Obsession vs Addiction-How does it impact your mental health?

 

Obsession vs Addiction-How does it impact your mental health?

Obsession and addiction are two terms which are mostly confused with each other. If you ask someone what is the difference between two, they will always mix up these two terms. And majority of the people think that these two have similar meanings but in reality, they are two really different things. Let’s get into the meaning of these two terms.

Obsession is basically when your mind gets filled up by something or someone. You tend to think around that object or person. You can’t seem to help but have thoughts about those certain things. Now it may seem like these thoughts are troubling someone’s mind but if we look deeper in it, people start living their life around these obsessions they have. And they may be tiring for them but it can’t be helped.

In comparison, if we talk about addiction, addiction is some kind of escape our minds takes. A person tries different ways to go far away from the reality and becomes addicted to it. Because that person finds comfort in this escape. Not having to face the cruel reality can be a huge comfort but also too harmful for us because nonetheless we will have to face the reality in the end and that addiction will not let us face it. These addictions make a person weak because it makes us rely on something that is basically very bad for us.

Let’s assume that a person is not able to take his/her mind off from washing hands again and again. Even after washing hands for nth time, they still feel unhygienic and are not satisfied. This is the examples of obsession. Where as addiction is a situation where a person depends on something such as alcohol, drugs or even those things that may not seem harmful at first but can cause damage if excessively used.

Obsession is basically fear of something, a person is always concerned about certain things like blindly following superstitions, always thinking of ways to hide themselves or else they will do something shameful or will get insulted by doing something awkward. They constantly overthink over many aspects that seem like normal to everyone else. For example, normally people won’t be affected that much by seeing things out of order but someone who is obsessed with having everything organized in order will not be able to tolerate it for even a second because they are obsessed with having everything organized and in order.

Addiction can be also for many different things. People can get addicted to anything that helps them escape the reality or is some kind of external support to their minds. For example, many students get addicted to coffee or caffeine during exams season because it keeps their mind awake and they can focus more on their studies. Now this routine becomes so strong that even after getting what they want for that specific time, they can’t let go of that habit they developed during this time. This becomes so much difficult later on as your mind starts depending on that specific thins and you start using it excessively which can have a huge impact on their health.

These two terms are so confused with each other that we don’t even try to look for the facts and its impact on our mental health. They both are bad for us but they are treated differently. If we always confuse them, we will never be able to treat them correctly until and unless we get professional help. So, we should have at least this much awareness for such terms that we will not be affected badly with them. We should always try to educate ourselves for such minimal topics to avoid getting in their dangerous aspects. This type of awareness is very important for us, specially in this digital era where we have more exposure to everything, we also have accessibility to any kind of information. So, make sure to have some time to educate yourself for your own good.