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Featured Addictions Articles

Allergy Equals Addiction
Craving particular foods can be a sign of a need for a nutrient that is in the food that is craved. The body is demanding food that contains a particular nutrient. This can be very straight-forward. For example, I spent three months in Sri Lanka, and my ...

Help I am Pregnant and an Addict
There are a lot of resources on the internet, in books, and from the medical community on the dangers of drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. However, there is not very much quality information on what you should do if you have a problem with alcohol ...

Tote Couture
Handbags, purses, totes, clutches, shoulder bags - I don't care what you call them, I love them all. I am a handbag addict. I have them in a countless array of styles and colors. Trends come and go, but "tote couture" remains. True handbag fashion ...





Food Addiction--User; Not Consumer
 
Philip Morris is the world's largest tobacco company. Here is a link for facts from Stanford on Philip Morris. Total annual revenue is at 74 billion as of 1998.

In a report from Stanford are these statements:

There are really no longer any disputes about the negative health effects of tobacco and the fact that smoking tobacco can lead to the loss of life. But just to reiterate these points from important groups :

According to a 1999 World Health Organization report "Tobacco has killed four million people in the year 1999. [Meaning that 1 out of every 10 deaths was tobacco related] By the 2020s or the early 2030s, that preventable death toll will rise to 10 million deaths per year." According to a report by the World Bank, "Half of all long-term smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, and of these, half will die during productive middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of life.

The diseases associated with smoking are well documented and include cancers of the lung and other organs, ischemic heart disease and other circulatory diseases, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. In regions where tuberculosis is prevalent, smokers also face a greater risk than nonsmokers of dying from this disease."

The other day I was telling my son about how hilarious AND sick it is that Philip Morris is also the largest advertiser for ANTI-smoking campaigns. Huh? You read that right. Yes, they produce the product that is responsible for killing millions of users every year. Yes, they produce commercials and advertisements telling people not to smoke and the hazards of smoking. Why? Damage control. Agreements with legislators at the Federal and State level so they can continue selling death and addiction.

In an article from slate.com we find this interesting piece.

In this article on American's expanding waistline Laura Kipnis states "Despite the fact that most of us now apparently face a roly-poly future, a visceral revulsion toward fat persists. It's an interesting form of social hypocrisy, hatred for fatness coupled with a free ride toward the industries that exploit the susceptible. But wait: Is that the sound of corporate responsibility kicking into gear? Yes, in its ever public-spirited way, McDonald's has just announced it will start printing calorie information on its food wrappers. Once you've paid for your Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, you will learn that you're about to put away 730 calories*.

This brings me to the point of this article from me and the reason I told my son it's hilarious AND sick that you consider the producers of addiction-based consumables are also the ones creating campaigns that give the appearance they care about your health too.

Here's why it's hilarious AND sick.

When you create an addictive substance you haven't created a product for a consumer. You have created a product to create a user. A consumer can say "No thanks, I don't want that." A user is a whole different animal-and I do mean animal. Once I have you addicted I can tell you in advertisements and box labels all day long the damage you are doing to yourself. Your chances of quitting because of my campaign are two: slim and none.

It's quite a successful business model really. Create a product that creates a USER rather than a consumer. The product should truly feed a biological addiction and then, after lawsuits and a few billion in payouts, create campaigns that seem to be against the very product you produce. The cool AND sick thing about this business model is once you have the subject under the grips of your addictive product you KNOW very well that cutely devised campaigns that seem educationally against your product won't change your USER from using. Oh, sure, a few will maybe get the message and change but it won't be because of your message. And you know it. They'll change for the same reasons any addict changes-the multivaried and complex reasons beyond the scope of this article.

Tobacco and junk-food producers KNOW what they are doing. They know the users they are creating. And USERS aren't consumers.

About the author:

David Greenwalt is the author of "The Leanness Lifestyle" and founder of Club Lifestyle--an internet-based weight-loss company. He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and 23-year fitness expert. For more information or to contact Greenwalt visit http://www.leannesslifestyle.com

Addictions News



HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell Is Still an Addict and Has "Issues" With John Edwards
Huffington Post
According to Webster to be addicted is: to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively addicted to something. Admittedly, she was a high-functioning alcoholic, who was "spiritually bankrupt." Yet, she experienced "a miracle" on ...

and more »

Definition of addiction changing
Herald and News
That — in its simplest terms — is at the heart of a change in a psychiatric manual that could have a major effect on diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism and other addictions. An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety.

and more »

Definitions refined for alcohol addiction
Toledo Blade
Or is there a sliding scale of addiction, with many gradations of severity? That -- in its simplest terms -- is at the heart of a change in a psychiatric manual that could have a major effect on diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism and other ...

and more »

Are We Addicted to Facebook? It's Complicated.
New York Times (blog)
But does the research suggest that we are addicted to it? Is our obsession with the social network bordering on unhealthy? Can we resist the siren call of the glowing blue icon? Dr. Rosen said the average person was not addicted to Facebook.

and more »

New York Times

Addiction Diagnoses May Rise Under Guideline Changes
New York Times
WASHINGTON — In what could prove to be one of their most far-reaching decisions, psychiatrists and other specialists who are rewriting the manual that serves as the nation's arbiter of mental illness have agreed to revise the definition of addiction, ...
Revised definition of 'addiction' may spur hike in number of addictsMiamiHerald.com
Revised guidelines might sharply increase addiction diagnosesAustin American-Statesman
You could be addicted but not know itOmaha World-Herald

all 40 news articles »