TSTO ANON… WON’T YOU BE MY ENABLER?

Welcome to the bi-monthly meeting of The Simpsons Tapped Out Anonymous brought to you by TSTO Addicts!  For any of you new readers on our site, TSTO Anon is a place where we meet every other week to discuss the Best. Game. Ever. and our resulting addiction to it.  Check out our other topics here.  Our door is always open (unless it’s closed of course.)  Come on in and pull up a chair!

Hi… I’m the Wookiee and I’m a Simpsons Tapped Out Addict.

Today’s topic is co-dependency and enabling.

At dictionary.com, Co-dependency is defined as:

“of or pertaining to a relationship in which one person is physically or psychologically addicted, as to alcohol or gambling, and the other person is psychologically dependent on the first in an unhealthy way.”

Enabling is quite simply to make something possible or easy, to make something ready, to equip.  You might say TSTOAddicts.com enables TSTO addiction, but that’s just crazy talk, right?

Alright, let’s get started.  The concept of co-dependency really came to the forefront of talks about addiction in the AA world.  It’s actually right in their manual… “part of a dawning realization that the problem was not solely the addict, but also the family and friends who constitute a network for the alcoholic.”  More simply put, it is being fixated on a person or thing for approval, happiness, comfort, etc.

Co-dependency usually occurs with two types of personalities: A dependent person and a Narcissistic individual.  A classic co-dependent relationship you might have heard of is Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  Elementary, right?

The other side of this is if an item or task controls your life.  Here’s a great test.  Set your smart device in the opposite side of your domicile and go about your normal life.  If you can hang and not stress about what’s going on with it, you’re not co-dependent.  Sound harsh?  Definitely not meant to be considering in a recent survey, 84% of people worldwide said they could not go a single day without their cell phone in their hand.  That’s 5.9 Billion people!  Kind of puts it in perspective, right?  Now if we could only get each of them to tap 5 ghosts, we’d be set.

Right about now, you might be wondering what the heck co-dependency has to do with TSTO aka a game you are in complete control of?

“I don’t tap at red lights, I don’t tap in the grocery store, I mean, I only checked my notifications in confession because I forgot to put it on silent, Homer spoke up  and the priest was excited because he plays too!”

Now that’s a conversation I’d be interested in lol.  Seriously though, the writers of The Simpsons take stabs at addiction here and there and sometimes there are even entire episodes all about it.  In Season 15, Episode 15, the episode title is actually “Co-Dependents Day”.  If you haven’t seen this episode yet, check it out.  Marge and Homer drinking together is pretty hilarious.

Even without this episode being topical, this Wookiee would love it just for the first 7 minutes or so and their lampooning of George Lucas and Star Wars.

Here’s a little life tip from this big, furry guy.  No matter how much you love something, be able to laugh at it and yourself.  It makes (nerd) life much easier.

While the members of Team Awesome Sauce aka the Addicts writers may be guilty of enabling your enjoyment of TSTO, it’s definitely done benevolently.  I can promise that if we didn’t enjoy “boring” you with all our words and had no desire to “help” out, this site would not exist lol.

Alright, before I bum every one out, have to refill the coffee pot or lose you to your fix,  (Put down that android device Bunny… I’m getting to my point here, I promise) let’s press on.

Now, you might think of the topic words and cringe but please don’t.  I find it interesting to discuss both the positive and negative connotations.  When I was a flight medic for the Galactic Republic, my deployment designation was that of an “enabler” and no one claimed I had a problem for being ready at a moment’s notice to go fight the Empire, did they?  Ok… the hippies over on Endor might have but even they can be spurred into action by a mis-placed space station, right?

If you take the strict definition of co-dependent relationships, a parent/child relationship fits the bill and I for one want Homer and Marge to always love and nurture their children despite any of the hiccups that may occur.

I like enabling my Sprinfieldianites.  For 8 hrs every day, Marge and Maggie spend quality time together so the poor baby can get out of The Simpsons House (or wherever she is when we don’t see her).  Mr. Teeny gets occasional walks for 12 hrs to enable Krusty’s fitness and Jebus knows he (and his pacemaker) needs it.

A couple in a loving, devoted relationship are most likely co-dependents together.  Tell me Smithers isn’t co-dependent to Burns and I’ll gladly sell you some beach side property on Tattooine, but I really do love seeing them bicycle together on the streets of Wookieetown.

Who doesn’t enjoy watching Homer, Lenny and Carl while they enable Barney’s drinking and helicopter flying?

I’m fairly certain Marge is the biggest culprit of enabling behavior but The Simpsons would not be the show we’ve all come to love without the antics of her family.

You literally can pick an episode of The Simpsons and find an example of co-dependency or enabling.  Morale of that…  your life is probably much less dysfunctional.  If TSTO Addiction is our worst vice, I say we all head to Miami.  (Bad joke, I know, but I couldn’t help myself)

The true test on whether co-dependency or enabling is bad, is whether the end result is healthy for you psychologically and physically.  Waking up in the morning to check your Springfield regularly is fine as long as you’re pet isn’t on fire and has to wait for your attention.  Toilet tapping is multi-tasking at its finest but please, please, please wash your hands.  It’s ok to eat what you like, when you like, while tapping but if you overindulge, don’t use the excuse that you’re doing a part as a fat secret agent.

I love TSTO.  A daily dose of the game, the great readers here or my peeps over at tapped-out.co.uk. is sometimes the only way I maintain my (in)sanity.  It’s good to have friends.  Finding like-minded individuals on your life journey is meant to be a joy (unless those people also like brussel sprouts, then it’s bad…evil bad).

Take a glance at your normal tapping, blog viewing, social networking and decide for yourself if it’s good or bad.  Are you happy?  Are others happy with your happiness?  Are the other happy people making others happy?  Ok… this could go on forever…

You may have noticed the new banner for the site (If not, scroll up and check it out!).  At Addicts, we think of this blog as “A Welcoming Community For Players Who Take Life One Tap at a Time.”  Look at the crowd… we may all be co-dependent enablers of a game about the Simpsons but hey, over one million tappers can’t be wrong, right?  I for one consider myself to be in good company.

Since the coffee pot seems to be on E (don’t make me ask El Hefe for more grinds… it’s not pretty), we’ll end this meeting with the TSTOA Serenity Prayer.

“EA, grant me the serenity to accept the updates I cannot change, the courage to recommend the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Hope to see you back in a couple weeks!  You stay classy Addicterinos… Wookiee out!