Netflix: 9 steps to TV series obsession disorder

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7 Netflix vs Insta
Is it really true? Well I see it for myself. Instead of going to check what amazing holidays my friends had, or crazy party I wasn’t invited to, you don’t put yourself in danger and it has more quality content. Finish sneaking in other people’s lives, hurting yourself or comparing – here it’s just ‘take in’.

NETFLIX
I also realized I actually experience something different from my daily life when watching. For example, with Sense 8 on Netflix I totally got myself into the personas. The message was totally oriented to the international spiritual crowd as the scenario incorporated various beings in different continents, connecting to each other through their brains or vibrations, while collectively fighting a witch hunt. It combined stress and pleasure of seeing them happily connected (probably a new age soul fantasy).

  1. The acceptable addiction
    Unlike voyeurism (FB addiction) or hard drugs, soft drugs and alcoholism, Netflix watching is kind of the ‘acceptable’ addiction. You can make fun out of yourself in public conversations, and even share your suffering with fellow addicts. This is how they actually get you into it… you can share your account to new future addicts.
  2. The seconds to the next episode
    This is how they get us all. I mean how can you say No to the next episode? Unless they messed it up and the last seconds were dull, you probably want to see what happens next. And now you don’t even need to look up the next episode it comes up for you in seconds!

So how to get over it?
First of all I’d like to share a sociological fact: we either have an addiction or we don’t. I’m not the addictive type in general. I’ve done pot, and even wilder drugs back in the days but never got addicted. I’ve seen friends who serious trouble trying to quit, and even today I get angry when my husband cannot spend a day without coffee or a cigarette. I quit smoking quite easily when I was 40 and can leave pretty much anything I decide to. 

So, for me, even though I’m writing about a Netflix addiction, I’m actually happy to have the pleasure of watching something intelligent and worthwhile created by another mind. I’ll probably just watch another season of Suits now and then, then retreat to the normal me again, and go back to bullet journaling and writing on my own topics and books in my spare time. But for more vulnerable people, there aren’t various solutions, I’m afraid. As in many addictions, specialists advise a cold turkey strategy: that is stop for a while or forever.