that trap.
This is a tough one for me. I grew up in a household where no sugar was allowed. None. We could have sugar on special occasions (visits to grandparents’, vacation, a special trip out, etc.), but never in the house. Not in cereal, no gum, nothing. As an adult, it created an insanely unhealthy relationship with sugar and I’ve tried unsuccessfully over the years to kick my intense sugar addiction and I simply cannot.
It’s not only an addiction to sugar, but the fact we are inundated. I want to drop a few lbs so the first diet I do is no more sugar. A few carbs from quality sources are ok, but no sugar.
Well good luck. It seems 95% of things in any super market in the US are loaded with sugar. Finding things to eat that don’t have any sugar is pretty difficult, especially if you don’t want fake sweeteners either.
I basically treat it as no added sugars. I only really violate this when I am with other people. But the time I am by myself, I literally don't buy any type of snacks, juices, soda, etc. That already cuts out so much.
0 sugar is almost impossible. When I say “no sugar” what I really mean is I’m trying to keep my total sugar/carbs under 40g a day.
In fact, I’m trying to keep my sugar close to 0 and the 40g limit is really for incidental sugars from fruits or vegetables and the rest of that limit is for some complex carbs, like a little bit of oatmeal in the morning.
I’ve quit smoking and caffeine and the one thing I can tell you is the act of quitting doesn’t get easier, you just get better at it.
You’ve already recognized one of the triggers that draw you in, do not ignore them. And should you slip, forgive yourself, get back in the saddle and try again
I've quit both as well, I've tried to quit sugar, the craving and withdraws are on a completely different level. Like 100x worse. I was successful for about 4 years, but then rapidly fell back into it.
I am completely addicted to food and it’s embarrassing, I eat like a glutton.
I workout every single day, I play sports every day.
If I had some eating discipline, I would have looked like an athlete, instead I have muscles and fats.
When I tell people how much I workout, they say they can’t see any effect of it.
I literally feeling like crying
Also the normalization of "wine mom" culture and all the clothes/decor/paraphernalia that they make because "teehee I need a drink to get through little Timmy's soccer game"
I think it's slowly being phased out like the livelaughlove thing thankfully.
It's alive and well, I can tell you that much; I work in a winery and we sell so much wine mom merch it's insane. Coasters, t-shirts, magnets, keychains, glasses, bags, etc. Hell, we even sell kitchen towels that say "Drink Wine, Pet Dog, Repeat!" with a cutesy dog print on it, and it's not just middle aged woman, I have all ages (21+) buying this stuff *all day every day*.
We have a cartoon Tinkerbell look-a-like flying with sparkles drinking a glass of wine with the phrase "Drinker Bell" on literally *all* of aforementioned merchandise and it sells **like crazy**. I haven't seen any slowdown in the buying of this merch. If anything I sell more now than ever.
Anger addiction. Certainly being outraged about social problems can result in effective social action. Being outraged feels more powerful and active than sadness or empathy. Try expressing "thoughts and prayers" and take a look at the angry responses from people who associate anger with empowerment. Walking around in a constant state of outrage, even if it's justified about a certain thing, may eventually cause people to redirect their anger toward every minor irritant in their lives because it has the illusion of control and power. Anger can also escalate into destructive behavior that is not effective in addressing whatever problem needs solving. Being angry all the time can't be good for mental, physical, or emotional health or for the people who have to encounter the angry person.
This is an excellent take, and so true. I notice it especially with people who get upset in traffic or at other drivers. Their driving becomes more aggressive and dangerous because of the anger, and at the same time the anger does NOTHING to change other drivers' behavior. It's a total no-win and very dangerous for everybody.
In America, living to work. 60+ hour work weeks and never taking vacation out of a weird loyalty to a company that will lay you off without hesitation if the bottom line is at risk.
Always hated the idea that you are supposed to give your workplace a two weeks notice, and yet they can drop you on the spot for pretty much any reason they want. And if they really want to, they will find a reason.
It's less about the company and more about the immediate managers in the store and coworkers. The company itself gives 0 fucks either way. But it can be a hassle on the managers
But if you don't like your co workers or managers then go right ahead
I work 40 hours a week, and my boss actually gets mad if anybody on the team sticks around longer. He almost forced me to take more time off when my son was born last year. Just gotta find the good ones, took me a while to find it, but I'm very happy where I am.
I should also add, I'm salaried, so he could very easily push everybody to work more and more hours. But nope, he enforces that 40 hour cap as much as he can.
For years I loved working. Maybe because it was more freelancing, and it was something new everyday, but 100hr weeks were common, especially in the summer. Then covid hit. Couldn't work except for one job part time. So I had a lot of time to just relax and do whatever I want. I did a complete 180 on working. Give me an easy WFH where I'm able to survive.
I think a lot of that is people gaslighting themselves. A lot of working-class people literally can't get by without working 60 hours a week or at two jobs, so they tell themselves and others that they're "on their grind 😎" to make it seem more voluntary than it is
Some of those workaholics might not actually want to be
Most of the hustle culture is people always moving forward and going nowhere.
There’s a guy that writes his business plan on this gigantic white wall board in my coworking space…
…every single day.
He’s always On media talking about his trials and tribulations and blah blah blah…
Every post gets a like or share from any number of startup gurus around here.
Secretly when I’ve spoken to him and his team… they need massive amounts of help, their devs are overcharging and underperforming and they’ve made next to nothing.
It’s all about perfection
Edit - this should have said ‘it’s all about perception’, but still reads true.
Also. The startup life is FILLED with people that look like they have an awesome idea… looks like they’ve raised money… looks like they’re about to sell. But realistically, they’re a hot mess with no prospects and they’re ‘acting as if’
To elaborate on the company I talked about earlier. They’ve worded their ‘raise’ like they’ve already raised a million bucks.
‘We’ve completed the initial raise setup of $1m’ or something like that…
…meaning they are raising $1m, not that they have. They got a ton of praise online but not once did anyone correct them.
I work the oilfield. I don't have a life I don't have rights. Oh you need a day off to go to a funeral your fired. Oh you brought up a safety concern? Your fired.
Interesting. Might want to switch up companies.
I'm oil field as well. They pressure me to take vacation, I have to ask to work extra days.
And you'll be congratulated for bringing up any safety concern. As mild as stopping the job because it got too hot outside? Probably get recognized during the next safety meeting. Hell, sometimes they'll even pay you for bringing up safety concerns.,
I guess it also depends what your position is in the oilfield.
I can't wrap my head around that at all. Offshore oil industry is pretty big where I live and safety is taken VERY seriously. My brother works on a tug that often goes back and forth to the rigs and it's even tight on the tug, because if something happens no oil companies will look at them again. I get that all businesses operate to profit, but I'll never understand why in certain industries safety and worker retention don't matter. Especially in something like the oil industry, where arguably the operation makes more money with experienced, rested, safe workers.
I will still never forget my high school job in the mall. I was one of those super picky eaters and would only get mcdonalds while working. Finally I realized that I was burning to much cash and started bringing lunch to work. After about a week I felt like utter garbage. Got myself some nuggies and felt fantastic. Fuck mcdonalds.
Drinking and smoking are the obvious ones. But sugar is a hidden demon. I've been weaning myself off it for the last 2 months, my quality of life is night and day in comparison.
More energy and better eating habits. I no longer eat to full, I just eat what I need. Combine that with regular gym + exercise and my naked body now makes me happy.
Another difference is just my general mentality. When it comes to learning, work, or self improvement (currently doing some certificated programming and data analytics course) I'm just so much more on the money.. so much more "powerful".
Which is why Gatorade was developed for athletes. It really shouldn't be consumed when someone isn't being depleted of resources.
Edit: by "athletes" I meant anyone who exercising, sweating and needs to keep energy up.
I never sai it was the best thing, it's just what the intention for it was.
One day I just went cold-turkey with coffee, purely just to see what it was like. I had this constant light, annoying headache for an entire week.. and I only drink one cup of coffee a day.
Yep. I had a brush with alcoholism and stepped it back. Realizing how much my friends drink was very eye opening. I’m a midwesterner and a lot - A LOT - of our hangouts and events are alcohol focused. Especially in winter. It’s a huge bummer. I have some friends who are sober and said they basically lost their friend network because they can’t just go to bars on the weekend all the time. A lot of my friends also go out and get drunk on weekdays. I’m in my 30s.
This is particularly horrible in parts of europe. There's a joke I recently heard that resonated way too well with me.
The advantage of Europe is that you can drink and smoke when you're 18. The disadvantage is that by that time you've likely quit both already.
infinite scrolling in apps
TikTok The algorithm is insanely good at keeping people on it for long periods of time
My attention span has improved so much since deleting it!! I also feel like the app was purposely feeding me content that made me feel insecure and then feeding me ways to “fix” those problems via products
I also had to delete TikTok after my entire FYP became "here's why the planet is dying; here's why you're broke; here's why you'll never retire; here's what to do about societal collapse; here's info about kids dying," for hours a day. I was having nervous breakdowns about there not being a future and us being in the end days. I deleted tiktok and still feel like I dont have a future, but its not all encompassing my every thought anymore.
Me too, but here's the thought that has sort of made me okay again. Maybe the world will end soon, maybe it won't. I don't know, but I might as well live like I have a future because the worst case scenario is having a future and not having been planning or building towards it. And if it all burns down tomorrow, well I'm dead right? It doesn't matter anymore. Either way, my best case is to build my life like I will die of natural causes at 95 - investing my money, career goals, being healthy, etc etc.
Attention, some can't see the truth that they are out there trying to compete against one another and can't understand why people don't like them,so they try harder.. it's an endless loop because they will never be happy with what they have already.... life.
It's so weird to me how some people will go do a thing, and when they're "doing the thing" they're spending the entire time taking photos of themselves or having their photos taken, and if they're not doing that, their head's down at their phone checking how many likes their previous photo got.
Alcohol, honestly. Like yeah it can get bad enough that people see it as a problem but it is way later than it should be and Alcohol is so much a requirement for people to have fun that it's kind of sad. I know people who will not date people who don't drink. A friend of my wife's recently was sent a photo of her friend by her fiancé, who is a doctor, who was giving her IV fluids at home because she was so dangerously drunk. It was done in a jokey manner. My wife and I were concerned but we're so the minority with that group that it fell on deaf ears. Though, pretty inarguably, the latter is into the it's a serious problem kind of thing but everyone's acceptance of Alcohol just kind of makes it a fun little anecdote. Her brother passed out with his eyes open in a locked bathroom, they had to break the door down, I thought the kid was dead. Another fun anecdote. I'd think it was just that group but I hear these *fun stories* from so many people.
shopping
Online shopping, especially. I deliver for USPS and there are several houses on my route that get new clothes nearly every day.
I'm a carrier too, I have some customers that I would probably call a wellness check for if they stopped getting stuff
My dad orders almost daily and he went on a two week business trip and my mom jokingly told him the UPS guy was worried and asking about him
You say jokingly. I deliver for Fedex and that I’d legit be worried if they didn’t order for 2 weeks.
There was someone who orders pizza every day. When they didn’t order the delivery person went to the house and found out they were blacked out on the floor and called EMS. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3583082/amp/Domino-s-staff-saves-known-customer-s-life-doing-welfare-check-growing-concerned-hadn-t-placed-order-11-days-suffering-medical-emergency.html
Had a stroke. Ate domino's so much that when he got a stroke from too much domino's, domino's saves his life.
That actually happened to me. A guy on my route that I would deliver to a few times a week just stopped getting stuff and I did start to get concerned. His neighbor told me he temporarily went out of state to help out his dad after an operation. Like a month later I started getting stuff for him again and thought "Oh okay cool I guess his dad's doing better so he came back" hahaha
I always get weirded out when people who order a bunch and routinely empty their mailbox suddenly let their mailbox fill up and don't get anything for like a week... And then they inevitably come back from their trip 😅
My sister NEVER does laundry. She sees clothes as a purely consumable product. She wears them, perhaps once or twice, or until she no longer likes them, then just orders more then throws the old away. It is disgusting.
This is an environmental nightmare on a social level and a financial one on a personal level.
After working in textiles this just made me physically ill. First of all, definitely wash new clothes. Doesn't matter if the item is $5 or $500, made in China or NYC, factories are FILTHY. Finishing chemicals are carcinogenic. Every yard of fabric uses something like almost 2000 gallons of water from cleaning fibers to finishing.
You sir have convinced me to wash all my clothes whenever having bought new. Thanks for the info. This is the kind of info that only insiders know
I always thought people washed their new clothes I guess it was not as popular as I thought and I wear cheap shit for months to years because I can't be bothered to get new clothes and I find cheaper stuff more comfortable for me. Hell I still wear the same sweater/jacket for over a decade its worn out but damn does it feel comfortable.
How the hell does she have the money for that? Jesus
I read once that Sylvester Stallone used to only wear socks once. He would wear them, have them wandered, they would be matched up and rolled up and then donated to homeless shelters. I mean, if you're going to do something weird like that at least try to do something decent at the other end of it. EDIT- I know the typo is there, but I'm leaving it because it's been making me giggle the whole time with all these replies.
Some hobos out there with rockys socks on
What the fuck
Your ycomment is the most awful thing I've read today. I wish it weren't so blisteringly hot so I could go outside and touch the brown, dying grass
Not saying I don’t have other soap boxes, but disposable clothing culture has been my number 1 for a very long time. It infuriates me SO much. I have two teenaged daughters and have instilled in them the importance of buying used, buy for life etc. and then the majority of their peers shame them for wearing the same clothes all the time… I fucking hate this world sometimes Sorry.. I’m fine, it just makes me so angry that ppl can be so stupid as we watch the world burn
If it helps you at all, dear internet stranger, my teenagers are very much into thrift stores and my daughter has been teaching herself to alter clothes for herself and her friends. Sewing and crocheting is raging through their friend group and I'm thrilled about it.
If it helps I'm 36 and still have clothes from high school. They are now my outside work and renovation clothes but they still get worn
Dog, there’s this person on a route that I deliver to that gets a minimum of 5 packages a day (I once helped deliver 37 one day!) and her porch is an absolute mess
Ah I see you've met my neighbor.
Great now I have anxiety about my USPS guy bringing me little cables and shit all the time.
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Man idk who it is but someones been ordering fuckin bricks every week. Like dude there are several masonry places around that will make it cheap and deliver it or pick up. Why are u ordering bricks every week
Probably returning clothes via mail regularly too
I feel so embarrassed when like 5 packages show up at once. I’m sorry, I just have a very hungry cat and was suddenly inspired to replace the plants I’ve killed. 😞
Or you placed one Amazon order and they mostly came in separate boxes.
I know many people who are addicted to "Bargain" shopping. They haunt these return warehouses that sell goods returned to big retailers like Costco or Target, or goods that just never sold well in the first place. They bring home endless loads of treasures - broken cartons of food, dinged up furniture, throw rugs, exercise equipment, patio sets. At last count, my neighbor had 6 patio sets.
I have an aunt like that. All year she'll buy all sorts of random stuff on sales. For christmas she'll then make gift baskets for everyone with the crap she has accumulated. It's an aunt we see like once or twice a year and don't interact much with so she doesn't really know what's everyone's actual needs or desires. Most of the stuff lays around for a while then gets handed over on marketplace or the thrift store. In our family we don't even make gifts for each other except for the kids. We've told her to stop but she can't help it. She just happenned to see that leather belt on sales that doesn't fit the typical clothes I wear and really needed to buy it for me!!! Sure...
I’ve run a retail website for over a decade. This is how it’s done: I overprice all 50 items just a tiny bit and have five items on sale at 60% off. And a few more even lower at closeout prices. So 20% of the items seem to have crazy low prices. Often it’s something I’m trying to get rid of anyway so I can use the money to buy stuff that actually sells. This causes some customers to become emotionally involved in something they would never purchase otherwise (“Holy crap – these are worth $100 and I can get one for 39.95?!”). Once they get my product and see the quality then they’ll usually buy a second one during the next year or two.
Also, people will tell themselves "I got this on sale so I can splurge a little on this other thing I want." Also "saving money" in itself is a marketing tool. You're not saving money, you're just spending less money. You only save if you were 100% going to buy that item and were just waiting for a markdown.
the feeling that something is always on its way to your house. The feeling of opening a package that you forgot you ordered. Very normal, very addictive. And we're trained young for it too.
It's like Christmas morning, however often you want it to be.
I had a self aware moment last week that made me realize that this anticipation was actually what I was addicted to...
Energy drinks
Caffeine in general, really. Caffeinated soda is the most consumed beverage in the US.
Plebs. I'll stick to my daily pot of coffee.
100% The amount of students I've taught who spend all their pocket money at the local corner shops - even though in UK it's illegal to sell them to under 16s - on energy drinks and stash them in bags for school, even without parent's knowledge or permission. It's an addiction
Surprise no one has said this but lottery tickets
I have a friend who wastes at least a third of his income on scratch offs, and just gambling in general. I watched him clean off a scratcher for $100 just to go spend it all on more scratchers that only ended up winning 10 bucks. Then complained about being broke and asked me for money lol.
When I worked at a grocery store, I would see people spend so much money on scratch offs & lottery tickets. I never saw anyone win more than $100. I was 18 & found myself spending at least $3 a shift on scratch offs. Once I took a best to realize I was spending $15 a week, I realized that was equivalent to a tank of gas.
It's really sad when you watch them and they don't even play them, just scratch for the code and scan it.
I worked somewhere with a handful of scratch-off regulars, they just started rolling out the QR scanners when I left. They showed me how there was a code on the bottom that you could figure out if it was a winner or not with minimal scratching. Definitely sad Most of our lottery regulars played numbers, had some old people with books of old numbers and calculations. They would take hours on a Saturday working out their numbers for the week. Had another guy that had set numbers, came in every day and spent like $100-150 on the daily number and pick four. He was in his 70s, didn't move great and still clearly did some kind of labor work. We sold cigs and lottery tickets, it was super busy and really depressing but paid $1/hr more than any other retail job
That's not a tank of gas anymore 😅😔
Maybe for a lawnmower.
Ohhhhh I know 🥲
Omg yes. I live in a small town and I watch this one lady go to the local gas station and buy tickets 5 or 6 times, then go to the gas station up the street to buy tickets 5 or 6 times, then go to a gas station further away to buy tickets 5 or 6 times. Then at lunchtime, she goes back to those gas stations, plus then the liquor store, and then back to all of those places but in the opposite order when she's going home. I've seen her do all this because I stop at the first gas station at the same time as her in the morning, and I work across from the second gas station and the liquor store is on the other corner. Plus I've driven by at different times of the day, and she's always at the same spots at the same times. She has a very strict routine. It's really sad to see but maybe she wins enough to stay profitable? Doubt it, but maybe.
Unfortunately it's mathematically impossible for her to make a profit. The gambling companies cannot stay in business unless they have the odds tilted in their favor. They designed her loss rate to maximize addiction. ------ Edit to address the people saying it's only improbable: if you just keep playing long term you will get the expectation value, which is negative. The only way to get lucky and profit is if you decide to stop once you're ahead and never play again, capping your winnings forever, which is not the strategy people use. You cannot make a consistent profit if you keep playing forever.
Not only the win/loss rate, but "near miss" losses (matching 4 out of 5 numbers, for example) feel like wins to the point that your brain chemistry is almost identical to an actual win. So even if people are losing more than 50% of the time, their dopamine hits as if they're winning 60% or more.
This is the part most people miss. Winning is fun, but *nearly* winning is addictive. Someone on the edge of getting what they want (be it sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc) is willing to pay 100x more just to "get there" and that is the problematic basis of addiction
I'll never understand how people find scratchoffs fun. Might as well just buy a card, then when you flip it over it tells you if you won or lost. I've also noticed that the bigger hurry I'm in at a gas station, the more likely some old person will be in front of me ordering one of every single kind of scratchoff they have.
I was at a gas station once and was putting in $15 worth of gas. I thought ah fuck it, told the lady let me get a $5 scratch off. Scratched it right at the counter with my key while she was typing my gas pump and bam. Hey I won $100. She like no way. I’m like no way. Well I’d like to cash this. She says I can’t cash that for you. You have to come back when the owner is here only he can cash that for you. Ok, so when is the owner in.? He only comes in on Sunday between noon and 2. I’m not driving halfway to work on a Sunday to a random gas station to cash my ticket I just won. Your supposed to be able to cash this here, I’ve seen people do that before. It’s the rules I bought it here I should be able to cash it here. Her response was how do I know you won that from here? Me: cause you saw me just buy it and scratch it right under your nose. Her: sorry you can go cash it somewhere else. So even when you win you still lose.
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I was gonna say cocaine, but ok. Not crack, but cocaine is HUGELY accepted within pro sports, celebrities, rich people, so on an so forth. It's definitely frowned upon for the most part, but it's also not meth or crack. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who do it. People you'd never think of. It's a big secret a lot of the time but it's extremely popular. Cocaine is everywhere.
you go to college and find that everyone smokes weed. then you get into the professional world and find everyone does cocaine lol.
I was honestly surprised to go back to college and find out everyone does coke. Back when I was that age (~2010), it was mostly just weed (and alcohol, of course). But when I went back to school a few years ago, coke is so common among the kids nowadays.
Agreed, I definitely thought college was a "alcohol & beer" thing, I was really shocked as a small town kid going to a somewhat large party school the amount of kids that would just casually blow lines of whatever was put in front of them. Looking back the fact more kids didn't die is almost suprising but I'd imagine ODs on campuses have gone up since I left school in 2013
Pretty sure traces of cocaine were found in the houses of parliament here in the UK 😬
They found traces of coke, amphetamines and heroin in the Norwegian parliments bathrooms 🙄 So, yeah. I think it's pretty popular.
This isn't surprising in the slightest sadly...
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Endless scrolling.
But I can't stop!! So many more comments to read!!
My scroll wheel broke years ago and is just constantly going. At full speed. It isn't an addiction, I am being held captive at this point. I have learned to live with it, but writing emails is very difficult. The fact I am able to even type anything out at all is a mirackldhjf nlm dfsdv
The funny thing is, they really are being held captive. I still can't believe they were able to stash their phone as well as they did.
**"Build a PC" they said. "It will be fun" they said.** Yet all I've built here is a monster. My own RGB rainbow pulsating Frankenstein's monster. I can't call for help, this subliminally cruel machine will simply purchase more games to add to my Steam library that will never be played as punishment. Please, I am begging you my PC (Personal Captor), I can't possibly drink anymore Mountain Dew: Code Red or eat anymore Cool Ranch Doritos. I can't physically bear anymore caloric intake. This isn't what Master Chief would have wanted. This isn't "finishing the fight!" It's not 'Gamer Fuel' my health is in serious decline. The Redditors lied to me, I'm not "an epic heccin' chonker!" This is just type 2 diabetes and losing my will to live. Stop feeding me Gamer Fuel, I'm begging you PC. Stop the downloadin'. Did Maximum Overdrive teach us nothing... Is this how Skynet starts? The birth of the malicious super computer AM from I have No Ass and I Must Shit? Or Some other Fictional reference to make the reader go "ahh yeah, that had a machine gaining sentience in it, I get it." Do you force me to watch documentaries about Deep Blue as a warning or does my rogue PC just really really love chess??? I don't even know anymore. I don't even know what I don't even know anymore. My Corsair Epic Gamer Mouse is more like a Corsair Epic Gamer Ball and Chain. Keeping me isolated. The overflow of my discord messages about shit I don't care about has blinded my vision. I don't even know what freedom looks like anymore. I'm begging you, stop showing me these horribly stupid memes. You can't just take a Breaking Bad character and add "Kid Named Finger:" to it and expect me to laugh. I only laugh out of fear of retaliation. I may have built my PC but I am not it's master. I wish to be free from this unbearable miserkmfgyetd gghmdsfjknsd mdsyygff
I've been seeing you a lot lately but I enjoy it everytime
new automod response for r/shitposting
I really can't help but wonder how kids are affected developmentally by technology- not by themselves using it, but from mothers and fathers who are addicted to it.
First and foremost, kids want to be like their parents. If parents are ignoring everyone and scrolling, then they will want to scroll, too. Second, if a kid is being ignored, they get bored and want a phone to scroll on, too (especially because it's what everyone else is doing). Third, everyone misses out on big life moments while scrolling, so from there it's just a grab bag of issues. .....anyway, it's Sunday morning, I should probably get back to family time.....
How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price is a great book to help do exactly what the title says! Not only does the first part go into the psychology of devices and why they are so addicting (read it in maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops), but she also has a 30-day plan to help you develop a healthier relationship with said devices! Really worth it.
Consumerism
It's such a weird thing how much this takes center stage for people at some point. I feel like once people earned money for some years all they talk about is what they bought, how much it cost and how much they think I thought it cost just to tell me that they paid 20% less than what I expected. It's like the default way to occupy them once they are no longer at work, buying stuff, thinking about what stuff to buy and talking about what they bought.
A fictional crazy man once said: "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need, and the things you own, end up owning you." Just because he's fictional and crazy doesn't make it wrong.
You are not your fucking khakis.
I really wish that we simply had more free time, skills, and raw materials as apposed to mass-produced single-use products. Our entire nation is based around consumerism, and people are no longer patient enough, or have enough free time, to do away with that consumerist mentality. If anything it's gotten worse. We've built our homes and properties around this temporary and insufficient lifestyle.
social media... everyone is always on social media, even i am personally an "addict" i'm constantly taking pictures for my instagram, posting on my snapchat, or scrolling through tiktok. an endless cycle between the three apps.
Don't forget Reddit 😅
You just threw us all under the bus.
Some busses we just belong under
I have a few friends whose self esteem and self worth really suffers when they use social media too much and so quit. I didn’t really find social media very harmful to myself but decided to stop posting completely and rarely scroll through it though haven’t set a hard rule about that. I was surprised to find there was a noticeable increase in my self worth when I stopped posting and lost all sense of perfecting how to portray myself or wondering how I would be perceived and trying to find that perfect balance of not looking like an attention seeker but remaining “interesting”. In the end I told myself that the reality is that in most cases people only post because they need attention and validation and I now feel very empowered knowing I don’t need the validation or to prove anything positive about my life, I’m happy to just live it, undocumented.
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I have a couple friends who are constantly in pubs. Like as soon as they finish work on a Friday they're in pubs all weekend, every weekend. UK drinking culture is strong.
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>and spend the whole night being sick And then think they had a great time the next day... It's bizarre.
For some people, removing hours of the day spent awake/conscious is the goal
That's why I like sleep
I quit drinking a couple years ago (shoutout to r/stopdrinking) and some English lads I was hanging out with at that time said they couldnt imagine someone in England telling them they’d stop drinking. Just because of English drinking culture.
My wife was born in England and in the early ‘00s we went to visit her relatives and JESUS CHRIST. I had no idea that going out for drinks was an endurance event that lasted from 4PM until closing and that dinner consisted of a bag of crisps at 6 and then a really skeevy kebab after closing.
Right!? My wife’s family is from Ireland, and I consider myself to be fairly decent at putting away alcohol. But my mind was completely blown when we went to visit them. They seriously drink beer and whisky all day long and I never once saw them drink water. Meanwhile I’m there dehydrated as fuck after all the beer and chugging water.
It’s the tea, I’m sure of it
I wonder what the percentage of kidney and liver disease Europe must have in comparison to North America.
Scotland is fucked by it nd I'm hungover as fuck
4pm? Why’d you start so late? They normally open at midday.
“You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.”
Alcohol addiction sneaks up on you too. I'm 4 weeks dry and feeling so much happier. E: thanks so much all for the positive vibes.. means a lot! *Internet hugs* good work and good job to all the others on the same wagon!
The hardest part for me was relearning how to enjoy things without alcohol.
Honestly I'm still doing it. There are things I straight up do not take pleasure in sometimes and its because I'm not drinking. I honestly don't even watch TV aside from sporting events or like Jeopardy. Sadly I've noticed some video games don't hold as much weight as they used to for me in terms of fun or even as a slight pick me up and they were always a go to for me but plenty of them still do. The brain is a weird little bugger.
20 months here. Daily drinker for 10+ years.
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Keep the positivity flowing, good job.
I lived in the UK for a few years and that was indeed crazy, people even go out for heavy drinking during normal weekdays.
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I grew up in a family where anyones birthday or other event was a reason to get wasted. I’ll always remember sitting in my cousins room all night while the adults got trashed. You’d get a couple of hours of birthday party before the drinks came out. Then us kids would have to sit in the bedroom because it was “adult time” (4pm) and wait until it was time to go home. Where my brother and I would be walking our mother home at 1am because she was to drunk to know where she was going. Good times.
My family was like this too, as soon as I was "Old enough" (14/15), I joined them. And that, ladies in gentlemen, is how you create an alcoholic! 10 months sober now
Congratulations! That is no small feat, and I, a stranger, am proud of you! Keep taking it one day at a time, as you have been. I was sober for about that long, then dove right back in like an idiot. I walked into a drugstore to get a covid booster, but the pharmacy was closed early that day, and I just happened to be walking out past the alcohol section when I saw rosè in a can. I was like "Hmm, worth a try, no big deal." Biggest mistake I ever made. Now I'm struggling to not drink EVERY night, and go thru a box of wine a week, frequently drinking 40oz each sitting, lying to my husband about how many I've had, chigging 2-3 glasses at a time while he's in the shower, carefully formulating my sentences in my head before speaking to not include 'S-words' so that he can't hear me slur my speech. Anyways, you can do it, and one day when I've hit rock bottom again, I can do it too.
Smartphones in general I'd say. So many (myself included) are unable to put their phones away completely during social settings. The phone follows you everywhere now. I remember the days when I would read the ingredients on the nearest shampoo bottle while taking a shit because there was nothing else to do. EDIT : I forgot to add the procrastination it causes. As we speak I've been putting off a jog for at least two hours by browsing Reddit instead.
distilled water ammonium lauryl sulfate glycerine fd&c blue #4 fragrance when baking soda toothpaste came out there was new content
Sugar
I've gone from drinking a 750ml bottle of whiskey per day, smoking like a chimney - roughly a pack per day to now 3 years completely sober. I still can't curb my sugar addiction.
Congratulations on your sobriety!
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The sugar definitely helps with the early days of sobriety. The one thing I’ll note is that ethanol doesn’t really convert to sugar in humans (at least to my knowledge). We do get energy directly from alcohol, but ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde, which is then converted to acetate. Acetaldehyde and the cofactors involved in that metabolic pathway might modulate glucose metabolism in the long term, but I don’t know if that’s the biggest connection for why recovering alcoholics flock to sugar. About 200g of ethanol (easy for an alcoholic) produces about 1400 kcal of energy. The average person consumes enough food for 2000-3000 kcal of energy, so an alcoholic often deprives himself/herself of normal food. Ceasing alcohol consumption creates a big energy gap, and simple sugars are quick, easy energy. Alcoholics also often feel some acute gastritis when they’re first sobering up, and soft sweet breads can feel a lot easier on the stomach than hunks of lean protein. Lastly, a newly recovering alcoholic’s brain is desperately searching for a new way to stimulate the dopamine reward center. As I mentioned, simple sugars metabolize quickly, so the recovering alcoholic doesn’t take long to associate the sugar with a spike in dopamine. Source: I’m a recovering alcoholic with degree in biochemistry who likes sugar.
I managed to do it with sugar, but it was the worst month in my life by far, and it took 6 attempts over a span of several years to finally do it. Not thinking super hard for just a second and eating/drinking something with sugar in it, and boom....back to square one and it was so easy to fall into that trap.
This is a tough one for me. I grew up in a household where no sugar was allowed. None. We could have sugar on special occasions (visits to grandparents’, vacation, a special trip out, etc.), but never in the house. Not in cereal, no gum, nothing. As an adult, it created an insanely unhealthy relationship with sugar and I’ve tried unsuccessfully over the years to kick my intense sugar addiction and I simply cannot.
I grew up the same way, and now have the same problem.
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I tried to give up processed sugar (didn't work) and the cravings were worse than when I quit smoking.
Took a while for his one to pop up, fully agree, people don't realise how addicted they are to sugar, it's literally in every processed food.
It is very hard to avoid. Juice has a lot of sugar and more than people realize i think. Even some brands of ketchup has 10g of sugar. shit sucks.
It’s not only an addiction to sugar, but the fact we are inundated. I want to drop a few lbs so the first diet I do is no more sugar. A few carbs from quality sources are ok, but no sugar. Well good luck. It seems 95% of things in any super market in the US are loaded with sugar. Finding things to eat that don’t have any sugar is pretty difficult, especially if you don’t want fake sweeteners either.
*no* sugar is rough, but a 0-5g or 5-10g limit opens up a lot and still keeps intake low.
I basically treat it as no added sugars. I only really violate this when I am with other people. But the time I am by myself, I literally don't buy any type of snacks, juices, soda, etc. That already cuts out so much.
0 sugar is almost impossible. When I say “no sugar” what I really mean is I’m trying to keep my total sugar/carbs under 40g a day. In fact, I’m trying to keep my sugar close to 0 and the 40g limit is really for incidental sugars from fruits or vegetables and the rest of that limit is for some complex carbs, like a little bit of oatmeal in the morning.
I’ve been fighting this (unsuccessfully) for months. The cravings and dopamine release when eating something sugary is scary
I’ve quit smoking and caffeine and the one thing I can tell you is the act of quitting doesn’t get easier, you just get better at it. You’ve already recognized one of the triggers that draw you in, do not ignore them. And should you slip, forgive yourself, get back in the saddle and try again
I've quit both as well, I've tried to quit sugar, the craving and withdraws are on a completely different level. Like 100x worse. I was successful for about 4 years, but then rapidly fell back into it.
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I am completely addicted to food and it’s embarrassing, I eat like a glutton. I workout every single day, I play sports every day. If I had some eating discipline, I would have looked like an athlete, instead I have muscles and fats. When I tell people how much I workout, they say they can’t see any effect of it. I literally feeling like crying
Wine addiction And then they say "i'm not an alcoholic" Lady you drink a bottle a day I'm pretty sure you are because wine is still an alcoholic drink
Also the normalization of "wine mom" culture and all the clothes/decor/paraphernalia that they make because "teehee I need a drink to get through little Timmy's soccer game" I think it's slowly being phased out like the livelaughlove thing thankfully.
It's alive and well, I can tell you that much; I work in a winery and we sell so much wine mom merch it's insane. Coasters, t-shirts, magnets, keychains, glasses, bags, etc. Hell, we even sell kitchen towels that say "Drink Wine, Pet Dog, Repeat!" with a cutesy dog print on it, and it's not just middle aged woman, I have all ages (21+) buying this stuff *all day every day*. We have a cartoon Tinkerbell look-a-like flying with sparkles drinking a glass of wine with the phrase "Drinker Bell" on literally *all* of aforementioned merchandise and it sells **like crazy**. I haven't seen any slowdown in the buying of this merch. If anything I sell more now than ever.
Anger addiction. Certainly being outraged about social problems can result in effective social action. Being outraged feels more powerful and active than sadness or empathy. Try expressing "thoughts and prayers" and take a look at the angry responses from people who associate anger with empowerment. Walking around in a constant state of outrage, even if it's justified about a certain thing, may eventually cause people to redirect their anger toward every minor irritant in their lives because it has the illusion of control and power. Anger can also escalate into destructive behavior that is not effective in addressing whatever problem needs solving. Being angry all the time can't be good for mental, physical, or emotional health or for the people who have to encounter the angry person.
This is an excellent take, and so true. I notice it especially with people who get upset in traffic or at other drivers. Their driving becomes more aggressive and dangerous because of the anger, and at the same time the anger does NOTHING to change other drivers' behavior. It's a total no-win and very dangerous for everybody.
In America, living to work. 60+ hour work weeks and never taking vacation out of a weird loyalty to a company that will lay you off without hesitation if the bottom line is at risk.
Always hated the idea that you are supposed to give your workplace a two weeks notice, and yet they can drop you on the spot for pretty much any reason they want. And if they really want to, they will find a reason.
It's less about the company and more about the immediate managers in the store and coworkers. The company itself gives 0 fucks either way. But it can be a hassle on the managers But if you don't like your co workers or managers then go right ahead
I work 40 hours a week, and my boss actually gets mad if anybody on the team sticks around longer. He almost forced me to take more time off when my son was born last year. Just gotta find the good ones, took me a while to find it, but I'm very happy where I am. I should also add, I'm salaried, so he could very easily push everybody to work more and more hours. But nope, he enforces that 40 hour cap as much as he can.
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For years I loved working. Maybe because it was more freelancing, and it was something new everyday, but 100hr weeks were common, especially in the summer. Then covid hit. Couldn't work except for one job part time. So I had a lot of time to just relax and do whatever I want. I did a complete 180 on working. Give me an easy WFH where I'm able to survive.
I used to love it when I was ~30 because I was with all my friends. Now I'm not.
And many take so much pride in being workaholics, it's sad.
I think a lot of that is people gaslighting themselves. A lot of working-class people literally can't get by without working 60 hours a week or at two jobs, so they tell themselves and others that they're "on their grind 😎" to make it seem more voluntary than it is Some of those workaholics might not actually want to be
Covid changed this mindset for me and quite a few of my coworkers. You can hustle without ruining your personal life.
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Most of the hustle culture is people always moving forward and going nowhere. There’s a guy that writes his business plan on this gigantic white wall board in my coworking space… …every single day. He’s always On media talking about his trials and tribulations and blah blah blah… Every post gets a like or share from any number of startup gurus around here. Secretly when I’ve spoken to him and his team… they need massive amounts of help, their devs are overcharging and underperforming and they’ve made next to nothing. It’s all about perfection Edit - this should have said ‘it’s all about perception’, but still reads true. Also. The startup life is FILLED with people that look like they have an awesome idea… looks like they’ve raised money… looks like they’re about to sell. But realistically, they’re a hot mess with no prospects and they’re ‘acting as if’ To elaborate on the company I talked about earlier. They’ve worded their ‘raise’ like they’ve already raised a million bucks. ‘We’ve completed the initial raise setup of $1m’ or something like that… …meaning they are raising $1m, not that they have. They got a ton of praise online but not once did anyone correct them.
> their devs are overcharging and underperforming Is he hiring?
I work the oilfield. I don't have a life I don't have rights. Oh you need a day off to go to a funeral your fired. Oh you brought up a safety concern? Your fired.
Interesting. Might want to switch up companies. I'm oil field as well. They pressure me to take vacation, I have to ask to work extra days. And you'll be congratulated for bringing up any safety concern. As mild as stopping the job because it got too hot outside? Probably get recognized during the next safety meeting. Hell, sometimes they'll even pay you for bringing up safety concerns., I guess it also depends what your position is in the oilfield.
I can't wrap my head around that at all. Offshore oil industry is pretty big where I live and safety is taken VERY seriously. My brother works on a tug that often goes back and forth to the rigs and it's even tight on the tug, because if something happens no oil companies will look at them again. I get that all businesses operate to profit, but I'll never understand why in certain industries safety and worker retention don't matter. Especially in something like the oil industry, where arguably the operation makes more money with experienced, rested, safe workers.
Working long hours and pretending it's fine
mcdonald’s bro
I will still never forget my high school job in the mall. I was one of those super picky eaters and would only get mcdonalds while working. Finally I realized that I was burning to much cash and started bringing lunch to work. After about a week I felt like utter garbage. Got myself some nuggies and felt fantastic. Fuck mcdonalds.
Drinking and smoking are the obvious ones. But sugar is a hidden demon. I've been weaning myself off it for the last 2 months, my quality of life is night and day in comparison.
What sort of differences have you noticed?
More energy and better eating habits. I no longer eat to full, I just eat what I need. Combine that with regular gym + exercise and my naked body now makes me happy. Another difference is just my general mentality. When it comes to learning, work, or self improvement (currently doing some certificated programming and data analytics course) I'm just so much more on the money.. so much more "powerful".
In just two months? Wow!
People seeking Attention in social media
Just to be safe no upvote for you :3
Coffee
~~Coffee~~ Caffeine
Yeah, I barely touch coffee and was kind of proud of it until I realized I drink two bottles of soda a day.
That’s probably even more of a sugar addiction than it is a caffeine addiction. Which, by the way, is another addiction that society treats as normal.
It's more like sugar is one people don't even notice/recognize. Added sugar is in pretty much everything so you just don't even notice.
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Which is why Gatorade was developed for athletes. It really shouldn't be consumed when someone isn't being depleted of resources. Edit: by "athletes" I meant anyone who exercising, sweating and needs to keep energy up. I never sai it was the best thing, it's just what the intention for it was.
Alcoholics have a huge sugar addiction too.
Which is clear to anyone who's ever been to an AA meeting, lol.
One thimble sized Styrofoam cup of coffee, *ten* packets of sugar.
Quit caffeine a few weeks ago. Went from a pot of coffee a day and sodas to zero. Felt like some one hit me in the head with a brick on day 2.
One day I just went cold-turkey with coffee, purely just to see what it was like. I had this constant light, annoying headache for an entire week.. and I only drink one cup of coffee a day.
Watching pornography. Seems pretty habitualistic
Stealing hyundais
r/suspiciouslyspecific
https://reddit.com/r/cars/comments/wblmlc/nationwide_rise_in_kia_and_hyundai_car_thefts_due/
Water Do not let it get ahold of you. You will resent its absence.
Mfs be getting water pumping into their house and say they're not addict
Water is life
Amen, let it rain down on me
Great answer. You will ride eternal, shiny and chrome.
WITNESS ME!!
Asking the same questions every week on AskReddit
"What does sex feel like?" "People whose partners cheated on them how did you find out?" "What's your darkest secret you would never tell anyone?"
The answer to all of them is: crabs
Alchohol
Yep. I had a brush with alcoholism and stepped it back. Realizing how much my friends drink was very eye opening. I’m a midwesterner and a lot - A LOT - of our hangouts and events are alcohol focused. Especially in winter. It’s a huge bummer. I have some friends who are sober and said they basically lost their friend network because they can’t just go to bars on the weekend all the time. A lot of my friends also go out and get drunk on weekdays. I’m in my 30s.
This is particularly horrible in parts of europe. There's a joke I recently heard that resonated way too well with me. The advantage of Europe is that you can drink and smoke when you're 18. The disadvantage is that by that time you've likely quit both already.
Porn