What Is A Junkie/Junky...?

I have yet to come across an addict that will readily admit to being a junkie, (no-one other than ME)...yes, I am a self-confessed internet, ice-cream, writing & music junkie/junky. I have absolutely no addiction to any chemical stubstances or mind-altering substances, but a junkie/junky nonetheless. The fact that I am a junkie/junky became apparent to me after reading the definition of junkie/junky in the English Dictionary, and so, if the definition held in the dictionary is correct...which as I see it, it is because I fit the description of Junkie/Junky to the letter. I shall give you the true definition of Junkie/Junky as listed in the English Dictionary in the next part of this lens...the definition which told me that I was a junkie/Junky, the correct meaning of the word which I had not known before, of course I, like most of you thought I knew precisely what junkie/junky meant & would n't ever have thought that I myself was a junkie/junky...But I am...& so might you be !

I want to explain what a junkie/junky is, what junkie/junky actually means, for it is misinterpreted by most people which in turn makes the life of a junkie/junky who is addicted to an illegal stubstance even more difficult than must already be. It may be that those who are junkies do not actually realise that they are a junkie/junky (as was the case with me), or, in most cases it is because most people don't actually understand what the word junkie/junky actually means but think they do, this is my main reason for writing this page, I want to prove to people that a junkie/junky is not just someone who uses hard-drugs which are illegal & mind-bending & illegal.

The actual word junkie/junky carries with it a stigma, something to be ashamed of. Most of you, as I once did associate junkie/junky with hard-drugs...which to an extent would be correct, but not just any type of drugs (for there are many) but with class A drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crack-cocaine to name but a few...right? But oh how wrong you are.

The actual word junkie/junky (it can be spelt either way) as defined in the Oxford English dictionary is this ~ "a person with an obsessive dependency on or an enthusiasm for something".

This was how I came to realise that I myself must be a junkie/junky. There is no mention in the dictionary definition of heroin or crack-cocaine or any other mind- altering drugs or chemicals, a junkie/junky is merely one who has a passion for or cannot function normally without having that passion as and when needed.

So there you have it, a junkie/junky is merely somebody who does something to excess and cannot do without that something without craving for it. Yes, this something could well be heroin or crack-cocaine in as much as it could also be chocolate-cookies, cigarettes or even sex to name but a few examples.

Like it or not, if there is something which you yourself are passionate about and crave for whenever you are away from it, then yes, you too are a junkie/junky, someone with an addiction. Maybe you still disagree with me and refuse to believe that perhaps you yourself may be a junkie/junky, and I can see why you feel like that if you are one of the people that have always wrongly associated junkies with hard drug users. In writing this page I hope to help erase the stigma that up untill recently has been attatched to a junkie/junky in the hope that once the stigma has gone those people who may need help with addiction can get the help they need...Those who, at the moment are too ashamed to admit that they have a problem due to the way most people wrongly assume what having an addiction REALLY means.

Please continue to read this lens with an open mind. Hopefully, once you come to the end of it your misconceptions of what being a junkie/junky means will have changed somewhat.

So are you ready for a bit of brain retraining?. Together we can make a difference to the lives of many by removing the stigma associated with being a junkie/junky, so that those in need of help & support can step forward and ask for it without feeling any shame or embarrassment as perhaps they do right now

More often than not when we hear people speak of an addict we automatically think of a drug addict...right?...or a junky/junkie...and again we would be right wouldnt we! For no matter to what a person may be addicted, whether it be marijuana, the internet, tobacco, sex, ice-cream, or alcohol, they are still the addicts DRUG of choice, and none are much worse than the others by way of how intoxicated the user gets or how high their drug of choice makes them feel, once they are hooked it becomes essential for the addict or user to get their regualar "fix" of their preferred drug. Over a period of regular use the addict will want and need more of their drug of choice to achieve the same high or "buzz" as when they first tasted the drug, and before it became a habit.

I am sure that most people that use alcohol let's say, as their preferred drug would disagree somewhat if they heard me say that they are no less a junkie/junky or drug addict than a person who is addicted to marijuana or cocaine...yet the truth of the matter is that really they are not any different ...an addict is an addict and there is no going around it.

Some people however, like myself may also have an addictive personality or what is now known to be OCD, but an addictive personality does not actually have an addiction but has compulsions to do particular things.

The compulsions of an OCD sufferer are a little different than the addictions of a junkie in that OCD sufferers become compelled to do something and are not addicted to the task of doing something. Obsessive compulsive disorder sufferers do not feel compelled to put something into their body to satisfy a physical or mental need, and are not addicted to the taking, eating, drinking or smoking of their DRUG of choice like the addictions of a junkie. Addictive personalies or those with OCD usually have several compulsions going on at the same time as each other, unlike a cocaine or sex addict who may have just the one addiction. So the compulsions of an Addictive personality or OCD sufferer are not addictions at all...which means that I am not just a junkie/junky, I have an addictive personality or OCD as well, which I was always aware of having long before reading the definition of junkie/junky in the dictionary & discovering I was also a junky/junkie...Boy was my life beginning to sound complicated.

Addiction to just the one drug of the junkies/junkys choice would be difficult enough to live with so you can imagine how difficult life becomes for someone who has an addictive personality (now known to be OCD. Obsessive behaviour towards everyday things such as cleaning, counting or doing things in the exact same order every time becomes compulsive which is rather like addicts becomming hooked on their drug and can take over the persons life just as a drug can.

There is a huge difference though between the addictive personality of an OCD sufferer and the addictions of a Junkie/junky which is this: The OCD sufferer achieves no high or buzz from their compulsions, this is mainly because their addictive personality is not really the personality of an addict as it suggests. People who were once diagnosed as having addictive personalities are now diagnosed as having OCD. Addictive personalities have compulsions ,unlike the addiction of an addict with a drug habit. OCD sufferers do not choose their compulsions or obsessions...unlike addicts who chose to take their drug of choice before becomming dependent on it, when you have OCD the compulsions and obsessions choose you which is a whole different kettle of fish entirely!

So the next time you hear yourself calling somebody a junky/junkie, maybe you should stop and think for just a minute and ask yourself what makes them any different from a person who is passionate about something, which to you is unacceptable but not necessarily hard drugs. It is like the old saying "the pot calling the kettle black", which means this; you may be calling someone a junkie/junky yet actually be a junmkie/junky yourself....whether you like it, agree with it or not...it is a FACT.

Unfortunately, for the junky/junkie who chooses to use narcotics such as cocaine and heroin as their drug of choice to get their buzz rather than the internet, sex or ice-cream, is the fact that their drug is very expensive... and once addicted or hooked to their drug, one which they cannot afford to maintain, which more often than not then leads them into criminal activities to obtain money to buy their drug. It is the activities of hard-drug junkies/junkys such as stealing and prostitution which makes you hate or dis-like the junkie/junky and not actually the drug which they have chosen. This will be difficult for many of you to agree with but, like it or not IT IS THE ACTUAL FACTS so anyone who still disagrees with me about what makes a person a junkie/junky is being stupid...it's like refusing to believe that when a heart stops beating the body dies, yes, exactly like believing something which is actually a FACT but a fact which you are only finding out today.And so, to conclude what this lens has taught us I finish with this brief recap of the FACTS. A junkie/junkie could be someone who cannot function normally without a morning cup of tea or coffee, but you wouldn't hate or dislike them for being coffee drinkers would you?...if, on the other hand, coffee was so expensive that someone who was addicted to coffee and couldn't function unless they drank coffee but because of the price of coffee being ...lets say £5 a cup, lets say someone needed at least 6 cups of coffee a day...£30 a day on their coffee habit!...lets say the coffee addict had no job...lets say the coffee addict had to steal, prostitute themselves just as a heroin or cocaine may have to....what would you think of the coffee addict then?...lets say whilst you were at work your home was burgled by a junkie/junky, a coffee junkie/junky...I know for a FACT that were coffee as exxpensive as heroin or cocaine that you would hate/dislike coffee drinkers just as you hate what you think of as being a junkie/junky at the moment. Which proves what I have been saying, it isn't the drug which a junkie/junky takes, but the activities they do to obtain that drug are the actual things which you and I disagree with... nothing really to do with the fact that they have an addiction as you had thought right at the start of this lens...isnt it !

But again, as with many words they can have different meanings to different people depending on where they live and what they may have been taught or experienced. If you have a different view on what makes a person a junky/junkie than I have written here then please feel free to add them to the bottom of this page in the space provided for readers comments, as I am sure there are many people who share your views too and others that will disagree with both you and I. I would like to hear from as many people as possible so whatever you want to add, be it in agreement with me or against, maybe you want to tell me that you found this page interesting, informative or downright ridiculous ?...whatever your opinion, it is your opinion and not actual fact unless in agreement with this lens. I will appreciate the feedback .

Thank you all for reading this to the very bottom and I hope that I have given some of you food for thought!...Mmmm not my ice-cream though as I NEED THAT !