Aug 10th, 2020: Addiction and Avoidance

 Netflix addiction: first case in India, check in after 6-month ...

 
One of the newest addictions we have encountered is Netflix addiction. I have met people who missed work, neglected their family members, failed in their school work, had no interest in intimacy with their spouses, and more. These folks sometimes got involved in Netflix binges that last for many hours or days. Isolation and not being able to get out due to Covid-19 has not helped this phenomenon that much. 

Some would say things started innocently enough. They just wanted to have the convenience of watching movies at home and had more options they needed. Eventually, that lead to a desire to escape whatever they needed to. It is not uncommon we deal with one broken aspect of our life by creating or searching for another. Netflix opens the door to having that opportunity.

Others would say that their Netflix addiction feeds their fantasy. Some of them are more sinister than others. Some of the series they watch might play on these fantasies. It is not a comfortable feeling to listen to these folks talking about what is going on inside their head. I know that some are crying for help because they are aware of their brokenness. Some are terrified by what is happening in their mind. Some might even need to say it out loud so that they can experience the cleansing of their soul.

Some talked to me because things were going so badly for them at home, at work, and school. They were crying out for help. A Netflix binge is a paradox. It seems to bring people pleasure and comfort while producing complexity and uneasiness. A young professional told me she knew that she needed to get some sleep because of work and yet failed to quit. That is a common tension when we are living out our broken self.

Netflix might be just a new name for an old and established human behaviour. It is a behaviour we have when we live in our fear of ourselves, in our avoidance of painful memory, in our attempt to escape personal responsibility, in our anguish about life, and our denial of reality.

Jeremiah 17: 9-10
"The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?
I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct."

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