hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2426.txt

Episode: 2426
Title: HPR2426: Let's Talk About Addiction
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2426/hpr2426.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:48:07

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This is HPR episode 2426 entitled Let's Talk About Addiction.
It is hosted by Lost in Bronx and in about 11 minutes long, and Karim an exquisite flag.
The summary is Lost in Bronx tells some thoughts about the need to talk about addiction.
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Hello, this is Lost in Bronx and you'll have to forgive the bad audio quality I'm in the car right now.
Driving into town.
This is just a quick sort of response or just a few thoughts that I had.
It's something that I would like to see a lot more dialogue about.
And that's addiction.
Now addiction is a huge subject and I'm no expert on any aspect of it.
So I don't necessarily believe that I'm going to add anything new to the conversation.
But I would like to see more of a conversation about it on Hacker Public Radio.
Because hackers are a subject to addiction in all its many, many forms as everybody else.
For myself, I'm addicted to caffeine. That's a fact.
However, before you even start the dialogue, before you even start the conversation, you have to define what addiction truly is.
Now, I read a recent definition that is held by I think mental health practitioners who at least currently they define addiction not necessarily as the physical dependence upon either a substance or some other behavior.
You know, because those gambling and there's sex and porn and all sorts of negative behaviors.
It isn't necessarily that you might have some sort of dependence on one of these things.
It's how your dependence impacts your life, right?
So if you can drink, say booze, because I do drink.
If you can drink booze, but it doesn't impact your life in a negative way, then that's not truly an addiction.
That is to say that's not a mental illness.
You know, you're not really hurting yourself or anyone else.
If in point of fact, it's not hurting anyone yourself or someone else, right?
Now, of course, one of the problems with addiction is that you tend to see the world the way you want to see it, right?
So in some ways, it's not even up to you to decide whether you're addicted to a thing. It's up to someone else.
But how many people listening to this, they're in the habit of coming home and maybe playing an hour or two of video games.
And if they don't play those games just to unwind from their day or something like that, if they don't get that regular fix,
if they don't get that regular injection, the day doesn't feel exactly right.
They feel a little antsy. Things aren't quite right.
Well, that's a long way from destroying your life by playing video games, right?
That's a really, really long way.
So just because you depend upon those video games to help smooth your mood, right?
To help make your day a little bit easier to get through.
It doesn't mean you're addicted to it. It just means it's a thing that's an active part of your life that you enjoy.
And that's an important part of your life.
But it doesn't mean that your life is destroyed A without it or B with it, right?
I think addiction needs, we need to define it, right?
First off, absolutely, anybody that still believes either consciously or subconsciously,
that addiction is some sort of moral flaw, some sort of moral problem.
They need to get their head in the game, right?
They need to start thinking like a 21st century person and not like an 18th century person.
It is not, right?
You have people, now I live in rural Arizona and like pretty much everywhere else in the country
and much of the world in general, drug addiction is a really big problem out here.
It has, it is no longer an inner city problem, it's an everywhere problem, right?
And so there are people here who are addicted to methamphetamine, we'll say that, for instance,
and their lives are truly gutted, they are truly, truly shells, not even of themselves,
of their former selves, they are shells of human beings, their lives are completely destroyed by these drugs, right?
Anyone that would look at someone who has ruined themselves,
who has made themselves so miserable, so hateful of themselves,
that the only thing they want to do is obliterate any thought of themselves, right?
And who has ruined the lives of everyone around them, anyone who would look at that person and say,
oh, what's wrong with that person?
They made a choice to do that, that's what they want, right?
No one, no one would choose such a thing, no one wants that.
This is not a moral failing, this is a medical crisis, right?
If you are addicted to a thing and it is destroying your life, if it is impacting your life in a negative way,
that is a mental illness, that is a problem in your head, you know,
because you wouldn't choose to do such a thing, that is not the thing that you want in your life,
you don't want to feel horrible about yourself, you don't want the people around you to be in pain,
to be crying, to feel like they're losing you, no one would choose these things,
it is not a moral choice, it is an illness and it needs to be treated,
it needs to be taken seriously and treated, right?
That is addiction, right?
Now some addictions, we can live with them for a very long time,
you know, you can be this thing called a functioning alcoholic,
which is in fact different than what I just described, right?
You aren't destroying everything around you, everything you're touching,
until of course you drink and drive, then who knows, right?
Who knows whose life you might take or impact in a negative way,
or maybe bit by bit by bit you're showing up to work late,
never late but irritable and hungover and bit by bit by bit,
people don't think of you as being as reliable as you once were,
there are little ways that that sort of long term negative impact on your life can chip away at the good things, right?
I wouldn't call that harmless, right?
I wouldn't call a dependence on alcohol when it's doing that to you as being harmless.
That's just me, you know, there again, it's a very complex topic and I am no expert,
so you may define it quite differently and certainly actual experts do.
But I can tell you this, that if you have something say like smoking,
that you need to kick, even though you walk around and function perfectly normal, right?
The only time it really ever bothers you is when you don't have it,
or until you wake up in the middle of the night and you can't breathe,
you know, suddenly this thing is not so harmless anymore,
suddenly this dependence upon this thing, it's not harmless,
it's something that is impacting you, you know?
In a point of fact, it would have been impacting you for quite some time before this,
you know, for quite some time, this would have been chipping away at your health,
and possibly your self-esteem, if you've been thinking about it all this time and saying,
I really got to quit, really got to quit, really got to quit, you know,
it's a mental illness, and it's one that can be overcome, but it takes work.
Beepbox ended his episode with people change, right?
And I agree with that, they do, if they have to,
because if you choose to change a thing, it's because you feel like
there's something about what you're doing that just isn't working for you anymore.
And if you're going to be happy with yourself, if you're going to enjoy what it is you're doing,
or just getting by, you've got to make that change, or it's going to be nagging at you,
it's going to be there, it's going to be a little thing,
and all of these little things they add up.
Now, there's no solution here, I'm not offering any kind of solution here.
I'm just saying that people need to start talking about addiction
and the need to change their lives, if they realize it's there,
if they realize that change is required.
Whatever it happens to be, whatever your habit happens to be,
if it's bothering you, you need to change it,
because it wouldn't be bothering you otherwise.
You know, is it going to kill you?
Cigarettes? First one won't, but the last one will.
And you'll get there, if you get on that road, you will get there.
And that's the same with drinking, that's the same with drugs,
and that's the same with a whole lot of other things.
A whole lot of other things.
We need to be talking about this stuff.
We need to be willing, you know, as conscious adults,
willing to talk about the fact that this is a problem,
this is a mental problem, and mental problems,
mental illnesses can be treated.
You know, as I say, it is the 21st century.
I don't know about you, but I'm astounded to live in the future.
I am both disappointed and filled with awe by the things
that have happened in this world, in my own lifetime.
And from when I was a child to now, the difference in the way
that people interpret mental illness, the way that people see it,
it's like night and day.
And I think it's about time that the rest of us started thinking
that way too.
This has been Lost in Bronx.
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