Spider Solitaire Addiction

Addiction: Merriam-Webster defines it as “the compulsive need and use of a habit-forming substance (such as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and well-defined physiological symptoms in withdrawal; in general: persistent compulsive use of a substance known to the user to be harmful. “

That’s how it is. People are addicted to cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. That is why so many ways to get rid of these additions are offered. People are addicted to other things too, like food (chocolate ranks high in food addictions) and gambling. There are all these programs available to help people break free from these addictions: Alcoholics Anonymous, Binge eaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous …

A more recent addiction is computer addiction. People can spend hours browsing the web or playing the latest computer games.

But the biggest addiction seems to be Spider Solitaire. It is so readily available. It comes free with the installation of each window. It only takes a few minutes to learn. Start with a single suite. Quickly move to two suites. And then the challenge begins … Four Suites! That’s when addiction hits. The game allows you to go back as many moves as you want, even to the beginning of the game. You can spend hours retrying the same game, but when that game is over, whether you win or lose, you will quickly hit “new game” and start over.

I have done a bit of research on how gambling has affected people’s lives. Responses I have received:

• I stayed up all night playing
• I didn’t take the dog for a walk (what a mess!) Ï ‘Dinner burned (luckily for the smoke alarm)
• I forgot to pick up my kids from school
• I spent a full day at work just playing games
• I lost a full day of work
• _______________________ Write your own: No one is immune.

The solution

Everyone has been through it. There are no simple solutions. No special gum. No patches. No clinics. There are no support groups (they could walk away from Spider to get to a group meeting). There is only one solution. Delete the game from your computer. The one at work too. Do a good search to make sure you have removed any instances. So you just get a new addiction to the computer (try Facebook). No other computer addiction is as bad as Spider Solitaire.