I used to be a postaholic. My mood depended on the quality of messages I gave and receive. I took a sense of responsibility to always reply to threads in certain forums and to people who supported me, to pm new members.

For a time, posting and participating served a crucial, life-saving function in my life. Posting was not dysfunctional for me at that point.

After a time -- quite a long time, in fact -- it didn't. It was hard to stop, as overcoming an addiction always is, with false starts and returns. Eventually, I stopped coming here and going elsewhere for my strokes. Those places are less busy than PC, so I was weaned from dependency whilst developing other internet interests.

After about 6 months of cold turkey, I feel okay if I come here, but I don't want it to go back to how it used to be for me.

This is not intended as a commentary on how any other person should structure or not structure his or her relationship with PC or any other online posting or activity. It is merely a description of how it worked for me.