The Science of ADDICTION - And Why We Might Be Treating It In A Totally Wrong Way
Addiction has many different faces.
Whether people are addicted to Alcohol, Nicotine, the Internet, Cocaine, Sex, Gambling, Caffeine or Marijuana - they all have one thing in common: They can't stop.
We have probably all witnessed someone in our social environment try to overcome their addiction, but it's a lot harder to do than we think.
So what exactly does addiction cause in our brain and body? And are we maybe treating it in a totally wrong way?
Addiction and our Brain
You have probably heard of the reward system inside our brains, which is located in our Limbic System. The limbic system controls our emotions and is also activated when we form new memories.
When we execute certain actions that feel good, like eating junk food or playing video games, our reward system is being stimulated and Dopamine is being released.
This also means that we are trained to keep executing that same action - because it feels good, and because we keep getting rewarded for it.
Normally, this is not a problem, because the Dopamine that was being released will later be re-absorbed by the Neurons that it came from.
But certain drugs, like Cocaine or Heroine, prevent that re-absorption. The result is a large amount of dopamine in the synapses between two neurons, which creates the feeling of "being High" to the drug user.
After a while, our brain will adjust the amount of the dopamine receptors to keep a balance, and this creates a TOLERANCE: The same amount of the drug won't get the user as High as it did before.
When the user stops taking or being exposed to that drug, the body shows withdrawal symptoms. Depending on the drug, this may result in serious health issues.
A different view on Addiction (and its treatment)
Most theories about addiction are based on experiments with rats that were conducted as follows:
The rat was placed in the cage with 2 water bottles - one filled with regular water, and the other filled with water that had been enhanced with heroine or cocaine elements.
And the result was that the rat becomes addicted to the drug-enhanced water, can't stop the consumption, and dies from an overdose.
In the 1970's, the scientist and psychology professor Bruce Alexander has conducted a new series of experiments that provide a different view than the 'traditional' theory about addiction.
He noticed that in prior experiment, the rats were put in a lonely cage with basically nothing else to do than take the drugs. So he wanted to switch up the conditions and see if that would make any difference.
He created a "Rat Park" - A spacious cage with lots of toys, tunnels, delicious food, other rats to play and have sex with etc. It was everything a Rat could wish for, basically.
Prof. Alexander also placed the two water bottles in that cage - and the result was fascinating.
These rats in a happy environment almost never even touched the drugged water - and none of them ever overdosed on it.
But that might only apply to rats, not humans ... or does it?
When you've had a major injury, chances are that the hospital treats you with Diamorphine.
Diamorphine IS Heroin. It's a very strong pain medication - actually much stronger than 'regular' street Heroine because it's concentrated and not stretched with other substances.
So according to the traditional theory of drug addiction, people would get addicted to Heroine after the hospital visit ended - right?
Countless studies have shown that that is not the case. But why? Could it be the same reason?
During the Vietnam war, lots of American Soldiers were supplied with Heroine to keep fighting.
If the same theory applies, the majority of these soldiers should become Heroine addicts afterwards!
But again, studies have shown that the soldiers who returned home didn't become addicted to Heroine - most of them never even touched it again.
This supports Prof. Alexander's theory: When being in an extremely stressful and depressing situation like war, Heroine can lift you up.
But when you return to your happy, loving environment, you don't need the drug anymore to feel good - it's like the humans are being put in "Rat Park", a friendly and happy environment.
If you'd like to read more about the Rat Park experiment, please check out this amazing Comic that explains and visualizes the study again in great detail.
Prof. Alexander's Theory has been proven in many studies, and shows that the way society handles drug addiction and drug addicts may be totally counter-productive.
- Instagram -
© Sirwinchester
I have a theory that we are all addicts. We may only use that word to describe people that are addicted to things which have been deemed socially unacceptable, but in truth we are all addicted to at least one thing. Not every addiction has to have a negative impact on one's life though. You can be addicted to socializing and making friends. You can be addicted to learning new things. You can even be addicted to seeing other people smile because of you. We humans are creatures of habit. Any task or action that we repeat strengthens the neuron-pathway associated with that particular action. Repeat any one task more than all the others and it becomes the most prominent pathway in our entire neural network, making pretty much every aspect of our lives revolve around that newly formed addiction.
So the trick really is to ensure that your predominant habit is something that is beneficial to your life rather than detrimental to it.
Great piece. +1 upvote
You're right, that's a great theory.
If you put the word 'addiction' that way, everyone is definitely addicted to something - for most people it would be food, entertainment, or the internet.
We should focus on being addicted to learning new things and improving ourselves, and striving towards our goals!
Absolutely. No one calls morbidly obese people addicts even though a lot of them are addicted to eating. No one refers to avid movie watchers as addicts even though they are clearly addicted to watching TV/Movies to some degree. For some reason society has decided that the word addiction should only be applicable to particular habits, and with that they have also assigned a negative connotation to the word. I'm actually rather fascinated by neuro-plasticity, It may be a good subject for you to post on in future as it is really interesting. Beyond that, when you understand how the brain works and how addictions are created, it becomes easier to rewire your brain and break those habits that you no longer want to be subservient to.
I've been clean for 35 years come march, and I got clean with a lot of Vietnam Vets who came home hooked on morphine. I saw this rat test years ago and have not seen the programs based on it work any better or worse than traditional programs, saying that as a person who worked in the field for 9 years, and volunteers even still.
It's also true that many of the cocaine addicts back then were happy, healthy , wealthy, college graduates. I think you have to look at both parts. Some people are naturally receptor deficiency resistant, some are born naturally deficient, some become deficient and can repair or replace with social improvements, some become deficient and never recover.
In my experience, successful recovery addresses the changes in the brain, while improving the social conditions, IOW, 12 Step meetings done according to plan with strong, continuing group interaction and family support.
Thank you for sharing your personal experience!
That's very interesting that you perceive it differently. I don't have any personal experience with this, so I can't confirm or deny the effects of the Rat Park experiment, I just read about it and thought it was very interesting to share.
And you are right, of course there's much more to recovery than just a happy environment - but maybe it takes you one step closer than being lonely and depressed. In the end, it all depends on the person and maybe it can't be generalized that much.
That rat experiment is so interesting. I think it's simplifying things a little though. If that as only the case, people in a normal environment would never get addicted - but they do.
Nevertheless, it's a very interesting study and great to know that something like this has been proven. maybe a combination treatment would be the key here.
I agree. The results of the experiment can't be transferred to humans and their life 1:1, but still it's great to know that an effect like this exists!
What is a normal non-drug-addiction environment?
First thought would be something like "run around a lot to catch your foot, have deep and happy talks with a group of follow humans around the daily camp fire and feel totally stress free because everything today went fine and today will be a hunt like every other day" etc.
How many people have that?
This sounds like pretty much the same content, doesn't it?
http://wakeup-world.com/2015/05/26/the-likely-cause-of-addiction-has-been-discovered-its-not-what-you-think/
That's because the Rat Park Experiment was also mentioned there ...
The main content of my article is centered around the Rat Park Experiment. Of course someone who writes about the same Experiment, would explain it in a similar way, because in the end there are just things you have to mention - and can't change.
The bottom video is also what made me aware of that experiment, and the author of that post might have watched the same video since it's from youtube and everyone could have found it.
Anyway, all the words are my own and I took inspiration from no article, but from several videos and also from the comic credited above.
Also, the first part about how addiction functions in our brain is completely added by me because I thought that would be important to know before talking about addiction - and it was not mentioned in the video.
Edit:
I just checked the article that you posted - of course it would be similar content! It's from the same author that has written a book about this theory, and he collaborated on the video that gave me the information about the theory.
So of course it's similar. It's the same man, telling the same story about the same theory.
That doesn't mean that I copied his words though, I wasn't even aware of that article.
I just found the video and thought that the Rat Park experiment was very interesting and a nice thing to share with my steemit followers. that's all.
Resteemed
Thank you :)
Very informative post - I also like the 1st pic!
I agree that social problems are very often linked to drug addiction, and a generally bad life situation with many problematic areas and toxic relationships. But it's hard to fix all of those parts of your life when you're isolated and depressed.
thank you, appreciate the feedback!
It's a great stuff ! Thanks! (;
glad that you liked the topic!
the fact with Hospitals and Morphine is so true! Why did no one wonder about this before?! Of course those people would become addicts if only the traditional theory was true!
That's also one of the reasons why I think Prof Alexander's theory might be true - until proven otherwise, the hospital scenario would not make sense then!
People wondered about it before. And doctors proposed changes to therapy.
I dont know how it is in detail in the US (I think you are US), but I strongly assume the factual policy from politics is the "War on drugs" that sees the reason for addiction in the person's fault, just like unemployment, where there is also a sort of "war on unemployed", just with less weapons but similar social stigma.
Aw common.
A freshly discharged patient does not have any access to the drug, he or she received.
They often do not even know what they were treated with. Or which medication did what.
They would often not know where to get it.
And more likely than not be physically impaired.
not to mention that signs of drug withdrawal often mix with a general lack of wellbeing.
Plus a lack of positive conditioning.
Who wants to take stuffthat your memory connects to a period of feeling lousy?
A good hospital would avoid giving their patient a positive kick. No spikes in bloodlevels. They want to keep them out of pain, thats all.
Lets take another example. Propofol. Can give you a hell of a trip, I heard it say.
Either way.
Use it wrongly and you are on the worst hallicunations ever.
So, the only people to get on this drug are those with access and expert knowledge.
Morphium is a big issue mainly because so many people heard about it.
Some patients do not respond to it at all. No receptors. You couod throw any dosage at them.
Wow thats crazy. I'm halfway through writing about the similar things, I come to steemit for a minute and this came up in my feed. But mine is about the practical use of this information and what can and should be changed in treatment of addiction in the USA. Though mine is not for steemit
I hadn't heard about the Rat Park Experiment before, but sounds logical to me. If you're already happy, you don't necessarily need an artificial drug to give you that feeling of happiness!!
Exactly - although other factors may tie into this as well, that's common sense!