Life gives us lots of stuff we just don’t want to deal with, like that sock drawer bursting with everything except socks or relationship imponderables.

Sometimes, we keep doing certain things over and over again to run away from our worries. And it feels all right to be hooked on to these activities – because they are normal and society’s okay with them.

Welcome to the world of socially sanctioned addictions. Here’s a list of six of them that many of us fall prey to.

Great for a harried soul but not so great for the heart, kidneys or metabolism, instant noodles (no matter the bad press) is still unstoppable – because there is no better way to instantly escape to a happy place, whether at work or at home.

And when you can slurp, crunch and get the benefits of a facial steam all at once, resisting does not come easily.

The Online News Cycle

Checking news online over and over again, and getting lost in the rabbit hole is the perfect escapism sometimes mistaken for staying well-informed. It feeds the same reward anticipation that gambling does, when a repeated action – in this case searches and clicks – produces random results.

And now in the digital age this is an addiction that isn’t going away in a hurry.

Celebrity gossip offers endless opportunities for society’s most-loved secret pleasure – voyeurism. And when you throw newly-weds, island holiday photos and birthday bashes into the mix, who needs Facebook friends?

DVD Box Set Binge

DVD box sets may have achieved respectability with Will and Kate being known to settle down in front of the telly in their country home.

But unless you possess the rare ability to stop at two episodes, you have most certainly ruined your sleep, lost out on a fresh-faced morning and the chance to get better at anything, like say guitar.

With ‘what show are you watching these days?’ being an acceptable conversation opener for strangers, this is a classic case of a socially sanctioned addiction.

WhatsApp Chatter as Mute Spectator

I loved and I hated WhatsApp groups. But now I love them more than I hate them.

Because when school mums start getting catty with each other, it’s like a front-row seat to a mud-wrestling match. And then on my boarding school alumni group, when some poor moron, who hasn’t stopped being a moron since high school, says something politically incorrect and gets thrown under the bus, it’s a real-time window into society’s insecurities and pretensions.

Can’t get enough of being a mute spectator!

Fitness Tech Obsession

Technology, it seems, is counting on us to become compulsive about it’s use, and we oblige by bringing it into even those sphere’s of life which should technically be tech- free.

With exercise addiction actually being a documented condition, just pin a Fit Bit to your collar, get another for your ‘motivating buddy’ and you will be sure that no one is let off the hook.