So today, I came across a TED talk on Youtube hosted by Johann Hari. He claimed that he did research on the topic and found out that addiction is not related to physical abuse of substances. I agree. If that was the case, everyone would be addicted who ever took heavy painkillers for a while (Hari mentioned this example). What raised my eyebrow is when he said that addiction is based on bonding issues and on the environment. He presented a study conducted by Dr. Alexander. The Rat Park experiment. That study proved that rats only tended to use drugs that were provided to them when their cages were empty. Once the cage was full with food, toys, other rats etc the rats hardly touched (or never did) the drugs because they found well...other things to do. Thus, changing the environment and having social relationships eliminate addiction...or prevents it??? Then there is the theory of developing addiction as a result of trauma.
What happened to the idea of being born with an addicted mind? How about genetic reasons? Put an addict among friends and a nice place and poof everything is fine suddenly? How come that a lot of people who experienced trauma will never become addicts? Trauma definitely impacts the possibility of developing mental illness which can lead to substance abuse. Obviously, my summary is too simplified. Maybe the addicted mind means automatic attachment style issues and that is why bonding matters. I am not an expert. However, Psychology Today analyzed the above-stated issues. Here it is.
The stress level of animals cannot be compared to the stress level of humans. So the Rat Park/Heaven study is not relevant. We can agree that humans have to face extremely complicated situations including environmental and social factors. The causes of addiction probably will remain mysterious. All we can try is doing more research.
The only reason why I wrote this post is that I do not like when someone spreads the word to millions of people while: 1.he personally never experienced addiction, 2. his ideas are based on limited research. Gosh I think I am defensive. Maybe it means that I can embrace my illness even if I fight it.
