... I hope y'all had a great weekend.   Mine was par for the course.
 
Would you consider yourself ‘addicted to stitching’? Why or why not?
 
The definition of an addiction (according to Dictionary.com, the standard English version):
1.  Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance: a drug used in the treatment of heroin addiction.
2. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.
 
The medical version of the dictionary states the following:
Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control.
 
Addicted to stitching.  Hrm.  That's a hard one to answer.   In fact, that may actually be a hard one for anyone to answer.   Addiction has such a negative connotation to it - as if it were something bad.
 
Many addictions are bad, after all -  drugs (legal and illegal), money, sex - these aren't addictions that most people own up to.   Or they state that they can control it, they can stop at any time (yeah, riiiiight).   Most people admit thier coffee addictions.   Some proudly.  In the long run, should they not be hit by a bus when running across to thier favorite Starbucks, the coffee addiction isn't going to be good for them either.   Caffeine withdrawal is a bad, bad thing to come down from, and anything who has gone through it knows of what I speak.   That's one that you have to come down slowly from - as with any substance that your body (or mind) has built a dependance on.
 
But we're not talking about addictions in general, but an addiction to stitching.  Using the definitions above, well... maybe.
 
I can't say that I can't go for a night without stitching - I've done quite a few nights in the past few weeks without picking up a needle and placing a stitch.  Once a week I don't pick it up and spend the evening watching a movie with DH.   I don't get shakes, headaches or tremors from not stitching.  I don't spend an entire day sitting and counting minutes until I can get that next 'hit' from the threads and fibers that slide through my fingers.
 
But there is a dependance there - my stitching is my solace, my mind-calming activity from the rampant brain-activity (or body-activity) of the day.  I *am* addicted to the calm that it brings (even with the mistakes that I have to frog out), and the state of mind that it puts me in before I shuffle off to sleep at night.  I've fallen asleep with needle in hand and stand on lap (and DH keeps threatening to snap a photo of me and post somewhere for the world to see).
 
So I suppose I have to say that I have a psychological dependance on a practice.  It isn't beyond my control though - I choose to sit down and stitch or I don't.  But I suffer after a few days if I don't - I lose focus a little bit, and I don't feel quite right.   I'm less calm, and more... more 'off' I guess is the best way to describe it - I'm not quite myself, and it's not that others can see that I'm not quite myself, it's just something that I feel.   So, maybe I'm a little addicted to my stitching, or at least the way it makes me feel...
 
...but I can control it.  I can stop at any time.  Yup yup yup.