An orange-looking girl with no tan lines desperate for her next session in a tanning booth might exhibit similar behaviors to a crackhead looking for his next hit. Yes, science suggests that indoor tanning could become addictive just like drugs and alcohol.
"If, for some people, tanning is a way to cope with emotions, then there are obviously healthier ways to do so than going to tanning salons every week," study co-author Catherine E. Moshe tells Business Week.
"The hallmark of [addiction] is that people lose control over use of the substance which is manifested by using way more than you plan to use, spending much more time than they usually will spend on using the substance [and] neglecting their jobs, their families despite knowing that the use is going to hurt them," says Dr. Ihsan Salloum, a specialist on addiction at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.