I’ve been sober for almost 5 years and I’m still struggling with getting my creativity back. I don’t know why I have such trouble separating the two. It’s effortless for me to live a normal life again, but I’d say my new addiction is just laziness
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I know what you mean
I used to drink and play in a band and drink and play in a band and eventually stopped both….or were they the same thing?
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I call it TMS. Too Much Sh*t. I’ve created several “islands” of music making in my apartment.
There is the stage piano in the living room, so I can play some stuff while the missus is watching tv. The piano hooks up to Ableton or Maschine on a Macbook as well.
In another room I have a Push 2 and a guitar plus Mac mini M1 with Ableton so I can play with my HW synths… and then there is my Elektron “dawless” corner which is now down to AK, DT and DN.
Basically all these possibilities are making it difficult to do anything.
My favorite setup though is having the Maschine in front of me in the living room. That is where I get creative 99% of the time.
Which makes me really think why I have all that other sh*t. It is just too much and too distracting.
But I am not able to sell it. Or at least not all. I already got rid of quite a few things. But I also buy new. Waiting for the Roland SH-4D. Ah whatever.
Edit: Oh and YouTube of course. So much cool stuff on there. But also a really big time killer.
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I had to switch gears when I got sober, that’s when I started making beats, because getting loaded in the alley behind the venue was too closely associated with punk shows for me.
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Take one groovebox with headphones on your lap into a quiet space and make a tune - sort of a musical doctors prescription
Yes and I do that quite often. Not on my lap but on a table right in front of me.
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hiking, racquetball, talking to people, gardening, reading, cooking, playing with my dog, smoking cigars, trying not to be “comic book guy” online and avoiding being annoyed by “comic book guys” online.
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What’s a comic book guy?
Internet
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I was thinking the same thing
This?
Why wouldn’t you wanna be that guy?
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I feel this one, haha!
That said - I’ve gone from working a full week to two days a week along with three days of childcare (I’ll go back to working more days as little ‘un gets older), and it’s made me realise how I kind of took that extra time for granted when I had it. I’ve had a surprisingly solid year considering the drastically reduced hours, which I mainly attribute to placing a heavy emphasis on using those two days to GET SHIT DONE.
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Someone apparently got offended and flagged my addiction to cheeks comment so I cancelled it and this is just a description of why it’s gone.
I wonder what the flag to 
ratio is to have a post hidden. 5 so does that mean 5 or more actually got offended?
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@KingMidas LOL 
In a way, you’re actually pretty fortunate, man. Imagine being as hooked as you are without a partner who is there for you…
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Lol love your honesty. I’m a shagger but I feel the total opposite way. I’ve always thought if I could permanently turn off my sex drive I’d do it in a heartbeat, more than any other vices I might have.
Thinking about it, my knob’s been more trouble than it was ever worth tbh.
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My post about cheeks somehow offended someone so I cancelled it.
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Pivoting from “forever cheeks” back to depressing addictions…
I am absolutely a YouTube addict. If there is an afterlife, I hope the deity there will be kind enough to NOT show me the total amount of hours I have spent watching YouTube. And a lot of that is hate-watching. For example, I cannot stand Rick Beato. And for someone who can’t stand him, I’ve watched hours of him.
Same with gear demos. I’ll pull one up, consciously wonder to myself “Why am I watching this?” for 30 minutes while I hear some of the worst tones and song samples I’ve ever heard. But it goes beyond that. I have no particular interest in getting into retro gaming. And yet, I’ll watch hours and hours and hours of speedrun docs, development histories, and reviews. For what? Someone please tell me!
I also have a social media addiction but that is slowly getting better as social media becomes less fun over time, largely due to capitalistic reasons. Too many ads, annoying algorithmic feeds, etc are making me reach for my phone less and less. Also, getting older probably means less need for validation from peers.
I wish I could get addicted to songwriting or fiction writing. I do those things, but it takes me a seemingly Herculean effort to begin compared to the above things.
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If you happen to read stuff about enneagram, you might be surprised by the number 4 
That’s probably why you don’t start it. Always easier to inflict oneself what seems a small wound compared to a big one. Probably writing stories without forcing yourself to finish anything but just for the fun would lead you further down the road than seeing it as a mountain to climb when it is just about sitting at the desk with no result intended.
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