Hi, My name is Elmer and I am an Addict!
"hi elmer!"
I completely understand the addict analogy. I sit at my work-space and have jazz playing in the background. I may not always hear it in a noisy office, but there are moments it pops through.
When I take my breaks and lunch I walk with my ipod and listen to music. If I dont have it, I cant wait to get to it, or I just provide it myself.
Most of my time is spent with music going.
Music gets me through always has. I even hum to myself when not allowed to have an ipod.
It probably has just stuck around from my childhood, when I spent alot of time alone, either by choice or circumstance.
When you are a latch key kid and spend hours alone you start to crave the comfort of background noise. It worked equally as effective at blocking out the sounds of arguing.
In school when you are just the shy, outsider who got lost in the crowd and could go days without talking to others out of pure terror and awkwardness, that song in your head just makes it that much easier.
When I played in bands, it gets to be a real addiction because when you are not playing all you want to do is make your back to the warm embrace of that groove!
It becomes an obsession until another one takes it place.
But I remember working a job at a museum, while in school. One of my coworkers suffered from serious tinnitus, he was mostly deaf to the point he could not hear his own hearing aide alarm go off.
He told me he was kept away at night by the ringing and people with lesser symptoms had taken drastic actions.
I was sad because he was never able to listen to all the great stuff that was out there. Further because my job was to clean antique radios of all era's, I would get them working and play music over them. In fact I listened to the 9/11 coverage on a 1930's area GE radio. but I digress!
he could feel bass and the rhythmic tapping on a desk, so all was not lost.
So it may not be for everyone for varying other reasons!
I have been typing so long I have forgotten what my original thought was!
Oh well, I will just end with that!