Sure, maybe a football maniac will fritter away a weekend stuck to the boob tube, or a custard aficionado will pig out once too often, but they won't make these indulgences the center of their existence. However, a major obsession is a consuming, debilitating yoke around one's psychological neck. Well for one thing, it eats your life, sucking up your mental and emotional energy. For another, you feel helpless to control it. It is the master, and you are its slave.
Obsessions come in all shapes.
One can be in bondage to money, sex or pornography, cleanliness, personal appearance, work, health or even another person, such as a would-be romantic partner. It is almost constantly in one's thoughts and controls one's attitude, emotions and behaviors. Some psychologists believe that obsessions result from chemical imbalances in the brain or deeply imprinted behavior patterns carved in one's psyche at a young age. For some this may be the case. For others, an obsession seems to serve as a big-time distraction, keeping one's mind singularly occupied.