armchair dot tech

A few weeks ago I came across a choice phrase that got me thinking. The phrase was “unable to get addicted”. You know, I’ve never been addicted to anything. I wondered if it was possible for a person to be unable to get addicted to something. Then I wondered if there was even a word for it. Google came up dry at first. After some creative searching, I discovered that the following are the “opposite of addiction”: desensitization, prayer and fasting, and recovery. Desensitization is a fascinating word. The most relevant definitions of Desensitization is “the elimination or reduction of natural or acquired reactivity or sensitivity to an external stimulus”. I never knew that. But as fascinating as that is, it (and it’s derivative “desensitized”) don’t quit match. A desensitized person doesn’t react to external stimuli, and therefore can not become addicted that stimuli. However, I feel like we’re still reaching here. I eventually tabled this line of thought, but tonight I ended up talking it over with a friend who likes to think about such things as well. We went into word origins, prefixes and suffixes. Addiction and diction are not related (diction being a choice of words or enunciation). There is no word that is the opposite of addiction. But do not fear, for our story does not end here. We have created a word. Condiction is the opposite of addiction. Condiction is the state of being not addicted. If the dictionary defines an addict as someone who is dependent, then a condict is an independent person.