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“What Is One Strange Thing You’re Addicted To?”: 30 Odd Things Our Community Can’t Live Without
Some people (if not all of them) have something they cannot live without. Be it a video game, a particular brand of chocolate, or some sort of before-going-to-sleep ritual, there's always that one (or more) thing that brings them comfort and makes life just a little bit easier.
However, while there are things we truly enjoy doing, eating, smelling, etc., sometimes those 'hobbies' of ours can get pretty addictive. Thinking about that, I got curious about some of the strangest addictions that our pandas have. Scroll down to read the answers!
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Reading, I've got to have a book with me at all times. I've even ducked into a bathroom during parties to read for a little bit.
About 4000 books condescend to let me live here, wedged in between. All I have to do in exchange is read.
Music. It gives me infinite access to stories and alternate worlds and keeps me in a good place mostly. But one time after a concert, I had a comedown and depression episode that lasted weeks.
I read your nice comments and feel so bad. I suffer from severe depression and I can't listen music anymore cos it makes me feel even worst. I only want silence and I know this is a very bad sign. I won't wish this mental state not even to the worst person on earth.
Bored panda. Won't survive a day without the cat memes.
Knitting and crocheting. Totally weird for a bloke in his 50s, I guess.
Long naps. I arrange my whole schedule around them.
every time i nap i wake up feeling like im in another dimension after being asleep for 100,000,000 years
Coffee. Must have it first thing in the morning or I get a headache, haha.
thats not strange at all about 1/3 of the worlds population is
My wife. I can't imagine my life without her. I can't think of words to express how much she means to me, I won't even try.
A close second would be playing my bass. Arthritis and carpal tunnel since my 20s. It seems to keep my hands working and I can tell when I don't play.
I love how you express yourself. My husband keeps repeating your first part to me mostly because I'm accident prone and get in trouble. He plays the flute, the recorder and the violin. I love listening to him play. He writes music too.
Peeling. Do you have a sunburn? Stay away unless you want me peeling the skin. Used to put Elmer's glue in my hands, let it dry, and then peel it. Friends had an 11ft python and I was in my glory when he asked if I wanted to help him shed its skin. I'm convinced I was a reptile in a former life.
I once peeled a piece of sunburn 3" square, I can still remember the triumph
Listening to TV shows, repeatedly. I've watched the first 3 seasons of Burn Notice at least 50 times and the first few seasons of Ghost Hunters around 20 times. I don't even really pay attention, I just like to have familiar sounds in the background. It calms my brain. If there isn't something playing, I'll get anxious, paranoid and scared. Truly strange!
Allegedly true horror stories. I am obsessed with these and I listen to them non-stop.
MrBallen is an amazing storyteller when it comes to true crime and the strange and unusual in story format
I’m sorry, my current addiction phase is dash cam videos of idiot drivers. I can’t turn away!
Chapstick. For about 35 years now. My lips no longer produce moisture on their own. And it has to be a Chapstick brand, no other will do. Any flavor, but cherry is my preferred.
I'm hearing 🎶 I kissed a girl and I liked it... The taste of her cherry Chapstick🎶
Hoodies. More specifically oversized hoodies. And throw blankets. And stuffed animals.
Stuffed animals, I can definitely relate to. I’d buy dozens if I had the room for them all
Pimple-popping videos. I can’t get enough. I watch TV and videos on my phone at the same time for hours. And they better do it right, or I will ‘dislike’.
Binge-watching YouTube videos I have zero intention of ever doing/trying myself. E.g. truck driving, dumpster diving, and furniture upcycling.
Salt. I just love the taste. I sometimes will just get a teaspoon of it in my hands and eat a few grains at a time. Obviously, I am extremely dehydrated after that but I make sure I get plenty of water. I also tend to add a lot of salt to dishes lol.
I loved eating salt as a kid! Especially salt on raw tomatoes. Now that I'm older and have more than half family members with hypertension, I've learnt to control my addiction 😆
Plants.
Honey, I think they entire world would be dead without plants.
Spider Solitaire. Been addicted since 1999. Someone gave me a hand-held game that I took abroad. Three months later, I was on an African safari and playing solitaire instead of watching for animals. I play at least 30 minutes a day.
Buying pens.
Whenever I have had a rough day it always makes me feel better to buy a pack of pens
Theatre. And by that I mean the stage itself. I'm a theatre actress and the last two (Corona) years I noticed that I'm feeling physically bad if I don't do a few plays throughout the year. It's not the applause or the audience, it's just being on stage, reciting my lines, working with the colleagues, seeing the lights, smelling the unique odour... Sounds weird, I know.
It's not weird at all!! I also love theatre, and the last show I was in was part of a few one acts going on at my school (a chance for upperclassmen to direct short shows at the end of the year) and my directors stopped showing up so our show got cancelled and every other person in my one act was double casted in another or part of tech for another show and being the only one who was still there but not technically part of anything sent me into a bad mental state for a while. I tried to keep a positive attitude though.
Lego.
I kept all of my children's Lego for my grand-children but I have none. Maybe my husband will start playing with them again. I have tons.
Don't judge but... Wendy's nuggets dipped in chocolate frosty. It's really good.
Please don't judge but...standing under the mist of a humidifier just for fun.
"Just for fun". As opposed to standing under a humidifier as a profession?
Cooking shows and YouTube videos of living off the grid or growing vegetables! They fuel my cooking creativeness!
I've been really getting into those recently, not so much the videos, but so many websites! I just make vegetable stock from scratch for the first time today! I also began planting my first lot of vegetables recently.
My sunglasses. i never go out of my apartment without them. i wear them almost all year. i guess i make my eyes light shy.
probably light shy before the glasses. I'm pretty sensitive to light, too.
YouTube essay videos on weird and random stuff. 30 minutes about the time Lady Gaga sued Moshi Monsters? Count me in.
sleeping. on weekends i usually sleep for 12 hours and i can actually sleep for more but I don't wanna waste my whole day.
Me too!! I recently found out that I have a severe vitamin D deficiency. Which is likely contributing to my need for sleep.
Books. It is better then watching movies, and make pain (litterarly pain from my injuries) manageable. It is also like pressing a button, and suddenly a large number of hours have magically passed.
But the sadness when a good book is finished and there is no second part.
Triple butter popcorn. Every night I have a whole bowl. Must be a specific brand though. Also, salt and vinegar crisps/chips dipped in Nutella.
Home renovation/house flipping programs. I love fantasising about what I would do to the properties if I had the money!
Exercising.
Sucking on lemons and limes. It's apparently very bad for your teeth but I do it anyway.
Sour gummy worms.
I mean, come on, you have to admit they're delicious.
But I do really need to stop eating them
Seaweed. I’ll eat it with ramen, with rice, with dumplings… yum. :)
There’s this freakin Roblox game that I’m completely obsessed with (to the point of being a problem…): Creatures of Sonaria. The fan base is toxic and the game is somewhat pay-to-win, but god I cannot stop playing it. It’s like my brain needs that stimulation specifically.
*I should add- I’m 18. Why the heII am I still playing Roblox Imao
Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO). I’m basically addicted. I know it can have some bad side effects, but without any DHMO, I’d be dead in about 168 hours.
You mean H2O? Chemistry people or anyone who understands it can get it. Btw, it’s water for y’all who don’t know. Not tryna be disrespectful, I’m just saying.
Carrots dipped in mustard. A friend had me try it at a birthday party a while ago, and I was super skeptical at first, but it is now my favorite snack. Don't judge until you try.
Carrots dipped in mustard? I love carrots and mustard, I'll give it a try.
I would say I used to be addicted to Minecraft, I would no joke play whenever I could.
Lipstick:
Reason 1. I can’t stand for my lips to be dry. I’ve tried lip balms/chapstick/etc. but I can’t stand the taste of 99% of them.
Reason 2. Even on days when I oversleep and don’t have time to shower, lipstick helps make me look more “put-together”.
Caramel iced coffee!
Moomin series. Used to watch them all the time as a kid and that hasn't changed once I became adult. Except now I get to own as much cool merch and t-shirts as I want!
Pebble ice. I get ice water every single day but it has to be from specific stores. My ice maker in the fridge just won't do. This might be less weird if I ate the ice but I don't...
A ripe banana, accompanied by a piece of bread with Roquefort cheese. I love it since my childhood when I ate it as a snack on my way home from school. With a glass of milk. Yes, it looks weird, but the taste of the sweet, salty mixture is delicious.
That sounds perfect! Wish i saw these snacks in the hands of more kids these days x
Adjusting “stuff” to make work better, faster, smoother, etc. Cars, bicycles, computers, phones. Nothing is safe from my tinkering to find the ultimate settings. I even run my own VPN and ad blocking server just for my personal use.
As long as you don't have an extra piece at the end when everything is back together...
Chewing gum. I can eat more than 300 pieces a day. Chew until the flavor is gone, spit it out, and immediately follow it with the next piece. It is so bad that my jaw became crooked because of chewing on the same side for years.
If you are awake for approx 16 hours a day, that would mean about 19 pieces every hour. Wow. I would check with a doctor on that.
I'm addicted to taking a single strand of hair and gently putting it inside my ear as far as it will go, and then twirling it between my fingers so it tickles deep inside my ear until I can't stand it any longer 😁 Always gives me a good shudder of delight and yes, there are differences between a good hair and a bad one for this practice 😃👉👂
Historical fashion ;specifically victorian-edwardian era and the deadly trends.
The smell of exhaust from cars especially at a gas station. Idk why but I just wanna eat it. (Not at these prices tho) 🤣
Relatable. That's actually the smell of fuel, and its a actually not good 4 u. But I still smell it and its soo satisfying 🤣
Hosta - the variety of sizes, leaf shapes, coloring, and patterns has captured me. I have dozens of different ones and can never resist a new or different one at the garden center.
It's weird but I feel relax when I inhale own body scented clothes.
I can so relate, but with my SO. He's one of those guys that likes to know how things work or learn new skills, and several years ago, he picked up sewing...but I digress...before his grandad passed away, he got really sick, and my SO went back to Leeds to stay with the Olds for a few months. Before he left, he cut up a few of his old t-shirts and made me a pillow cover so I could still give him a cuddle while he was away. Still sleep with that thing, every night.😊
I'm addicted to watching sitcoms for months on end, currently it's "Modern Family." When I finish the last episode, I go back to episode 1 and start all over again. I've watched the entire series, start to finish, well over 100 times and see no end in sight. Before "Modern Family," it was 94 complete viewings of "The Goldbergs." This all started during lockdown and the more the world explodes, the more I crave watching one show at a time, ad nauseum. I just feel more calm this way and can deal with the world a little better.
Translation. I translate free education systems (microbit.org, MakeCode and Moodle) into Hungarian, as a volunteer. I already translated some 115k words (250-280 fully-written letter-sized pages). It relaxes me, I can do it all day/night.
Interesting. I used to translate anything about natural family planning: books, letters, etc.
Sparkling water. ;)
Bread. Funny story, there’s a scientific reason for it. So I mostly eat it when I’m bored. Apparently, eating high carb foods (like bread) make your brain produce dopamine, and since I have adhd, i have dopamine deficit periods of time, and therefore crave high carb foods. Anyways I like bread. But not toast. Toast has a bad texture to me.
Anything BUT Sleep
I'd do //almost// anything to avoid going to sleep, even if that means to start worrying or scroll through youtube or BP 🐼
Maple syrup
Have a friend like this. We joke about him being a "syrup snob"
Green Tea and Chips.
LOVE LOVE Hot Green tea with lemon every day at 2:45 at work.....try it. And its good for you.
French fries with nacho cheese and ranch. Tried it at summer camp one year at a counselor's suggestion, best thing ever.
Sleeping with my hairdryer.
I'm a chronic pain patient and the heat, air movement, and white noise help my pain like nothing else and allows me to sleep.
Sewing cute anime ragdolls and clothes. I am pretty sure I made 100 outfits 😂 I have a tub full
I’m 13 so these addictions are weird for people my age even if normal for adults…
Coffee, I can’t go a day without drinking any and I usually have 2
Reddit, I love browsing memes
Cutting fabric and sewing it together. Not like into a pattern or anything specific, just two random shape sewn atop each other.
And candles
Sewing certain fabrics is such a great feeling. The way the machine goes through a nice crisp cotton with perfect stitches and a crisp line
Nescafé 3 in 1 coffee sachet’s. I don’t drink any other coffee now unless no choice (like when I’m out - though I tend to have some stashed in my bag to use if possible)
My Harely Davidson and Copenhagen.
Salty hot chips (french fries) dipped in Cola, sprite or fanta. yummy
I dip my french fries in honey, have been doing it since I was a kid, still love it as 40-year-old.
Nerds gummy clusters. They look strange and I'm definitely addicted to them.
Tape. Like Scotch and surgical tape. I take pieces and stick them on my face and hands.
I couldn't do that- I'm allergic to too many of them :) but I loved using tegaderm as a kid, because it makes the skin under it squishy :)
Watching my cats' fur fly into the wind when I brush them outside--where does it all go to?
Grapes! Every time I get my hands on a plastic container of them (usually contains 4 bunches) they’d be gone in a week if my parents didn’t stop me! I can easily go through at least 3 bunches a day if I had the chance! Just something about them lol
I'm addicted to this little pointless free Mahjong game online from 247mahjong dot com. They have different 'themes' like Winter and Fall and Valentine's and Holidays etc. And in each theme there are like 10 different games. I've played every single one at least twice. I don't know why but I usually play the whole series and then go back and try to beat my own times. I've been doing it for years every night.
I also have a weird 'addiction' to never drinking the last of a bottle. Every soda bottle or bottled water I have always has a few sips still left in it and I always throw it away. It's the weirdest thing and I keep trying to stop my self from doing it because it's so wasteful. I do it with food sometimes, too. I always make more than I'll probably eat.
Ribena. I have loved that stuff for as long as I can remember.
Doki Doki Literature Club. May we just take a second to mourn Sayori and Yuri?
Candy corn, I don’t know why
Adding another answer but: Vocal stimming. I make a ton of random noises or sing random notes almost constantly and I’m sure it annoys my family a ton-
Furry artwork - I check different picture archives at least once a day to see which awesome stuff the artists of the fandom came up with again. Nothing's better than starting the day with stunning and inspirational art
Furries are amazing at art ngl I'm in the helluva boss fandom and some of the loona art I see is absolutely bonkers
The game: Satisfactory
Keep going back to it, wanting to play for just an hour and then a few hours later I check the clock and realize time flies by when you're having fun.
Being the first person to use a new roll of toilet paper or paper towels. I just love the sound and the feeling of the paper separating from the glue first!
Taxidermy, i have a fox paw and mouse heart and a complete fox.
It’s a really impressive art form too. I used to be kind of disturbed by it, but seeing the process? Really cool
At the moment, just anything to do with Markiplier. I hardly watch anyone else's videos right now. I'm so invested in the lore. What kind of YouTube channel has deep lore stories?! His. And I love it!! I've been writing fanfic and drawing fanart... I think I might be in love. (Oops lol didn't mean to do that)
Strangely Harry Potter
Ive read all the Harry Potter books and watched all the movies! Cool franchise
At the moment, I'm super addicted to Eddie Munson because he's so freaking hot.
Daydreaming. I know it’s weird, but I like to conjure worlds in my head to de-stress and/or fall asleep.
I think that sounds lovely. I often make up my own stories (can run for several nights). I just can't be bothered to write them down and I'm rubbish at endings!!
Load More Replies...Buying books, even if I don't read them right away and they're placed on my TBR shelf for a LONG time.
Daydreaming. I know it’s weird, but I like to conjure worlds in my head to de-stress and/or fall asleep.
I think that sounds lovely. I often make up my own stories (can run for several nights). I just can't be bothered to write them down and I'm rubbish at endings!!
Load More Replies...Buying books, even if I don't read them right away and they're placed on my TBR shelf for a LONG time.