Blog #43--Addiction Has Emotional Component
It has long been known that some substances produce addictive behavior in various species including humans. Heroin and cocaine, among other dangerous drugs, have taken countless lives and destroyed innumerable families due to their addictive qualities. Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine are more socially acceptable, but they are highly addictive for some people. Some fast food businesses have reportedly taken advantage of the addictive potential of combining additives within their bacon, cheese and meat to sell more burgers.
However, recent studies have raised questions about how much we really know about addiction. It has long been realized that rats living alone in a cage with a choice of two water bottles, one containing heroin or cocaine, will prefer the drug-laced water until death ensues. But Johann Hari’s recent report in the Huffington Post, entitled “The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and it is Not What You Think,” casts a new light on the problem.
Hari relates an experiment carried out by professor of psychology Bruce Alexander in the 1970s. Noting how other experiments used individual rats living alone, he wondered whether the same results would occur under different circumstances. He built an elaborate environment he called the “Rat Park.” A family of rats had colored balls, tunnels and top-notch rat food to satisfy their survival needs and curiosity while reducing boredom. They still had two bottles of water, but the drug-laced one was used less than a quarter of the time.
None of the rats died, unlike those who lived alone in a sparse, uninteresting environment. Hari realized that the Vietnam War served on a larger scale as a similar experiment for humans. Facing immense survival pressures in a foreign environment daily, heroin addiction became prevalent with about 20% of the US military personnel stationed there. But 95% of those addicted soldiers gave up the habit readily once they returned to the states and renewed a more peaceful, pleasant life.
I smoked for 32 years, so I know what it feels like to be addicted. But I noted an emotional component to my dependency once I began the process of stopping smoking. My child ego was emotionally dependent on having a cigarette during stressful times. It became a crutch upon which I could lean, something consistent I could rely upon in a pinch. I also noticed that my independent lifestyle made me search out inanimate friends in lieu of human ones. Cigarettes became my most consistently reliable friend.
I was encouraged to use St. John’s Wort herbs while stopping the habit, and it helped give me more self-confidence. With less depression, I was more capable of doing my daily tasks without need for my usual crutch. Having a caring family and conversations with our bookstore customers helped the process also. I had access to alternatives to nicotine, so letting go became much more manageable.
We can become addicted to gambling, sex, books and most everything else. The mechanism within the body is similar, but no dangerous chemical can be blamed. This is because we become emotionally dependent upon these activities and feel, no matter how irrational it may seem, that we must continue them. We need viable alternatives that can fulfill our needs without creating an emotional dependency.
Hari concludes that a person living in a negative environment without sufficient moral support is much more likely to become addicted than someone with a support group at his or her side. “So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection,” Hari states.
Our egos may like the idea of separating from others, but loneliness often leads to self-destructive behavior. As I state in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” everything and everyone is connected. Once we begin to embrace these connections, our loneliness subsides, and so does our need for an emotional or physical crutch.
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