Top 10 Things That Are Addicting, and Guess What! They're Legal!!

We all feel like from time to time we become addicted to one thing or another. Whether its Facebook, chocolate, or whatever the biggest trend is right now, we let our minds take hold; letting us think that what we want, what we need is just one more of it. Well, if you can't say that you're addicted to at least one of these LEGAL fixations, I'll bet you that you're a liar!

Tattoos

The saying goes, "Tattoos are like potato chips ... you can't have just one."
Roughly 14 percent of Americans have a tattoo, according to a 2008 Harris Interactive poll. People often associate their tattoos with specific characteristics. For example, 36 percent of inked individuals say their body art makes them feel rebellious, 31 percent feel sexier and 19 percent feel attractive and strong.

Tattooing and other body modification such as piercing, branding and scarification, are ways for individuals to express themselves and display body art -- and many people report that the endorphins released during a tattoo session make up for any discomfort during the process.
However, when body modification turns to self-mutilation or self-injury, mental health professionals grow concerned. Cutting, for example, is a technique people with emotional problems use to control their emotional pain. Cutting and other self-injurious behaviors can be symptoms of mental illnesses including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Alcohol 

Alcoholism is the inability to control drinking due to both a physical and emotional dependence on alcohol. Symptoms include repeated alcohol consumption despite related legal and health issues. Those with alcoholism may begin each day with a drink, feel guilty about their drinking, and have the desire to cut down on the amount of drinking.

Treatment involves counseling by a health care professional. A detoxification program in a hospital or medical facility is an option for those who need additional assistance. Medications are available that reduce the desire to drink.

Gambling / Lottery

The real pain of poker, the only chronic, threatening pain, comes from the daily loss of livelihood—how a player views himself in the face of losing. Pain tolerance, then, is not measured in how well the player can take a bad beat or how long he can sit at a table without questioning what the fuck has happened. Rather, it is how the player handles an inevitable losing streak and the extent to which he will allow losing to affect his idea of himself. After a month straight of losses, a player can become convinced that losing is his role. Going broke becomes his thing to do, his inevitable outcome. The fog of losing, which feels like a seething, dirty steam in the veins, seeps into everything.

That is the pain of poker that must be endured and held at arm’s length: the existential pain that causes you to turn your vision of doom into a fate-bound story, as tragic and merciless as fiction. The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High

Shopping 

Psychologists and economists around the world research compulsive buying disorder (CBD), looking for both a better understanding of why people overbuy and also effective ways to treat them. We do know that shopping addiction is fueled by a powerful cycle of emotions: It typically starts with a feeling of tension or arousal when thinking about going shopping. Next comes a strong urge to shop and buy and temporary feelings of relief during the act of buying. Once a purchase is made, feelings of guilt soon follow. As with other types of repetitive behavioral (or process) addictions, there are cravings — feelings so strong and exciting that they’re frequently uncontrollable — and the shopping addict will ignore the negative consequences that might come from buying, such as angering a spouse, bouncing a check, having a credit card declined or not having money for necessities. Simply put, someone who is a compulsive shopper becomes psychologically dependent on thoughts of shopping, the process of shopping and the euphoric (or trance-like) feeling that comes from buying.

Like all addicts, shopping addicts may try to hide their addiction, and if a loved one is addicted to shopping, they may try to hide it from you. If you hide credit card bills, shopping bags or receipts, you may be a shopaholic. In some cases, shopaholics may try to hide their addiction by lying about just one element of it. For instance, a person may admit they went shopping, but they may lie about how much they spent.

Some of the other emotional symptoms you may notice from a shopaholic include the following: spending more than they can afford, shopping as a reaction to feeling angry or depressed, shopping as a way to feel less guilty about a previous shopping spree, harming relationships due to spending or shopping too much, and/or losing control of the shopping behavior

Caffeine

This one has some truth to it, depending on what you mean by "addictive." Caffeine is a stimulant to the central nervous system, and regular use of caffeine does cause mild physical dependence, but caffeine doesn't threaten your physical, social, or economic health the way addictive drugs do. Most adults in the U.S. use caffeine, whether in coffee, soda, energy drinks, or chocolate. Many are also familiar with the effects of suddenly drinking less coffee than usual: tiredness, headaches, insomnia, and other symptoms. And many people talk about being “addicted” to their morning coffee or energy drink! But is caffeine truly addictive?

It’s all about the dopamine. It is true that—like many drugs—caffeine enhances dopamine signaling in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that helps control movement, motivation, and emotions, so enhanced dopamine signaling makes a person feel more awake and alert. Because caffeine produces that alert feeling, it’s classified as a stimulant.

symptoms of a caffeine withdrawal may include: Headache, sleepiness, irritability, lethargy, constipation, depression, muscle pain/stiffness/cramping, lack of concentration, flu-like symptoms, insomnia, nausea or vomiting, Anxiety, brain fog, dizziness, or heart rhythm abnormalities.

Video Streaming

Binge-watching shows is here to stay, and Netflix, Hulu and other streaming television companies know it—that’s why they released entire seasons of original shows at once, banking that people like you and me will power through episode after episode. It got me thinking, though, what is it that makes us click the play button for the next episode, even if we don’t really have time for it? Why do we love Netflix so much? Cliffhangers activate stress. The formula for riveting television was figured out long, long ago. End each episode in a mini-cliffhanger, then end each season in a bigger one, and keep people watching. From the famous “Who shot J.R.?” to Claire walking out on President Frank Underwood at the end of the last season of House of Cards, shows know how to keep us hooked, but do they know they are eliciting a stress response from our bodies?

When faced with the acute stress of not knowing what is going to happen next, the body produces an excess of CRH, a hormone that mediates the release of other stress hormones in the body. This causes the body to remain alert (our fight or flight response), which can disrupt sleep. So, when you’re faced with that cliffhanger at midnight, you’re suddenly not so tired and you find yourself pushing through the next show.

Video Games

Could video game playing be an addiction? Yes, says the Center for On-line Addiction -- at least when it becomes excessive, the gamer is overwhelmed with thoughts of gaming while engaging in non-gaming activities, the gamer lies about time spent gaming and feels anxious or irritable when not gaming. These criteria are similar to the criteria for compulsive gambling.

Addicted gamers are typically male and most are under the age of 30. While the cause of gaming addiction is unclear, mental health professionals believe it may be similar to other impulse control disorders. The act of gaming elevates dopamine levels, a feel-good, mood altering chemical our brain produces. Gaming can also give a person who may have poor self-esteem or trouble socializing a way to escape daily life or even a way to cope with depression and anxiety symptoms. Also there's fatigue, migraines due to intense concentration or eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome caused by the overuse of a controller or computer mouse, and possibly poor personal hygiene.

Tanning

The natural high you feel after a day at the beach could be addictive.
A study conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and published in the August 2005 edition of the journal "Archives of Dermatology" found that more than 50 percent of beach lovers could be considered tanning addicts, and 26 percent of sun worshippers would qualify as having a substance-related disorder.

Tanning, whether at the beach or in a booth, is a high-risk activity because of its known link to skin cancers, yet some people can't give it up. When we're exposed to ultraviolet rays from the sun (or a tanning bed), our bodies make endorphins -- endorphins boost our mood. Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center found that frequent tanners (people who tan eight to 15 times every month) experience physiological withdrawal symptoms when denied the mood-boosting chemicals produced during tanning. The withdrawal symptoms include dizziness and nausea, much like what a person undergoing alcohol or drug withdrawal suffers. 

Most tanning locations have a 24 hour policy. Meaning you aren't allowed to tan more than 1 time in a 24 hour span. But people often abuse this by getting multiple tanning memberships with different shops and companies. Some of the most unwanted symptoms of a tanning addiction may include: 

fast aging, thickness of skin, wrinkles, vision problems, and the big C-word herself, Cancer. This sort of addiction can be deadly, so please, do yourself a favor and tan responsibly. 

Exercise

For many of us couch potatoes, an addiction to exercise may sound impossible. Thirty minutes a day, most days of the week is difficult enough. How can anyone fit in hours of exercise on a daily basis? Think about it -- why would it be called a runner's high if it didn't feel great? Compulsive exercisers make exercise their focus, to the detriment of their relationships, work (or school) and even their own health.

Compulsive exercise comes from a need for control and many who are addicted obsess over caloric intake or pounds lost. They may work out alone, work out with the same routine, work out for more than two hours every day, skip work to exercise or even exercise to the point of injury (and continue to work out despite their injury). Did You Know? It's estimated that 10 percent of high-performance runners as well as 10 percent of body builders have an addiction to exercise.

Exercise addiction can occur independently or in conjunction with another disorder. There are two types of exercise addiction: primary exercise addiction and secondary exercise addiction. In each case, exercise addiction develops differently. Primary exercise addiction occurs as a form of behavioral addiction, but these people do not have any other psychological or behavioral conditions—exercise addiction is the main problem. Primary exercise addiction is more common in males and usually develops in response to the pleasurable effects of endorphins that are released during and after exercise. This is how exercise makes the body produce its own high, which is what primary exercise addicts become addicted to.Secondary exercise addiction occurs in conjunction with another disorder, most commonly eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Secondary exercise addiction is more common in females and usually develops due to body image issues.

Sex

Sex addiction, also known as hyper sexual disorder, is characterized by persistent and escalating sexual thoughts and acts that have a negative impact on the individual's life. Sex addicts struggle to control or postpone sexual feelings and actions. Because most sex addicts fear being abandoned, they might stay in relationships that aren’t healthy, or they may jump from relationship to relationship. When alone, they might feel empty or incomplete. They might also sexualize feelings like guilt, loneliness or fear.The need for sex in ones life is more prominent in some than in others. To some, the sex drive is relatively subconscious, and the media repeatedly nudges this from afar with advertisements and products designed to stimulate. To others, sex is a compulsion to the point where their own self-esteem hangs upon it. Sexual addiction is not as uncommon as you might think. Addicts usually spend most of their social lives eyeing up potential partners in order to have sex; they are often cocky, brash, and think nothing of ‘making out’ with potential candidates wherever they go. They often treat their partners chauvinistically (i.e. without loyalty, consideration or respect), and think nothing of the ‘one night stand’. To these people, the idea of ‘getting a life’ is to get a sex life; and often their idea of a good night out basically involves manipulating their way back to the bedroom. Some teens develop a more benign form of sex addiction; sometimes called ‘sex adulation’; but usually grow out of it by their early to mid 20’s.

Additionally, sex addiction likely has a negative impact on several areas of one’s life. It can lead to:
A decline in personal relationships, social, and family engagement, decreased concentration and productivity at work, physical consequences like sexual dysfunction or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Other symptoms may include Compulsive self-stimulation (masturbation), multiple affairs, this includes extra marital affairs, multiple one-night stands, multiple sexual partners, persistent use of pornography, practicing unsafe sex, cyber sex, and even using prostitutes.

Some of these are a bit extreme, but legal they may be.