Flashaholic

A flashaholic is a self-proclaimed title by those who have a hobby of collecting and using flashlights (called torches outside of North America). It is a term for a flashlight enthusiast, or one that enjoys using, purchasing, studying and modifying hand-held devices designed to emit light.
A working definition of flashaholic can be found on Flashlight-Blog.com's "Are you a Flashaholic?" page:
"In all seriousness, a flashaholic is a term for a flashlight geek. Someone enlightened enough to finally realize how awesome flashlights truly are. It is someone who realized that the night is not something to fear, but an opportunity to shine."
The term flashaholic seems to have originated on CandlePowerForums.com, an online community for flashlight enthusiasts.
Flashaholic can be related to Everyday carry (EDC) as these individuals often consider a flashlight an EDC item.
Signs and Symptoms
A flashaholic enjoys spending hours and hours studying, purchasing and modifying flashlights. He/she often carries a flashlight and enjoys impressing/blinding his/her friends with an intense beam of light. In serious cases, he/she often goes into credit card debt due excessive flashlight spending, always trying to buy the best and brightest flashlight.
Psychiatric symptoms
Psychiatric symptoms include, but are not limited to:
*A difficulty concentrating on items that do not emit some sort of light.
*An intense hatred towards dark places.
*A desire to have a flashlight within arms reach at all times.
*An uncanny attraction towards shiny objects.
Social effects
A flashaholic often suffers from a lack of sleep due to hours of internet surfing related to flashlight research and discussion. This can lead to a decrease in that person's social life, taking a toll on relationships, families, work, etc. Due to constant internet browsing and introverted behavior, social skills may be lessened and even diminished in extreme situations.
Flashlight withdrawal
Flashlight withdrawal is a phenomenon that a flashaholic suffers when he/she tries to stop using, reading about or modifying flashlights. During this time, which may last the rest of that person's life, anything bright, such as a desk lamp, a street light, a car headlight, etc. may remind them of a flashlight, causing immediate and painful temptations to purchase more lights. This is an extremely difficult situation to be in, and caution must be exercised when approaching a flashaholic who is in the flashlight withdrawal stage.
Treatment
The disease which causes a person to become a flashaholic is, unfortunately, incurable. However, there are treatments for the symptoms.
According to "Are you a Flashaholic?" on Flashlight-Blog.com, the treatment consists of three steps:
*First off, if you have a spouse or a close friend, open up a join bank account so that they can monitor and ration your monthly flashlight purchases to only 10.
*Then, limit your time spent on the internet researching flashlights to 2 hours a day.
*Finally, (this one will be hard and I'm sorry) force yourself to only carry one flashlight on your person at a time. I know it may be tempting, but it's the only way..."<ref name="Flashlight_Blog"/>

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu