Josh Hamilton knows a thing or two about addiction.

Dostoevsky once wrote that "in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'make us your slaves, but feed us.”

This age of information in which we live is potentially fatal—not in the literal sense, mind you, but in a very real and tangible way.  Most of us can’t go through a single day without accessing any and all of our favorite fantasy statistics.  Some of you might be reading this and thinking to yourselves, “Um…day?.”  Okay, let me rephrase.  Most of us can’t go hours without checking in on the up-to-the-minute, at-your-fingertips fantasy sports statistics that have come to define, and even control our very lives.  If fantasy baseball is a drug, then technology is the needle.

Some of us embrace technology with open arms, while others try in vain to keep it at arm’s length.  No matter how stats come into our lives, into our lives they do come.  With each new gadget, gizmo, and device, our lives have become all but inseperable from the technologies that have supposedly made our lives easier. Wireless, cellular, e-everything, we are the byproducts of a new and terrifying global matrix of insta-information.  We are so completely awash in a sea of technological addiction, that no family support network, no twelve-step group could possibly intervene.  God himself could appear to us in a burning bush, and we would turn a blind eye, because we were busy checking our Blackberries for something far more relevent to our busy lives.  That something?  Stats! 

For years we were able to keep our insatable cravings at bay with the knowledge that we would have to wait until tomorrow’s newspaper arrived in order to check in on our team’s performance.  Well, not anymore.  The internet…email…Blackberries, blueberries, satellite-enabled pocket PCs with global positioning systems—all of these technological innovations have solved many of our day-to-day dilemmas.  But, at the same time, they have created new ones.

Technology, like fantasy baseball, is addictive. We’ve convinced ourselves that we NEED to buy new and exciting devices that constantly upgrade our access to information for any number of reasons, real or imagined, in an effort to get the fastest and most effective fantasy stat "fix."  Therein a viscious cycle is formed. Our desire to win fuels our need for newer, faster, and better access to information.   

As we rush to embrace the latest and greatest high-tech innovation, in order to satisfy our insatiable stat-hunger, we become ever-more dependent on technology.  We need to be plugged in at all times or risk falling behind the competitive curve.  At some point, the information we so desperately crave starts to consume us, and in the end, our lives grow worse instead of better.  In some cases, addiction takes hold and our lives become unmanageble.

How do you know if you’re an addict?  Start by asking yourself a series of questions (and try to be honest):

1. Do I spend an hour or more of my day focused solely on fantasy baseball?

2. Do all my friends play fantasy baseball?

3. Do you sometimes feel depressed if you are without access to fantasy stats?

4. Do you enjoy life in general without fantasy stats?

5. Have you upgraded to “premium status” to obtain more/better stats?

6. Has the use of fantasy stats adversely affected your life?

7. Did you spend a significant amount of time finding, waiting for, or using fantasy stats?

8. Can you abstain from fantasy stats for hours/days?

9. Has your fantasy stat habit changed significantly for the worse?

10. Do you want to quit but can't?

11. Do you feel the need to lie about your fantasy stat usage?

12. Have friends or family members singled you out for your use of fantasy stats?

13. Are you rarely happy, unless you have a statistical reason?

14. Do you plan your day around your fantasy stat habit?

15. Do you only have a small circle of close “friends” (owners/managers)?

16. Does it take fantasy stats to make you "feel good"?

17. Is your life spiraling out of control?

18. Do you believe you don't have a fantasy stat problem?

19. Are you in denial?

20. Did you feel compelled to lie on this test?

Yah…that’s pretty much what I thought.  So, what now?

The first step of recovery should be an admission that we are powerless over our fantasy stat addiction—that our lives had become unmanagable.  This is something that is often very difficult.  When we are in a state of recovery we find ourselves trying to regain what we have otherwise forgotten or lost (i.e. our minds, our family, and general perspective).  For most, this is a loss of reality and an attempt to escape into fantasy. 

Once we’ve admitted that we have a problem, we then need to find out what circumstances led us to the point of being addicted. Once found, the recovery process can start. This may sound simple, but it’s different for everyone, and can be very hard to handle. This is why we need help from someone that can and will be there for us (I recommend your spouse or significant other and NOT a random drinking buddy).

The next step is finding out how to avoid falling into the trap of addiction again.  The disconnection of habits (the internet) is essential.  Most of the people that are addicted to fantasy stats run from their problems, and hide behind their roster(s). This is what gets us caught by our loved ones and friends, and as the cycle of addiction progresses the problems get bigger.  The phrase, “Let me just finish this one thing” probably sounds all too familiar.

When we first started using stats, we were likely trying to deal with a situation or situations that seemed out of our control (i.e. losing).  Further, it was easy to be accepted by the group of people that used stats (fantasy managers)—since misery loves company, they were accepting of just about anyone (even you).  As our addictions progressed, so did our problems (see: excessive league membership).

When a person gets clean of the stats in their life, the next question is, am I recovered?  Many believe: once an addict, always an addict. Others believe that once use is curtailed to the point of life being manageable again, you are no longer an addict. Either of these models can work for the individual.  It really depends on which you want to use for your recovery.

The thought of using stats may never subside, but it’s what we do with that thought that counts.  In order to live a life in recovery, we need to find something to do with the time that we used to spend finding, accessing, and using fantasy stats.  We need to find out what we used to do to enrich our lives before stats came to gain control (if there was anything). Once we’ve re-discovered it, go out and recapture it.  As impossible as it may seem, life without stats can be the most wonderful thing we have ever experienced.

Once we have overcome a stat addiction there is nothing that we can't do. We can be anything we want to be—if we put as much energy into life as you did trying to get our fantasy “fix”. Imagine the possibilities.  Lest we becomes slaves to our own obsessions and posessions, we must make an effort to better our lives through non-fantasy, non-technological menas.  We must, in a word, UNPLUG, if only occasionally.  So start on that road now.

Who am I kidding?!?!?!  I can’t lie to you like that.  I’m no better than any of you.  I had live streaming stat updates open in another window (hell, multiple windows) the entire time I was writing this article—an article on curtailing stat use.  I work as a “fantasy expert” for SportsGrumblings.com for Christ’s sake; that makes me something of a drug-dealer.  I’d be doing you and me a great disservice telling you not to read up on the latest fantasy goings-on right here on SportsGrumblings.com.  After all, we are here to help you.  I am here to help you; and just to prove it, here’s some free content to sample.  If you like it, you know where to find us…for more.