Addictions are not necessarily bad things, or at least they never intend to be bad things. They are ways people look to "elixers", I call them, to cope with life, bad feelings, bad events, and they're always adaptive at first. The way I define addiction is "an adaptation to life that has gone awry."

I don't really think you really have to enjoy your work in the classic sense of waking up in the morning and being excited and looking forward to the day. In fact, many work addicts are quite exhausted by the work.

Work addiction is where the individual spends most of their time and most of their focus on work. Work is the place they get good feelings, work is the place they get rewarded, work is the place they get excited and optimistic about life.

The biggest reason we fail to create the lives we want is because we continually make excuses. Eric Berne ("The Games people Play") didn't buy into this "victimology" that people are "powerless" over their lives. He believed that we can change ourselves because we are the most powerful force in our lives.

All human behavior is meaningful. But the meaning may come disguised as signals that look like problems themselves. Alcoholism is a signal of a pervasive illness. Alcohol abuse, on the other hand, may be a sign of overwork, too much stress, a lack of parental guidance, or even confusion in the work place.

Policy makers, employers and others can use the science of behavioral economics to steer people toward wiser choices — and dramatically improve their health — without limiting their freedom to do as they please, according to an article published in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

There are a number of "side" behaviors that often accompany addiction which are not actually part of the addiction. It's simply that addiction is so inherently anti-social that many of these behaviors go hand-in-hand with it, required because they're needed to maintain the addiction.

Anger is an emotion of tremendous importance; it is perhaps the underlying cause for the most serious human problems. Anger is a hard emotion to handle, partly because many of us have been taught that we shouldn't get mad.

More acceptable responses can replace unwanted habits, e.g. one could chew gum instead of smoking. Also, a better way of meeting one's needs could be found, e.g. one could handle loneliness by learning social skills rather than by watching TV, or by joining a support group rather than merely complaining to relatives about having nothing to do.

Procrastination predicts higher levels of consumption of alcohol among those people who drink. Procrastinators drink more than they intend to—a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. That is over and above the effect of avoidant coping styles that underlie procrastination and lead to disengagement via substance abuse. Psychology Today article.