Can Watching Television Really Develop Into an Addiction?

Question by beckaramone: Can watching Television really develop into an addiction?
I heard on the radio that people can enter rehab under the category of media. Can by watching television become an addiction?

Best answer:

Answer by Mallory
I think it can, just like just about everything else.

A number of years ago my younger brother had an assignment for school to turn off the tv for an entire week, and our whole family was required to get involved. At first it was torture, but by the end I really didn’t miss it.

Answer by Smells Like Awesome
Anything can become an addiction when it becomes the most important thing in your life.
The term “addiction” is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive physical dependence or psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction, video game addiction, crime, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, pornography addiction, etc.

In medical terminology, an addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance. In physiological terms, addiction is not necessarily associated with substance abuse since this form of addiction can result from using medication as prescribed by a doctor.

However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.

The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual’s health, mental state or social life.

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