Disclaimer:  If your enjoyment of this particular entertaining and amusing thread might be damped by someone saying something that is maybe a bit serious about it, you may want to skip this post.

If violin (or any other instrument or music in general) is or has been an intentional part of your rehab or continuing recovery program, you are addicted to violin (or are likely to become addicted).

 That would be me.  I'll try to avoid going into too much boring detail, but years ago (over 2 decades now) I was having a substance abuse problem.  Tried to quit on my own several times, and that didn't work out.  So I talked to a counsellor/therapist and we went through the diagnosis process and yeah, it was an addiction.  So I went into a rehab clinic to get clear of it.  

In the course of rehab, a very sharp therapist got to asking about why I'd let my band fall apart and why I wasn't playing anymore.  After some sessions of exploring that, she deduced that I had basically let that slip away to make more room in my life for the substance problem.  That is part of how it works and how such problems end up being a way to trash your life.

To make a long story short, picking up my guitar again and getting back into music, and either pulling the band back together or making a new one ended up being a very important part of my treatment program.  I had gotten to kind of viewing music as a hobby, and hadn't let myself think of it as more important.  I mean, realistically, everybody knows that the chances of any person "making it big" are very slim, and just get slimmer as you get older.  Why even try working towards silly hopes and dreams with odds like that?  Why play, when probably nobody will listen or care anyway?

I got told my attitude was a bunch of crap, and that I personally had better straighten it up and take music far more seriously as my "healthier choice", and do what I could with it.  Because without it, she didn't feel my chances for making it to recovery were very good.  And without making it through rehab and into recovery, that my chances for surviving much longer weren't good either.  Further, that I should be damned glad that I had a bit of talent and had already put some time into learning and practice and money into gear so that I had something as wonderful as music to lean on as a healthy sort of dependency when I needed to get through the rough spots in life instead the unhealthy ones I was in rehab for.  

Well, ok.  Nothing I can say but that she was right.  I'm over two decades "clean" now, and she is still being right.  Being 100% honest, I think that if I hadn't made that change and turned to music as something to take more seriously in my life than just a useless and silly "hobby".  Well, I'm fairly sure I'd be dead and just a tombstone somewhere and never would have even met the fine folks here.  Probably quite a few years ago, now.

So yeah, music can be an addiction, in it's way.  But it is a lot less lethal than some, and it can put some good things in your life instead of just trashing it.  Even a fairly nice new violin will cost a lot less money than a drug/alcohol/gambling/etc addiction.  If you have music/violin as an addiction/dependence/"bad habit", indulge in it and enjoy it.  It is a good one.

I'll get off the soapbox now.  Sorry if the serious talk ruined the fun for anyone.  But I didn't want to take the chance that if maybe someone is having some problems, and hoping that music can maybe be part of the solution, that they might leave without hearing that it *can* be.