crypto addiction

[Fudi]

I am wondering ... how much time do you generally spend on this site solving these puzzles? I'll get the ball rolling (I'm not proud ... or tired ... well, maybe I'm a *little* tired): I'd say, on a typical day, for me, about 2 hours or so? (Note: I'm retired and so probably have more leisure time than many ... and I also do all the puzzles in the 2 newspapers we get at my house - the Philly Inquirer and the NYT ... most days ... oh, wait, I don't ever do the Word Seek puzzle ... I think I do all the other ones in the two papers.)

[Deanna48]

I'm about the same...2 hours on average. And I'm NOT retired, I just squeeze in half hour segments throughout the day.

[opallady]

Hello. my name is opallady and I'm a crypto addict.

[Eureka]

It's been 5 seconds since my last puzzle....
Just as an alcoholic would underestimate how much alcohol s/he consumed each day, I'm going to say I play 2 hours per day also. If you ask my husband, however, he would likely say it is closer to 4. Now that summer is almost here, I should be spending less time online and more time enjoying the great outdoors. Here's hoping, anyway! Just doing the math on my stats from last month (and kb83 can check my figures, since he is the resident mathematician), an unusually high month because my husband was away for three weeks, I spent 1.85 hours per day just solving the puzzles. That does not take into account the time I spend reading all the comments and leaving comments of my own. Do I have a problem? You be the judge!

[LLapp]

There's no question I'm addicted. On days that I'm off doing things away from home, I may not play at all, but that's only because I can't play on my phone -- and I'm grateful that I can't, because I'm sure I would. If I'm home with desk work that needs to be done but without a pressing deadline, I spend at least four hours, sometimes more, on cryptograms, wasting all my good brain hours on puzzle-solving instead of grueling work at my desk -- and therein lies the addiction, because I do it instead of what I should be doing. When I do have a pressing deadline, I do either no crypto-solving at all, or maybe only a half hour after I finish my work, and it's on those days that I tell myself "I've got this thing under control." But as I would ask any addict who says they have this thing under control, what exactly is "this thing" if not an addiction?

Yes, I'm addicted. I knew it as soon as I solved my first puzzle on this site.

[Fudi]

I'm thinking maybe we should form a support group. But this - the forums here - ARE sort of a support group. Or maybe we are an enable-ment group, even though I've never heard of such a thing. We're maybe the crypto-equivalent of barflies here? Cryptosite-flies? I dunno. FWIW, I don't think the human-to-human part of it - the commenting, reading commentary and the forum participation part is unhealthy ... because I pretty much think most human-to-human contact is a positive thing ... I think it's a legit, straight up virtual positive social environment for folks with this weird thing (which okay, maybe isn't entirely healthy in and of itself ... though, well, it's probably significantly less destructive than many more common addictions ... mostly harmless? Just a time-suck? I dunno ... maybe I'm rationalizing) in common. Well, like, I, personally, also spend a lot of time e-chatting (through email correspondence) with IRL friends who live far away from me and I think that's a positive thing, for sure, and the correspondence here feels similar to me and doesn't feel addictive - like playing the puzzles does (to me, anyway). Well ... hmmm ... those are my thoughts about this for the moment.

[Queethebean]

I've gone many months without doing any, and then I always come back. I spend too much time doing cryptos. I have anxiety & this is a refuge for me. Not admirable, but it could be worse.







<---- Just noticed that my join date says Feb 2019, but I have been doing puzzles much longer. When I look at the "My Scores" tab it says member since May 2011.

[Deanna48]

I also find solving these to be very soothing, especially while listening to classical music. Something I look forward to every day!

[Fudi]

Well, gang, if any of us end up with a crypto-sponsor, he/she will prohibit any further fraternizing here. We'd just be trying to lure the one seeking help back ... but it's "soothing" here, we'd say. Your friends are here. Hmmmm.

[Lurker]

Queethebean , my join date is messed up too. It has to do with the site merger.

I play these less than I used to, but always keep coming back. Maybe it's the community, since my other vices tend to run their course a lot sooner than 10 years. The folks on this site are more grounded and well-read than most of the people I hang out with. Maybe I just need different friends IRL

[TimmyTee]

I'm pretty new - March 2018. I learned cryptoquip on the newspaper puzzle over the years and then came here. I think I"m a "point off the curve" as compared to many of you all. I really enjoy doing the puzzles here, but have almost NO interest in doing them really, really fast.

In fact, my favorite stage in a puzzle is the early game where things are difficult. Then I get a buzz when a couple patterns start to emerge. Sometimes I even slow down to make it last at the end!

I've been told on the forum that the 15 second solvers are able to do it because they've been here so long that they simply recognize the puzzle and then just rapidly type it in. Not sure I'd even want to do a puzzle that I already know.

My son says he likes to solve cryptoquips in his head, without entering in any letters at all until he has it. I sure can't do that. My solution percentage is pretty good I think, in the low 90%'s, but I have a lot of solution times in the many hundreds of seconds.

To the topic here: I guess I play maybe three times a week, and do three or four puzzles. That's about it. As a man in his late 70's I just don't have enough time left to not spread it around a fair amount - so I've got my tomato plants I start from seed, my 7 miles of Continental Divide Trail that I've adopted, and a part-time job as Treasurer of a tiny not-for-profit company that does "good deeds!" And family. And honey-do lists.