See Attachment

All creatures, great and small, develop attachments to “things” during their lifetimes. The types of attachments can vary widely; ranging from a natural attachment, necessary for life extension (in other words, a need for food and water to stay alive) to any sort of attachment stemming from primary feelings of pleasure, enjoyment, relief, etc. The degree to which a person is attached to something will often fall within the realm of healthy; a loose affiliation with whatever is in question, but from there on, should the union be allowed to grow, these attachments can turn into compulsion and obsession, and then, in the most serious cases, addiction and self-assured dependence. Many people will already understand the theory that addiction to anything is potentially harmful – especially true when dealing with substances that are damaging to your health in either small quantities or excess amounts (the former primarily referring to drugs, including semi-legal drugs such as cigarettes and alcohol; the latter taking into account things like food).

Sadly, however, the moment addiction kicks in, the likelihood that all does not end well shoots up sharply. When a person has allowed something to engross their attention to the extent that they are unable to cope without it, in worst case scenarios, repercussions can lead to dramatic mood swings, deterioration of mental health, even the emergence of suicidal inclination. Most often seen in instances where the person has handled something already initially judged to be dangerous for them, the more vulnerable of us could easily fall into the same patterns when denied access to something we crave, and at the same time, not given help to wean us off it.

I’m not involving conditions where the object of addiction is known to affect the mind distinctively (e.g. heavy use of cannabis will increase paranoia). If the previously mentioned is true, it will always depend on the person’s unaltered mindset; their strength of will and character, how much they tend to think on their own, whether they are able to let something go when the time comes, and so forth. But what I was wondering was when does an attachment become an addiction? Should we worry at the sight of obsessive behaviour, and lament at the possibility it could evolve into a full-blown addiction? How easy is it to spot the difference between a strong attachment (where the person still has the ability to live without the item and remain sane) and an addiction?

My questions come from observing a friend the other day. I jokingly pointed out to her that she must be addicted to this one song she persists in listening to. She readily admitted to really liking the song, and had it on repeat – she’d probably listened to it 20 times by 6pm. It was only the next day that I thought to myself about whether that behaviour could possibly represent an addiction. In short, it’s very unlikely that it did; I never truly believed that it would have done, since she chose to listen to other songs, did not have it playing non-stop for hours on end, and didn’t present any changes in mood when not tuned to it. Unfortunately, I found myself deficient of the chance to conduct a more in-depth experiment, where I would have deprived her the option of listening rights to it whenever she wished (main reason I didn't go through with that was I would have suffered physical injury for doing so, and warranted it).

The conclusion has begged more questions than answers. Should we all be encouraged to look at some aspects of ordinary human activity, and consider them potential addictions (chiefly in teenagers who impart the most confusing cases)? Might it aid in mental health research into extra, formerly unseen causes of stress, depression and suicide? Could it finally explain the unexplainable (the unusually high-rate of suicides in young people living in Bridgend, Wales)?