Addiction vs Bad Habits

Addiction can be defined as the condition of being dependent on a particular substance, activity, thing, or idea. The title of this course is Bad Habits in Literature and Culture, “bad habits” being a less harsh term to use when referring to addiction. Therefore, in simple terms, addiction is a bad habit, vice versa. Though this relationship is often not understood in society. There seems to be a line that stands between bad habits and addiction, separating the two synonymous words.

Some bad habits are viewed as more serious and deadly in our society due to the way in which they are presented. A prime example of this is drug and alcohol abuse, both of which are the first word that comes to someone’s mind when thinking about addiction. The way in which these bad habits are made evident to society is what enables them to more easily fall under the category of addiction. The effects associated with drug and alcohol abuse are displayed through television, movies, books, and celebrity news. This attention is what allowed the addiction stigma associated with substance abuse to be seen as more severe. I am by no means saying that substance abuse is not an addictive disease that has the power to control one’s decisions because it most definitely does. Though with this in mind, why is substance abuse seen as the ultimate addiction, when there are many other addictive bad habits in society that are not taken as seriously?

Such bad habits that are not treated as addictions include dependency on a cellphone, overeating, or excessive television use, etc. These habits often go overlooked because the implications associated with them are not viewed as “life-threatening”. These bad habits will never receive the same attention as drug and alcohol abuse, when in reality they can be just as enslaving to someone’s life.

So, what caused this societal divide between habitual actions that are simply “bad habits” compared to those that are seen as full on “addiction”? In simple terms, both addiction and bad habits cause a person to be dependent on the object or activity at hand. Therefore, why does society treat these equivalent terms so differently? Ultimately, what constitutes a dependency to be viewed as addiction versus a bad habit?