The TV Addict

I admit it. I used to be a huge television addict. I used to watch about an average of 3-4 hours of television a night. I blame my parents completely on this one! As a kid, I wasn't really allowed to go outside and play with other kids since my parents were incredibly suspicious about other people. So growing up on television was my entire youth. That, and tormenting my younger brother. Hey, I had to do something during those commercial breaks!

So I became someone who would watch pretty much anything. Crappy sitcoms, hour-long dramas, reality shows. You name it, I was watching it. I recall feeling angst everytime one of "my shows" would be relegated to cancellation-hell or hiatus-purgatory. It was like breaking up with your favourite characters. I would go through each stage of grief in fast-forward: Denial, Bargaining, Sadness, Anger and then finally Acceptance. I would quickly get over it once the new Fall season would start up again and of course, get addicted to yet another slate of shows.

I gave up TV cold turkey last Fall. It's been hard. It's so much like breaking up with someone. You cut all ties, but then continue to hear about how your "ex" is doing. You get little spoilers about what they've been recently up to which piques your interest. But you stay strong, and stay away. I don't want to hear about how Sydney slept with the supposedly dead Will Tippen, or how Ross helped Rachel overcome her irrational fear of swings! I just don't want to know! It's like tempting a Jenny Craig client with a big fat Snickers bar, and then following that up with a NY Fries with the Works chaser!

I had to quit. It was taking over my life. Like a bad relationship, I was spending too much time with my habit instead of living my life. So I decided to fill my time with more important things.... like sleeping, and talking to real, live people.

I can honestly say that I haven't been watching television with regularity. It's on when I do my laundry, or ironing, but other than that... nothing. I am thankful for the years of entertainment that my habit had provided me. I also pride myself on being a PopCulture-Phile. I can sing almost any 80s sitcom theme, and know all the names of the crews on ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:Voyager and Enterprise. (Okay, so that last one makes me a geek and not necesarily a pop culture expert, but you get my drift?!?)

So to my poor beloved TV. I miss you. But not as much as I miss living a life without commercial breaks.