Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning.
Hey everybody and welcome.
I hope you're doing well.
I... hope that you're staying safe.
I am back in Italy right now, where I'm going to be spending the next five to six months, and not in Milan, where I am right now, but just in Italy in general.
We're going to be traveling and I'm pretty excited.
I think the last time I spent this much time in Italy was It was maybe three, four years ago.
And so, yeah, I'm excited.
Like I said, we're going to be traveling a lot, which means I'm going to be seeing different parts of Italy.
And I know it sounds crazy, but I have never seen a lot.
I've never explored my country.
I've traveled a lot to the States in the past.
So whenever I had money, I would fly to the States.
But I've never seen some of the most important and the most iconic cities here.
So yeah, I'm excited and I'll keep you posted on how the trip goes.
Anyway, today we are going to talk about addiction.
So let's listen to the story.
Hey, Will.
What's up, dude?
So good to see you.
When was the last time we hung out?
It must have been, what, three, four months ago?
How's the family?
How are the kids?
Oh, you know, teenagers.
Actually, I've been having a little trouble with Jonah lately.
Why?
What happened?
Well, I mean, you know how kids are with video games, right?
He started playing Fortnite a few weeks ago and I'm telling you he's totally addicted to that stupid game.
I don't get it.
Oh, come on.
It can't be that bad.
I'm telling you, he acts like an addict.
He goes crazy whenever we tell him to turn that thing off.
Listen, the best thing in this case is to quit cold turkey.
Take his PlayStation and just put it in your room or something.
He might be mad at first, but it's the only way.
Yeah, I guess I have no other option.
Alright, I gotta run.
Alright, I'll call you in a couple weeks to see how it's going.
Alright, bye.
Bye, dude.
Yeah?
Hey, how's it going?
I texted you but I never heard back from you.
I wanted to know how Jonah was doing.
Oh, um, he's doing fine.
I did what you told me, and I just took his PlayStation and put it in my room.
Oh, that's great.
How did he react?
Any withdrawal symptoms?
Um, no.
No, he's fine.
He was fine.
Are you busy?
Is this a bad time?
No, I'm just... I'm playing.
Wait, are you playing video games?
I like it so much, Max.
I try to quit, but then every night I get this crazy urge to play.
And once I start, I can't stop.
Okay, so things did not exactly go as this father was planning, but let's take a look at today's expressions.
Expression number one, be addicted to something.
He's totally addicted to that stupid game.
Is addicted a noun or an adjective?
Addicted is an adjective.
Sometimes people get confused, so just remember addicted is an adjective.
So if you are addicted to something, can you easily stop doing a certain activity or using a certain thing?
No.
If you are addicted to something, that means that it's really, really difficult for you to stop doing a certain thing or using a certain thing.
It almost feels like it's impossible to stop that sort of behavior.
So what is the difference between liking something very much and being addicted to something?
So I am no expert.
Obviously, I'm not a therapist.
But I am pretty sure that the difference between liking something and kind of being obsessed with something and being addicted to something is that when you are addicted to something, whatever you're addicted to kind of starts interfering with your normal life, right?
So when you feel like you're obsessed with something and you keep doing something to the point where it's preventing you from leading a normal life, that I think is considered an addiction.
Is there anything you're addicted to?
Yeah.
I know that I'm definitely addicted to two things.
There's probably more that I'm not aware of and I haven't discovered yet.
But I know I am definitely addicted to sugar.
And then I'm also addicted to, I guess, Netflix or like TV.
TV in general.
But I would say number one, the number one thing for me, it's definitely sugar.
I am definitely addicted to sugar.
No doubt about it.
Expression number two, addict.
I'm telling you, he acts like an addict.
Is addict a noun or an adjective?
This is why I asked you the question before.
Because addict is the noun.
So you would say he's an addict or she's an addict.
But addicted is the adjective.
So you need to say he's addicted to blah, blah, blah.
So an addict is obviously someone who is addicted to something.
What things could an addict be addicted to?
All right, so one might think that an addict is simply someone who has an addiction.
And to a certain extent, you know, that could be true.
However, the word addict is mostly used to talk about people that are addicted to drugs.
Um, there's, I guess, other terms for other types of addictions.
So if you have a drinking problem, you would probably be referred to as an alcoholic uh, but not really an addict.
Addict has more to do with drugs.
Um, that's why in the story I said he acts like an addict, because you can't really use it.
Um, I guess for video games.
Expression number three, quit cold turkey.
Listen, the best thing in this case is to quit cold turkey.
If you quit something cold turkey, do you quit little by little or all at once?
I love this expression.
Not really sure where it comes from, but if you quit something cold turkey, you quit it all at once.
So not just like, you know, Five cigarettes today, four tomorrow, three the following day.
No, you go from smoking a pack of cigarette to smoking none.
When trying to quit something, do you think quitting cold turkey is the best way to do it?
I guess there's really different opinions on this matter.
There's people that say, yes, you should quit cold turkey.
It's a lot easier if you just remove something altogether all at once.
But then there's also people that say no, that's not sustainable, because you then get obsessed with it and you don't give your body enough time to adjust.
So I really don't know what is best.
I think, maybe because I am the type of person that I am, and I'm a very black and white type of person, I think it's much better for me if I quit cold turkey, because otherwise I'm just not going to be able to control myself.
Do you know anybody who in order to stop smoking quit cold turkey?
I am pretty sure my aunt quit cold turkey when she stopped smoking.
She was having health issues because she was smoking a lot.
So yeah, I guess she decided to quit cold turkey.
It's not like she really had a choice.
The doctors told her she kind of had to if she wanted to keep living.
And so she quit cold turkey and she still misses it to this day, but she was able to do it.
So it's doable.
If any of you out there are thinking of quitting smoking, then just know it can be done.
Expression number four, withdrawal symptoms.
How did you react?
Any withdrawal symptoms?
When do you experience withdrawal symptoms?
When you try to quit something you're addicted to, or years after quitting something you used to be addicted to.
So when you try to quit something that you are addicted to, you might experience withdrawal symptoms in, I guess, the following hours, days or even weeks after trying to quit.
So you might be fine as long as you are using a certain type of substance or whatever.
And then the moment you quit is when you start experiencing these withdrawal symptoms.
And again, it depends on how serious the addiction was.
It depends on even the type of substance that you were addicted to.
These withdrawal symptoms can vary.
So what are some common withdrawal symptoms?
So like we said, it really depends on the type of substance that you were addicted to.
If it was drugs, you might experience sweating or goosebumps or nausea.
If it was nicotine, you might experience headaches or frustration anxiety, you know all sorts of things.
Have you ever experienced withdrawal symptoms and what were you trying to quit?
I think this one time, maybe, I think it was last summer, I tried to quit sugar.
And I mean I knew that sugar was important to me, but I think I had no idea how important it was to me.
I kind of used to joke about, oh, I'm addicted to ice cream and this and that.
But when I tried to quit, I realized that I started getting these really painful headaches and they wouldn't go away.
They wouldn't go away until I had something sweet.
So yeah, that was a big withdrawal symptom for me.
It was headaches and just frustration in general.
But, and that's why it didn't last very long.
If you followed me on Instagram, you knew that I was struggling at the time.
I think I was able to quit sugar for a full seven days, which it's still a record to me.
I'm still proud of that.
But I need to do something about it because I definitely have a problem.
Expression number five, urge.
Every night I get this crazy urge to play.
If you get the urge to do something, what do you experience?
An incontrollable desire or need to do something or you simply think about doing something.
If you get the urge to do something, you are experiencing this almost incontrollable desire to do something.
It's almost like an obsessive thought of like, I need to do this or I need to have this right now.
I can't, you know, I have to.
Is it easy to resist an urge?
I can tell you from experience that No, it is super hard to resist an urge.
I know, when I get an urge to eat something sweet, it's just like okay, I gotta have something within the next five minutes.
Otherwise, I'm gonna start obsessing over it.
When was the last time you felt the urge to do something?
I guess it was yesterday and I'm here at my mom's.
She doesn't have a lot of sweet things in the house, but she does have this Nutella jar, and I got the urge to eat something chocolatey, and so I went and grabbed a spoon and I did what had to be done.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
That is E-N-B-O-O-O dot com.
Have a great day.
