ADDICTION & DISCONNECTION

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety; the opposite of addiction is connection.”
-Dr. Gabor Mate 

Drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for all Americans under the age of 50. In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses — more than from car accidents and guns combined.2 Why is this happening and what can be done about it? 

The word "addiction" comes from the Latin word "addictus," which refers to someone becoming a slave to someone else due to an outstanding debt. So, the word addiction has always implied slavery to someone or something. The best definition of addiction I have come across comes from Dr. Gabor Mate: 

"An addiction is any substance or behavior one craves, one finds temporary relief in, and which has negative consequences in the long-term, but one continues to relapse into despite those negative consequences. This includes alcohol/drugs, shopping, technology, sex, addiction to power, addiction to wealth, addiction to violence, addiction to external relationships, addiction to work — anything we try to use to fill the internal void can become addictive."3 

I love this definition because it corrects the common misconception that addiction solely refers to substances like drugs and alcohol. Addiction is, in many ways, simply a distraction from being with ourselves and in the present moment. Many of us have trouble being present with ourselves because it brings up too much mental and emotional distress. Dr. Gabor Mate goes on to say, “Ask not why the addiction, but why the pain?” To be human is to experience pain and suffering; as such, the relationship between ourselves and our traumas has a huge impact on the ways in which we behave. Addictions to substances like drugs, alcohol, and food, along with certain behaviors like work, sex, and fitness often provide a temporary high or a reduction of pain. 

There is nothing inherently wrong in seeking momentary pleasures or highs from certain behaviors. However, a problem arises when we lose control over these things and become a slave to them. They end up running our lives, causing significant harm to our relationships, health, finances, and ability to function in the world. 

We also know now that human beings can become addicted to ways of being — certain emotional states like anger, control, and victimization, which provide a temporary high in the brain when experienced over and over again.4 Every time we experience an emotion like anger, frustration, envy, or jealousy, our brain produces specific neurohormones or neuropeptides that match that emotional experience. The more we experience the same emotions on a regular basis, the more we condition our brain and body to expect and crave those specific neurochemicals, just like alcoholics crave alcohol and the dopamine it releases. We literally train our brains and bodies through the thoughts, behaviors, and choices that we make on a daily basis. 

We can even develop addictions to seemingly unpleasant influences like stress. Dr. Hans Selye (1907-1982), a famous Canadian-Hungarian physician who received the Order of Canada (the highest civilian honor in Canada) and was nominated for the Nobel Prize multiple times throughout his life, was the first person to really study and define stress from a medical perspective. Based on his research, he observed that people can become addicted to the natural stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Imagine the implications of this for children and adolescents who are constantly exposed to high levels of internal and external stressors throughout childhood as their brains are developing. The brains of children who grow up in high stress environments will start to habituate, or adapt, to these constant stressors and come to expect, anticipate, and desire it unconsciously. These children tend to grow into adults who depend on stress and chaos, feeling uneasy, bored, and empty when it is lacking.5 To these people, the neurochemical cascade that stems from stress may feel desirable. Over time, they may become addicted to these internal chemicals, just as someone else may become addicted to external substances like alcohol or cocaine. 

As we have started to touch on already, and will continue to do so throughout this book, environment is a major factor when it comes to understanding mental and physical health functioning. When it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, most people mistakenly believe that addiction stems from either the chemical hooks in drugs or some type of moral failing that causes the user to make poor choices repeatedly. Both ideas are incorrect and need to be removed from the popular conceptualization of drug and alcohol addiction. Drug addiction is more related to context. We can see how environmental factors are often the root cause of addiction by examining the heroin epidemic in United States soldiers during the Vietnam War and the public’s response to powerful medications following routine medical procedures and surgeries. 

Towards the end of the Vietnam War, the higher-ups in the U.S. military command were terri-ed about the prospect of having tens of thousands of soldiers hooked on heroin, returning home as drugged zombies on the streets of small town USA. Estimates at the time indicated that somewhere between 25-50% of low ranking combat troops had become addicted to heroin during their tour. That corresponds to roughly 60,000 individuals. However, once the war was over and the troops returned home to their families and communities, all but a very small percentage of them stopped using heroin immediately and went back to their normal lives. How and why was this the case? 

Well, if you think about it, these young men were forced to risk their lives in an unpopular war halfway around the world. They had to fight in jungles against unseen foes, enduring countless atrocities. It makes sense that one would do whatever possible to numb this horrific experience. But after being removed from that environment and returned to a safer place with love, community, and support, the need to numb and escape emotional and physical pain was no longer present. Heroin was therefore no longer necessary to survive. 

Here we can see how addictions are oftentimes survival mechanisms gone awry. Because most of us are never taught how to identify, label, and communicate our feelings, we tend to self-medicate through alcohol, drugs, work, fitness, food, sex, and technology. Addictions always serve a useful function and purpose for the individual at first. However, they end up causing more harm than good, hijacking our brains and causing us to become slaves to our desires. 

Another example of the significance of context in addiction has to do with countless surgeries and medical procedures that are performed each day in the U.S. As a pain reliever, receive diamorphine, which is basically medical-grade heroin, as well as other powerful sedatives and painkillers. If it were the drugs themselves that caused addiction because of their chemical hooks, we would see huge numbers of people coming out of hospitals addicted to them, but we don’t. Why? Because for the most part, these people are coming from normal homes where they are loved and supported by family and friends. There is no environmental reason for them to continue using the medications after the procedure is over. 

One of the most famous insights to indicate the powerful role of the environment in addiction were the Rat Park studies, performed by Dr. Bruce Alexander and his colleagues at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia in the late 1970s. Up until that time, scientists studied addiction in rats, giving the animals access to both regular and morphine-laced water. In almost every case, the rats chose to drink the drug-laced water, using it addictively until they died. Then Dr. Alexander came along and noticed an unforeseen variable in these studies. All of them confined the rats to small cages, without the ability to socialize and engage with other creatures. Alexander wondered what would happen if rats were placed in much larger cages with other rats. 

That was the beginning of Rat Park, which was roughly 200 times larger than the original cages. It contained a rich and stimulating environment with colored balls and wheels for the rats to play with, different foods for them to eat, and plenty of room for mating with other rats. The results were surprising. In Rat Park, hardly any of the rats used the drug-laced water. Those that continued to consume it did not exhibit the obsessive behavior that was perceived before, preferring to engage in their stimulating environment and socialize with their friends instead. All in all, the caged rats consumed 19x more drug-laced water than their Rat Park counterparts.6 Just as interesting was the fact that solitary, drug-addicted caged rats stopped using the drug-laced water in an addictive manner once they were moved to Rat Park. Dr. Alexander and his colleagues concluded that isolated cages caused an increase in drug use among the rats. 

More recent studies with rats indicate the powerful effect of social interaction on drug-addicted rats. One experiment examined rats that were given the opportunity to choose between two levers: one lent access to drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine, while the other opened the door to interact with a social peer. These rats had already cultivated addictions by self-administering heroin and meth‐ amphetamine for days before they were given this option. However, more than 90% of the time, they still opted to push the lever that provided access to their social peer. This behavior suggests the power that social interaction can have on organisms.7 

We can start to see a powerful picture emerging from these studies with animals. A healthy, enriching, and stimulating environment with ample social opportunities appears to protect against drug addiction or to help overcome an addiction one has already developed. We, as a society, must stop stigmatizing and judging people who develop addictions to alcohol and drugs. Instead, we must start looking at the environment we are creating for them, acknowledging that isolating and lonely contexts are the true gateways to addiction.