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.
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