I kind of sympathize. But I keep my eye on the ball, so to speak, not the miles, but what I can do with them. I need 300-400K a year minimum to fly my wife here (she lives in another city) and home to see her family in Europe every summer. And then... the trip we're taking togeher to Paris this summer, points for the 5-star hotel in Paris, telling her "You're flying business class to Europe this summer" or "Yes, I have enough points to fly your parents here business class anytime they decide they'd like to come." I have this RTW trip too that I'm hoping to take 3-5 years from now. Maybe someday I actually won't even need miles to fly her here sometime in a couple years! (I can only hope.)

There are the silly promos that in the fullness of time don't seem so silly. The Air Canada promo where my wife and I each got 16,500 points mostly for my eating a few times at disgusting restaurants and then converting those few miles to Air Canada miles one at a time on points.com - 33,000 almost useless miles until a friend called me and said "Redtop, I really need a ticket to Toronto" and wow, did I ever have some otherwise-useless points that I can turn into a future favor from him.

I don't keep spreadsheets. If I can't do it in my head, it's gone too far. But yes, I get itchy, sometimes I think "OMG I only got 12,000 points this week, what am I doing wrong?"

Just curious .. is earning and spending the same?

i.e. if i earned 2 M, but spent 1.5M of it on a blow out holiday..
or do addicts only earn but not spend?
^^

What would be the point of not burning miles? Once you have reached your target elite status for the year, burn them if you got them. They will only devalue over time.

I'm burning 575,000 AA miles in December on a little jaunt to SE. Can't wait!

But sometimes I have to purposely hold my miles in one location.
i.e. the instant I transfer some Petro Points to Asia Miles, the 3 year expiration clock starts ticking.

Depends.
CX award chart hasn't changed for several years, the only devaluation is any YQYR that I have to pay, and, as CX Gold, I can get the equivalent of AC IKK on Y/J awards for 10K less BIS/year.
(More now since AC fares are now 50% mileage earning TPAC)

I dabbled in acquiring miles until I found FT many many years ago. Then I was hooked! The sleaziest, dirtiest thing I ever did for miles was back when Cinemark Movie Theaters had a peel off sticker worth I think 100 AA miles. I would buy a ticket to a matinee armed with the schedule of when each show was over. I then went in and collected all the stickers off the cups left on the floor and ones that were easy to get out of the trash. It was a pretty good run for a few months.

The reward has been international first or business class tickets and lifetime Platinum on AA! Well, worth my obsession!

Too funny! I would do it too if I could^

That's awesome. ^
I wish I had took AA's lifetime more seriously back then...

I am so happy I did see FT during my studying days.

M addiction started as small as trying to have 100k miles in Oneworld, Skyteam and Star Alliance. Now I have at least 400k in each. I also try collect miles on SPG, Marriott, PC, and Club Carlson. I also have points on Amex Rewards, Ultimate Rewards and Citi Thankyou. I do burn them each year for family vacations though.