Eric Maisel on distraction addiction
Creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD points out the insidious attraction of what he calls “special addictions that might be dubbed the distraction addictions.”
Among these, he lists “compulsive Internet surfing, online shopping, and video game playing that have sprung up alongside our technological advances.”
He adds, “These new addictions are a lure for everybody, but they are especially alluring to folks like full-time writers who spend their working days on the computer a mere split second away from Internet access.”
Continued in article The Distraction Addictions, by Eric Maisel.
[The image is from the article The Truth About Computer Addiction.]
Experiences like “addiction” or “obsession” are usually seen as destructive or otherwise negative. But Dr. Maisel counters that perception in his article In Praise of Positive Obsessions: “Clinicians define ‘obsession’ in the following way: an obsession is an intrusive thought, it is recurrent, it is unwanted, and it is inappropriate.
“Defined this way, it is obviously always unwelcome. But suppose a person is caught up thinking day and night about her current painting or about the direction she wants to take her art?…
“She can hardly wait to get to her studio and her rhythms are more like Picasso’s on painting jags than like the rhythms of a ‘normal’ person…. This artist is obsessed in an everyday sense of the word–and more than happy to be so!”
That alternative view can also apply to “addiction,” as Alex Shalman notes in his post Why Is Goal Achievement So Fulfilling?: “Since goal achievement is an addiction, it only gets more potent the more you use it (you’ll become a fiend!) You’ll find yourself requiring bigger and bigger doses, as you move from small goals into the experience of great adventures and the accomplishment of your life mission.”
August 18th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Thank you for mentioning my post!
August 19th, 2007 at 3:31 am
The biography of most super-achievers in the arts as well as in other fields reveals this kind of positive obsession. The downside is that most of them were so consumed with their passion for their field that they also neglected spouses and children and sometimes took advantage of friends and supporters in the interests of reaching their (often admirable) goals.