我们都听到并了解经常谈论的成瘾，例如对毒品，酒精，赌博，饮食和性别的成瘾。但是实际上，几乎任何事情都会像较少甚至社交上可以接受的成瘾一样令人上瘾，例如购物，清洁或锻炼。
This may also be the case in this hobby. Some of us refer to ourselves as Reefaholics or Coral addicts and looking at some of the groups I am in on Facebook they include such monikers as Compulsive Reefers, Addictive Reef Keepers and Colorful Reef Addicts to name a few. There are even Reef Addicts subgroups in many states and large cities.
So the concept of this hobby being addicting is not a new one. And while many of us consider this a relatively harmless activity as far as addictions go, I thought it might be interesting to look at why this hobby may lend itself to being addicting.
Lest you think I am not taking this seriously or am making fun of the hobby, it should be noted that my master’s thesis was actually on ‘context specific tolerance’, which is an integral part of addiction and it is published in the实验心理学杂志. So I actually have a background in addiction and addictive processes.
So in order for us to understand how the hobby can be addicting and lends itself to being addicting we need to understand what addiction is. According to theWikipedia的定义:
“成瘾是一种国家，尽管后果不利，但具有强迫参与奖励刺激的状态。可以将其视为导致此类行为的疾病或生物过程。表征所有成瘾性刺激的两种特性是它们正在加强（即它们增加了一个人寻求反复接触它们的可能性）和本质上的有益（即，被认为是积极或可取的东西）”。
与大多数上瘾一样,爱好不会有限公司nsidered an addiction for most as it is just another pleasurable activity. Only when it becomes compulsive and begins to interfere with everyday activities such as work, or health or relationships should it be considered an addiction. And often the person who is addicted is not even aware that it is causing problems for them self or others.
While most of us are aware of the physical nature of addictions to things like drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, it is also believed that one of the main mechanisms of addiction is that the activity alleviates or reduces stress. I know by now I have probably made many of your eyes glaze over, but hopefully I can show how this relates to the hobby.
如上所述，关于某事的主要因素之一可能是减轻压力的原因之一。正如自业余爱好开始以来所记载的那样，拥有一个水族馆，只是坐着看着坦克减轻了压力。在80年代和90年代发表了许多文章水族馆治疗，表明如何仅通过每天或多次从事此活动一次或多次来降低血压。尽管这似乎很简单，但我从第一手经验中知道，当我在坦克上工作并坐下来观看它们时，我确实会感到更加放松。
However I will also note that when things are going badly in one of my tanks the converse is true – my blood pressure rises and I feel at least as stressed as when something is going wrong at work or with my family so that has to be taken into consideration. But since we have gotten so much better at being successful at this I would strongly suggest that for most us most of the time our tanks are a source of stress reduction.
However, this is only part of the reason that I feel that this hobby is so addicting. In addition to the definitions of addiction that were discussed above, one of the other fundamental aspects of addiction is what is called tolerance. Loosely defined tolerance occurs when it takes more and more of a substance or an activity to produce the same amount of pleasure as occurred originally.
这就是为什么吸毒者需要越来越多的药物或更强大版本才能获得相同的原因的原因。在这方面，业余爱好非常适合克服或减少从中获得乐趣的宽容。通过进入业余爱好的新鱼类和珊瑚不断扩大，首先宽容会降低。
If you are bored and have developed tolerance about your Sunset fairy wrasse, then you can add a Rhomboids, and then an Earl’s and if that is not enough a Claire’s. By the same token in corals it is even easier to reduce tolerance from occurring. You can switch between coral groups, each going higher and higher in price, rareness and beauty to keep getting a buzz or you can stay within a group and still not get bored.
Over the past 8-10 years we have seen there be a “hot” group of named corals that for a year or so were the corals that you had to have in your tank. And finding them, getting them, keeping them and then propagating them became the rage and the thing to do. Watching this cycle occur and repeat itself again and again it became clear that apparently this process in and of itself was at least as pleasurable and stress reducing as is just having a successful tank.
Think about it, over that time we had a year or so of beautiful Montiporas, followed by Acans, then Favias, then A
ussie Acans, Aussie Acroporas, Aussie Euphyllias, and nowBounce Mushrooms. And at the same time more and more beautiful Acroporas and fish just in case these were still getting bored with the hobby also coming in. As a result of this constant influx of wildly new and beautiful corals coming into the hobby the likelihood of tolerance occurring been reduced.
还有另一个方面在addic公差tion that this hobby also lends itself well to reducing and that is context specific tolerance. This type of tolerance occurs when the physical stimuli in a situation cause the body to prepare to be stimulated and as a result just being in a particular situation reduces the pleasure that the addicting stimuli produces. This is why a lot of heroin and other drug overdoses occur in what are seemingly weird places.
They occur because the body prepares the user for the stimuli and increases their tolerance so that when these cues are not present a smaller amount of drug is necessary to produce the same effect. So as a result when they are not prepared they overdose. On the one hand going into the same shop and seeing the same fish can produce this kind of tolerance and as a result a shop we visit exclusively and often can lose its appeal over time for this reason.
但是，这种爱好降低了特定宽容的可能性，因为现在有很多方法可以防止这种类型的宽容发生。我记得在业余爱好的早期，当新货物到达的盒子里时，感觉就像圣诞节早晨。随着时间的流逝，当货物到达时，我停止在那里。
However now it is possible and I have gotten the same feeling when I saw all the corals that were available from all the great vendors at the MACNAs, Reefaploozas,ReefStocksand other shows as well as while visiting Lou and Victor at WorldWide or Joe and Scott at Unique. But it has even spread wider in that this same sense can even occur when I find a new vendor online or even when some of the old vendors bring out some new corals that I had not seen before.
I also still get a little bit of a buzz simply by walking into a new shop whether it is local or one I encounter in my travels. Each of these venues provides a different context and as a result reduce the likelihood for context specific tolerance to occur, which again may lend itself to why the hobby is so addicting.
这也可能是为什么从不同供应商订购珊瑚的原因可能是进一步降低公差的一种手段。实际上，当我尝试新的在线供应商时，我实际上是在评估这是否会发生，老实说，当一个盒子从新来的人或我没有从我没有从中购买过很多东西的人时，我确实会感到自己感到兴奋。
通过不断为我的收藏中添加更多更大的坦克，也可以以一种与我所做的方式降低耐受性。虽然我发现我最初的55加仑坦克随着时间的流逝而愉快，所以我从中得到的乐趣减弱了，然后加了一个120加仑的坦克，然后是250，580，最终是1200加仑的坦克。
So in order to reduce my tolerance to the pleasure of the hobby I have kept adding more or bigger tanks. And I know I am not alone in that over the past few years I have watched countless other hobbyists and friends add bigger tanks to their homes as well. So the ability to add more and more successful tanks definitely reduces the likelihood of tolerance occurring and by the same token the level of success we now have also lessens the likelihood for withdrawal.
Withdrawal occurs when the pleasurable stimuli is withdrawn or removed and as a result the individual experiences the opposite effects of the enjoyable addiction. The usual stings of withdrawal are anxiety or anxiousness, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, poor concentration and even isolation and depression.
关于退出，我看到了关于它的爱好的有趣现象。在我的业余爱好期间，我看到很多人来进来。对于许多离开成功的人来说，他们告诉我，他们确实至少感到损失感和上面描述的一些症状，结果又回来了。尽管那些没有成功的人没有感觉到这些症状中的任何一种，而且很少有人回到爱好中，尽管在业余爱好中取得成功变得更加容易。
While researching and writing this article I have become very much aware that I probably do have an addiction to this hobby. I actually realized it more the more as I read about addiction and the signs of it. Fortunately like many of us to date it has not become a major disruptive force in my life and I consider akin to having an addiction to exercise or playing video games.
And since reading up on it more I am trying harder to maintain self-control in terms of my spending both in terms of time and money. No one wants to or should get divorced as a result of this hobby, but it is possible. I think the first sign that things are better is that at the last MACNA I actually walked away without buying a single coral. It is the first time ever I have done that, and it wasn’t because there wasn’t incredible temptation.
像我们大多数人我在紧张的工作区域和生活e and the fast pace of it can be very stressful. As a result I look to my aquariums as a ready means for stress relief. And while I realize there is a fine line between being obsessive about my tanks and being addicted to them, I hopefully will do a better job of managing my passion for the hobby and my tanks better.
So since it is Valentine’s Day weekend I hope all of you have a significant other to be addicted to. I really do not think it is good to paraphrase the late great Robert Palmer that you might as well face it, you’re addicted to coral.
