Addiction is one of those aspects of society that we as humans toil over time and time again. Why are they addicted what is it about addiction that makes a person give up everything including their life? I have been raised to see addiction as horrible and the equivalent of a slow suicide, and I still see it as that. I can’t see how throwing everything away is for your benefit. So what is it about addiction that keeps
What we know is wrong
Our Speaker talks about those who are severely injured. they are often given Diamorhine which is especially medically pure heroine. Yet many people when they leave the hospital are not junkies, are they? Why is that?
Well, our speaker talks about the original experiment that we have all heard. Rat in a cage prefers drugs over food and water. It appears that there was another study done in the 70s where they took a bunch of rats and put them in Rat Park. This place had all the food and fun and sex that the rat could want. It also had drugs. However the rats hardly ever at the drugs. Why? because their lives were complete in the rat world. the rats in the cage were just rats in a cage. they had no interaction with their peers.
The doctor presented a great question. What if addiction isn’t about the drug at all, but about the environment you are in? He backs the question up with the Vietnam experience. where loads of soldiers were using heroin yet when they got home they just stopped. No withdrawals or anything like that. Why is that?
His suggestion is that addiction isn’t addiction but a bonding. and this starts to make sense. Well at least to me it does.
The core of all this is that when you have a healthy connection and you are being active in a community. You don’t have the need to bond to drugs and alcohol. It si truly fascinating thought.
