Poor Use of Addiction Label
There is something I have noticed quite a bit lately, in various articles, usually involving someone who the media defines as a celebrity, is talking about how they are overcoming one addiction or another. I recently saw an article about how one such person is considering hypnotherapy in order to help her overcome her “crisp” addiction. For my American readers this is a “potato chip”. Now, crisps are lovely and I certainly have enjoyed my share over my lifetime. But an addiction they are not, not even close.
We have gotten quite sloppy with our use of descriptors when it comes to things like depression, anxiety and yes even addiction. I understand that the scope of addiction work and definition has changed considerably since my initial training. However, just because someone really likes to do something that does not make it an addiction. When people talk about being addicted to crisps or their phones or to Netflix or Social Media, they are actually dishonouring those people with genuinely debilitating addiction issues.
Addiction destroys people’s lives, it destroys families, it is a very awful condition. Let’s not demean it by implying that a person can be addicted to things that a little self control can fix. Can hypnotherapy help with that, yes of course, but let’s not “over egg the pudding”.
