We all have our addictions. And no, I don’t mean addictions in the illegal drugs sense of the word. I for one never will understand the illegal drug trade and therefore, I opt only to watch movies about it.

Rather, I am talking about the addictions that live inside of us that other people may not even realize exist. That is not to say they aren’t affected by these addictions, they just don’t realize that these are addictions because they don’t fall in the normal addiction file.

They’re not drugs, alcohol, etc. No, the addictions that I speak of are ones so much greater, so much more pure that I am comfortable letting everyone know about my newly acquainted dependencies.

The addictions of which I speak of are fantasy football, the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Tribune Monday sports section.

Now, shall we begin with my addiction of fantasy football? Yes, yes we should.

I used to believe that fantasy football was too time consuming to be any fun and that I would not know near enough about the NFL to actually be good at it, but I was blatantly wrong.

It turns out that fantasy football is a beautiful procrastination tool that helps you consume time rather than consuming your time. Also, despite the fact that I only knew about 50 percent of the good NFL players at the beginning of the season, I now know almost all of the good players simply by reading the small game notes that are provided in the league breakdown.

I have spent many a late night hour mulling over whom to pick up off of waivers or whom to start next week and all the while the rest of the world becomes completely inconsequential to me. I have made every effort to have a majority of my team be representatives from the Chicago Bears as well.

Which leads me into part duex of my addiction — the Chicago Bears.

During the past, oh let’s say 10 years, the Bears have been really bad. I mean they have been so bad that their mothers would have to wash their mouths out with soap 16 times a season.

Watching a Bears game was like watching reruns of Full House. Sure, it was good when you were a little kid, but now it just makes you ill when it’s on. And I mean that with no disrespect to John Stamos, it is just that the whole Uncle Jesse bit went bad faster than Michael Jackson.

But now, the Bears are the team to watch. They finally got rid of Cade McCrap and they are doing awesome. Every week the Bears game has more drama in it than the entire WB network.

Take, for instance, this past Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns. The Bears were down by two touchdowns with about 30 seconds left in the game. With a little bit of luck and a dash of skill (and I mean a dash when referring to their quarterback Shane Matthews) the Bears created a sort of goulash that tasted like victory.

But the amazing part of all of that is that the Bears made virtually the same dish last week when they came from behind to beat San Francisco.

In both games it was as if the Bears were searching their cupboards for the perfect ingredient, reached behind that can of beef stew and found the chili powder.

And then, a la Emeril Lagassi, BAM!

To make it even more dramatic, my arteries already were being clogged by the World Series dramatics that seemed to be a destiny provided by the Yankees. Luckily, that intensity finally has concluded, but those Bears are sure to provide me with more on-the-edge-of-my-seat fun.

And speaking of edge-of-the-seat fun, I love the Chicago Tribune sports section. Every Monday is the Bears Plus section, which quenches my thirst for more Bears information. This section only pales in comparison to the Cubs Plus section, which I would read every week during the summer.

So, in essence, what I am trying to say is that we all have our addictions to crazy things. And whether those addictions are watching the Bears game, playing fantasy football or maybe watching those bad reruns of Full House, these addictions are ones that do not hurt us.

These are ones that only make our lives happier and give us something more to look forward to and enjoy.

That’s right, these are good addictions, and I love them.