My Adult Thumbsucking

I was watching some TV program on ABC the other morning and they had this guest on named Judith Wright who spoke about Soft Addictions. I took the below directly from the ABC web page to help me explain.

"Wright, the author of "The Soft Addiction Solution," says soft addictions are normal, everyday activities done to excess. She says some addictions zone you out, like television or Internet, while others, like overeating or overusing gadgets like BlackBerrys, are the adult equivalent of thumb-sucking.

Soft addictions start early, according to Wright, and she sees more than boredom as the cause. "The real issue is that they're stressed out. They're trying to comfort themselves."

It's a problem "when the behavior no longer just soothes you, but instead begins to bother you," Wright said.
Wright said these soft addictions could become very embarrassing for the addicts.
"You don't feel good that you are out of control and that something has this much power over you,"

I have now not been able to get this crap off my mind. I was not at all bothered by my so called Soft Addictions until this lady gets on the TV and says that "you are out of control and that something has this much power over you" and "adult thumb sucking" As I began to think about what in my life would be classified as a Soft Addiction they just kept coming and coming. It is no real surprise to me as my self awareness has always allowed me to identify that I become addicted to things quite quickly. My plight in life has just been to control what I allow myself to become addicted to. Is that an oxymoron? I also have on and off switches to certain Soft Addictions such as: Exercise, Weighing myself, Eating Candy, Getting lost in my music, going out for drive-thru food, etc. Then there are others that seem to be constant: Cracking my fingers, TV as background noise, Eating Popcorn/Crunchy Foods, etc. I have found that the trick to this for me is to pick the "healthy" ones and tweak the not so healthy ones. Like I only exercise once a day at a certain time and if I miss it, I will not do it until the next day or eating light Popcorn, carrots, almonds and apples not only for the crunch but to combat the candy. I have been working on the TV as background noise, but seem to be loosing this battle (I may give it more attention now) But as for cracking my fingers call it what you will "thumb sucking" whatever it will never stop. One of the greatest things about my husband is that it doesn't bother him, he has actually never said one word about it and he doesn't even do it! This is a blessing as I grew up being backhanded with a "knock it off" by Mommy for it a few times a day since John Cook taught me to do it in fifth grade.