ADDICTED TO NORMAL
The scariest part about being addicted to something is when you don't even realize you are.
A - THE PACT YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU SIGNED
At only 15 years old I signed a contract, not the regular one with ink or blood and some documents . This one was with clicks , taps , invite others and it took me more than a decade to realize
Well I thought they were harmless and just a gateway to cool features but ignorantly I didn't know they were invisible agreements. Pacts with a system that feeds on attention, brings anxiety and absence of meaning.
It's a cycle in repetition and I signed them all until they became automatic. I would stay up late at nights till the early morning hours scrolling through nothing , started requiring sounds to fall asleep , felt hungry but only wanted chips or sugar , talked more with chatbots than persons around me , cried less , felt less emojis represented my emotions instead of my actual body
Well from the start it all felt good, life didn't feel painful but as time went by things became dull and dull became normal
But here's the truth I wasn't broken , I wasn't lazy, I was just being programmed
B- What is Addiction ?
Growing up all I heard was addiction looked like needles and alleyways , it was just a situation of over liking something but I wish I knew it wore masks and if played with, without precautions it'll rob you like a thief in the night. It could be the smell of a fast food , sound of Tiktok loop or a glowing screen at 2am it could be anything
Addiction is said to be anything you keep going back to even when it quietly destroys you.but what if I told you it's not always this way most often, not because you're weak, but because it was designed to keep you there.
The world doesn’t just sell you products ,It sells you patterns,habits,cycles,dopamine hits dressed as convenience.
So what happens when the most common lifestyle is also the most addictive?
When society is wired to keep you functioning just enough to not break but never enough to fully live?
C- Turning Disorder into a business model
Don't get it all wrong , the system, tech giants don't want you dead , they just want you hooked - alive enough to scroll , tired enough not to resist and that's why
Apps have been designed to be infinite
Notifications are endless
Foods are ultra processed
Beauty standards are unreachable
Even work don't end no more at 5pm , it lives in your pocket and you probably been thinking maybe it's just a glitch in the system while it really is the system.
Before you overthink anything or blame yourself you should know you and I didn't fail self control, we were just outnumbered by billion dollars laboratories studying how to hijack our brains and honestly they succeeded
D - ADDICTED TO NORMAL
These days we rarely question it , scrolling , the numbness,endless comparisons and worst the news makes it sound like it's normal even some communities encourage consumption in small doses well we now call it normal
But what if making it Normal was the first trap ? because addicted no normal feels alright and everyone would be ready to defend n kill just for the sake of their normal
This is not a rant , not even a warning just my thoughts and reflection and some random online research but at the same time
It could be a mirror held up for the parts of us we abandoned trying to stay on track .
Thank you for reading if this post made you feel something you haven't been able to label , or face just know you're not alone neither are you broken , you're just human
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