#im struggling to think of ways we might differentiate these behaviors.... hmmm

[disarminglybright]

"Bad habit" was my first thought. Something people can acknowledge isn't conducive to a 'healthy' life without implying an interest in stopping it? I suppose people can have varying attitudes to their bad habits, ranging from desperately wanting to change them to mild acceptance, so I guess it's not specific enough? The ashamed catholic boy and the agnostic banker might describe their actions as "bad habits" but that doesn't really tell us how much distress the actions are actually causing them.

Idk why people are having a hard time with the concept "something you do a lot that makes you feel bad isn't addiction". Addiction is a psychophysiological effect! I often interpret messages as being more short with me than they are - and I'm aware of that and it makes me feel bad - but I still can't stop doing it. That doesn't make it an "interpret-nice-messages-as-mean" addiction, though!

I realize it probably has to do with the fact that pleasure is involved, and people get *really* weird when pleasure is involved, but still :T

part of it is definitely the latent suspicion of hedonism in our culture, for sure