Customer Reviews

Positive Addiction (Harper Colophon Books)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book starting me running 18 years ago in order to obtain a "positive addition" which is a repetitive activity that you do non-self-critically that has a beneficial effect on your mind and/or body. The author suggests that a positive addiction can forge new neuronal connections in the brain to help you think better and more creatievely. The main addictions discussed are running and meditation but there are many others including such arcane things as putting on makeup! This book was one of the early books to describe the "runner's high" which others have documented. Because of my desire to experience this and other benefits, I began a lifetime program of exercise and other types of self-improvements. Don't let the book's "old" publishing date put you off--newer self-help books are not necessarily better. I've often thought that this book's approach might especially benefit the so-called "addictive" personality, but I think all of us need to find ways to alter our consciousness without harming ourselves. This book has one of the keys.

This book was a positive experience for me.
It helped me become more focussed at work and at home, and helped me realize that even a daily walk or some significant activity every day is vitally important. Human beings were not born to sit around, we were born to be active. Just look at the famous artists who lived into to their 90's because they loved what they did like Chagall and Grandma Moses. If you are positively addicted to what you do, then you will live a long life and love it. The key is finding your niche and running with it. A book should be written about people who love their careers and how this positive addiction helps to fuel other parts of their lives.

My father gave me this book. It is an easy read, but a smart book.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

Glasser examines the idea of Positive Addiction with running at the very centre of the book. Book is not that long, but tends to be somewhat repetitive... but still worth a read. Not Glasser's best book but even at that, the ideas he shares are good.. and the positive addiction idea does trickle into other parts of life, so that someone who is positively addicted to running or swimming or cycling, tends to feel better and can take that good feeling to other things they do. If people became more positively addicted to good relations with others... WOW! what an outcome that would be..and (third time said) Book is well worth a read..

I nominate the first 50 pages to be required reading for everyone on the planet. It focuses on the negative addict. I am not one, but I found the first 50 pages of this short book to be stellar.

I'm sure William Glasser meant well when he wrote this book. It's short, but it still never should have been a book. In my entire life, I don't think I've ever read a book that says only one thing, but says it over and over. If you read the first chapter, or even the back cover, you have his entire theory. The entire book repeats the theory over and over, and doesn't add any new information beyond what you read in the first few pages.

It's amazing to me that this wasn't just written as an article in some psychology magazine. The entire book could *easily* be condensed into an article of 2-3 pages.

This book is inspirational, down-to-earth and easy to read. I look forward to reading more of William Glasser's books, and I feel grateful to have found Positive Addiction. I disagree with the reviewer who said he repeats the same thing over. He gives helpful examples of positive addiction (PA) and does it in a thorough, encouraging and interesting way. His writing is clear and the explanations complement without redundancy.

"Positive Addiction" - What is it?

(1) It is something noncompetitive that you choose to do and you can devote an hour a day to.
(2) It is possible for you to do it easily and it doesn't take a great deal of mental effort to do it well.
(3) You can do it alone or occasionally with others, but it does not depend upon others to do it.
(4) You believe that it has some value (physical, mental or spiritual) for you.
(5) You believe that if you persist at it you will improve.
(6) You can do it without criticizing yourself.

The benefits of this activity include ability to control weight, ability to give up bad habits, mental alertness, increased self-awareness, a physical feeling of well-being, a sense of confidence, more tolerance and less anger, more energy and less need for sleep.

I'm talking about a positive addiction which includes activities like running, meditating, yoga, crocheting, woodworking, singing, playing a musical instrument - any number of activities which fit the above criteria. To learn more about positive addiction, read the book, "Positive Addiction" by William Glasser.

We choose the misery in our lives by making bad choices. Glasser says that weakness is the cause of these unfortunate choices and that we can choose to be strong. "The thesis of this book is that many people, weak and strong, can help themselves to be stronger, and an important new path to strength may be positive addiction," he says.

Glasser makes many comparisons between negative addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling, overeating) and positive addiction. A positive addiction increases mental strength, a negative addiction saps strength from every part of your life. Negative addiction feels good but does harm, positive addiction can feel bad but does good. And he says the reason negative addiction is so powerful and difficult to break is that it relieves the pain of our failure to obtain love and worth, in addition to providing an intensely pleasurable experience.

According to Glasser's research, a positive addiction can help battle a negative addiction, but is by no means a cure-all, as there is no cure-all for a negative addiction. However, a positive addiction will certainly help you gain strength and greater self-esteem, and it will change and improve your life.

David Allan Reeves
Author of "Running Away From Me"

I read this book 20 years ago and unfortunately have a friend who is destroying his life with alcohol. I've sent the book to him to save his life. So far, it hasn't