Why do we get addicted?

Why do we get addicted?

And here I am not talking about any addiction which is primarily due to physiological reasons - like drug abuse, smoking etc, but the mind being addicted to something - thinking in a particular way, being addicted to certain feelings. For e.g. I believe I have an addiction to always being infatuated to some woman or other. Over the past two years especially I have serially been infatuated to one woman after another. It seems to have become a habit - perhaps an unhealthy one.

I think formation of addiction must be quite similar to forming of habits. Addiction in a way connotes any bad habits. So I guess a pertinent question to ask is why and how do we form habits.

Habit formation, I guess, happens so as to become more efficient and skillful in regular activities. Humans would have evolved in this fashion so as to survive and prosper. Even in modern times, once we adopt a particular profession, we quickly become habituated to a certain way of thinking and doing our work.

Sometimes consciously or unconsciously we also get into a mode of thinking, which over a period of time forms neural pathways which makes it all the more easier and spontaneous to fire up those neurons and trigger that thought. Once we start thinking something more often, it becomes more easier to think it, it also becomes more natural to think that way - thats how our opinions are formed, our perspectives are coloured.

But good thing about this is that if you stop thinking a particular way, and start thinking a different way, you can alter the neural pathways and simply change your thinking! Though yeah, its not as simple as it sounds. So, I guess, its possible to change my thinking, and not become infatuated habitually. Let's see if I can implement it in practice. Though I still haven't answered to myself the question - why do I have to stop it? As of now, I don't wish to attempt to answer this question...because its quite complicated. :-)