Or being at a show, or a concert, or even at Mass for some, looking forward to when it will end, thinking about what you will do next . Shopping does the same thing. Once the purchases are brought home and put away, the emptiness returns very quickly. The same thing with trophies won, honors received, even victorious elections. Immediately thoughts turn to the next match, the next game, the next level to reach.
Addictions are of the same ilk.
The things that we get addicted to are so fundamentally unsatisfying that even before the momentary pleasure passes we find ourselves anxious about the next hit, the next thrill, the next hour of our wasted lives. The ancient Greeks had an image of this useless monotony in one of their myths. According to legend, a man named Sisyphus was condemned for all eternity to roll a huge boulder up the side of a mountain. As soon as he reached the top, the boulder would roll down the mountainside and he would have to begin all over again. Excessive pride, a passion for the pleasures of life, and an utter disregard and irreverence for the gods.