Over the past week or so, I created another e-book (20 so far!), by collecting old essays that focused in some way on Addiction, and putting them together with a title page, prelude, note to reader, etc.  Put it up on the tendrepress website:

MY LIFELONG QUEST FOR FREEDOM FROM ADDICTION

Meanwhile, and I didn’t realize this until this very morning, during this same time period I actually weaned myself from another addiction, to screens! Not that I don’t get on my computer (like now), or ipad any more. However, I’ve broken through the neurological pattern that had made it impossible for me to actually focus on reading a printed book all the way through.

This refusal, this instant restlessness, when I tried to pick up an actual book and read it, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, absorbing its meaning over the time it took to read it, had been there for years. Many years. I remember first noticing it, and grew alarmed. But that didn’t stop me from staying addicted to screens, and foregoing actual printed books.

In other words, I had become afflicted with, what is it called, ADD? Attention Deficit Disorder. Couldn’t sustain a focus. Just couldn’t. Would become restless, almost immediately.

But! Over the past week to ten days I have found myself actually able to focus in a sustained manner. So far, have absorbed three books, all during times when I would otherwise have been onscreen, continuously distracted,  attention flitting from one thing to another.

And yes, this renewed focus on printed books has calmed me down. I’m no longer just seeking the latest dopamine rush, over and over again.

Another serious addiction busted. YES!

Grateful.