Once I was addicted to cigarettes and smoked twenty to thirty a day but finally, in early 1988, I managed to chuck the habit for good simply by deciding to become a non-smoker. My determination was bigger and more powerful than the insidious effects of nicotine upon my brain. I have not smoked another cigarette since that January morning when I destroyed my last full pack of Benson & Hedges, breaking up the cancer sticks and watching the golden tobacco hidden within fall into our dustbin with the rest of the rubbish.
And I was addicted to the British soap opera "EastEnders" from it's very first episode on February 19th 1985 until the summer of 2013. That's when I finally decided it was taking up too much of my life and the commitment was plainly ridiculous. I have never watched a single episode since then. A bit like giving up cigarettes.
Once I was down at our local pub four or five nights a week supping the elixir of life - "Tetley's Bitter". Each time I would drink between three and five pints. I just could not get enough of the stuff and Lord knows how much dosh I spent on my habit. Today, I have not given up drinking beer entirely but my input is massively reduced. On Sunday, I had four pints at the quiz in "The Robin Hood" but I haven't had any beer since and that's been story most weeks in the last two years.
I have had other addictions. I was addicted to reading and studying when I was at university. When I discovered Indian curry meals, I could not get enough of them. Nowadays I seem to be addicted to walking and taking pictures as well as blogging but I am cool about that and have no immediate plans to give up. These addictions seem healthy enough.
And while I am on the subject of addiction, let me refer to the blogpost I wrote last week about Shirley, my "Wife". I neglected to mention that she is an addict. The problem began over a decade ago now and gradually the addiction has got worse. I am at my wit's end and have no idea how I can help her to give up and get clean again.
I am talking about smartphone addiction. When she got her first smartphone, she was able to handle it pretty well but gradually the addiction has grown.
I get up in the morning and ask if she wants a cup of tea. She's there on the front room sofa, glued to the smartphone.
She goes out to the greenhouse to potter with her plants and seedlings. I look outside and she's standing there in the greenhouse - on her smartphone..
I am cooking in the kitchen, stirring this and checking that. She brings me her smartphone to look at - a meme, a photograph, a message but I am a non-addict and so I am not attuned to this smartphone obsession. I never want to know what people are looking at in the depths of their little screens. It is all so alien to me.
As I look around the world - in parks, on buses, in pubs or cafes, outside Phoebe's school, at football matches, I see the smartphone addiction everywhere. It has swept across the planet like fentanyl or something . So many people are completely hooked and do not seem able to function without checking out their bloody smartphones every five minutes.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/9JXc8MT
