Unfortunately, the game hasn’t really been designed with players mental health in mind. This is especially true in Shadowlands.
Example. I logged on this afternoon to gather a few herbs to make a few flasks for some M+ later on this evening. I put aside an hour, on a really good day you could do it in 10-20minutes, unfortunately, I am sat here with a cold coffee awaiting for some of this elusive Marrow Root to spawn in an area where I usual have no problem waiting for it.
What worked for me to get rid of my WoW addiction is to stop doing anything remotely fun in the game and focus entirely on grinding gold, grind enough to buy a year’s worth of gametime with bnet balance, you’ll lose the sense of being obligated to log in (since you aren’t paying with your money anymore.
You can then relax and play the game whenever you feel like it, and you skip all the boring chores intended to keep you subbed to the game, it will all get reset with the next expansion anyway.
If you managed to buy enough time for 2-3 years you could even forget and uninstall the game, moving on with your life 0.0
But that’s far off for me atm, since classic wow is still a thing, tbc around the corner once that hype is over I will continue grinding enough gold in retail to fuel endless game time so I can truly play like a casual, rinse and repeat
It’s actually interesting how we can see the effects of the addiction in terms of the loot system not being a loot shover anymore and people addicted to receiving a lot of loot are being angry and lashing out 
Gaming addiction isn’t real.
Well alot of people play these games for a quick Dopamine fix. They log in, do a few runs, win a bit of loot. Feel good, log out.
Whether what they were winning was useful to them or not, didn’t matter, the anticipation of winning something is what made people feel good.
Now, the anticipation is gone. People either feel the need to run more dungeons to get their reward… which is tiring… especially when the dungeons last longer.
I appreciate what Blizzard has tried to create by reducing loot drops, but to go from one extreme to the other is always going to get back results.
I once had Turkish coffee served with a small pot of melted chocolate. It was amazing. I’d never been a coffee fan until then.
The current loot system is not an extreme 
I used to play WoW a lot couple years ago and I returned to it with Shadowlands start and I was a bit afraid this could happen to me… but the reality is I can´t make myself play more than 1 or 2 dungeons occasionaly and then just turn it off being bored… which makes me suprisingly a bit sad as I was looking forward to spending a bit more time in it…
Which made me realize - the best thing about SL is that it is so boring that the risk of becoming addicted seems to be really low. So I just wanted to say thanks Blizzard for actively fighting against addictions!
I love that people complaining about gearing up some how means they are addicted to loot. I’m not saying that it’s your analogy.
Personally I just never expect to get loot (in Shadowlands), I’ve made do with whatever the weekly vault has given me. That does not mean that I can’t criticise the lack of loot or that people can’t express that Blizzard went over board. Something even Blizz have acknowledged with the coming fix.
Edit to add:-
I honestly don’t like it when people talk about ridiculous things being addictions. Addictions can be horrible, and they can destroy all sorts of things in your life. Game addiction is not someone moaning that they play the game and get no rewards for doing so. Game addicition is when a person will go to great lengths to play a game, ignoring family, friends, even their health at times. Just to be able to get as much up time in whatever game they are addicted to.
Playing the game like overall doing dungeons maybe playing an bg or some arenas, isn’t really addictive what i found addictive was collecting stuff, would it be mount an transmog item or hell even grinding gold becomes addictive, if you do it often.
Games are a time sink and people should be aware of this fact , while they provided entertainment they are made to suck you in that world with a lot of psychological effects . (instagratification , skinners box , completionism and so on )
I’m not here to hold speeches or sway ppl to play or not play just raising awareness .
And coffee is terrible switch to tea 
Well, when you put it like that, it does sound pretty good. Maybe I’ll try it some day 
Back in Vanilla when I levelled my first ever character (a Rouge), I used to love running the dungeons. There was always a chance that I would come out winning some loot and the chances are it would be Blue! I would always be in General LFG … and I remember that time I won a Dagger from Mauradon (I think, possibly wrong), and I was over the moon… I mean, it was a Caster Dagger, but I was too much of a noob to care, I had a dagger and it was BLUE!
Then TBC came along, and Heroics started and at the end of the dungeon you had a chance to get a PURPLE! But it didn’t matter because every boss you killed dropped an item for someone in the group.
So now we’re in Shadowlands, on one hand, we’re being told that we should be chasing particular items. On the other hand we’re being told not to expect anything to drop and once a week we’ll get something from the great vault?. … I mean, come on… really?
Sure there is a fix coming. As it currently stands, it’s a small improvement… but still isn’t good enough.
Also, whole heartedly agree, Addiction is a very strong word. During my time at Uni I worked in a dingey night club and I saw Alcohol Addiction and I saw people completely ruining their lives drinking (and I don’t mean the binge drinkers, I mean, the people who wake up in the morning to Sambuca on their cereal and have done so for years).
I personally have spoken about mental health. With current world circumstances, with many people are home more, people have had more time to play the game. By making items more scarce in the game and dangling the carrot a further away than it has ever been (at least in the expansions I have played), it encouraging people to play more. Some people just can’t manage their time as well as others.
Do you think i have to feed my child? Something cried few days but now stopped. Meybe i should check? Nah… have to farming anima, and lvl my 30’s alt…xD
Just like that loading screen telling me to go outside…
Now since the drop rate is higher than classic you can get them off the AH for 30g.
Well the consequences of overplaying BFA for me is… I cant sit down and play SL 
I think i had a serious WoW overdose during BFA, i guess time will heal my wounds 
WoW addiction is definitely something blizzard should combat. If they notice someone playing too much there should be an automated e-mail warning of health side effects.
The bots would be inundated with emails. There is a system in place to control when you play, but as with the gambling websites, why would someone addicted to it set themselves limits?
And streamers haha