It was almost certain for me to write a blog on this topic after
reading ‘Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.’
Written by Johann Hari. I hope we do not break any copywrite laws here. But the
book portrayed a very interesting and realistically logical perception about
the word we all have heard of – ADDICTION.
Let’s say for example if someone will ask you how one gets
addicted to heroin, you will instantaneously respond with an obvious answer
that heroin is the cause of heroin addiction. Sound fair enough. Let us see how
it works.
If you take heroin injections for 20 days, by the 21st
day your body physically will yearn for the drug rapaciously as there are
chemical hooks in the drug. And this is what addiction is. Right? Well, that is
how we all know of what addiction is.
But what if I told you that everything about addiction is wrong.
Well that is what the book convinced me about. Well, this ain’t no marketing
campaign for that book as it is already a best-seller.
If you for example, break a bone, you’ll definitely will be
taken to the hospital. And there you will be given a hell lot of diamorphine
for weeks or even months. Diamorphine is nothing but heroin. Have you ever seen
anyone after a fracture getting addicted to heroin? And this heroin in fact is
way too much stronger than that you will find on street from the drug dealers
and peddlers as it isn’t contaminated by all the stuff drug dealers dilute it
with. Oh, now I understood. It is that contaminated heroin which is addictive.
No!
This thing has been studied very closely; it ain’t happen. Your relative did not became a heroin junkie after his/her knee replacement,
did he/she?
Why?
Well this was evaluated via a series of experiment conducted
earlier in the 20th century. The scientists would put a rat in a
cage with two water bottles – one with plain water and the other bottle with
water being contaminated by heroin or cocaine. Every time this experiment was
conducted the rat would become obsessed with the drugged water and would keep
coming back to drink the water to the point where it died.
Later in 1970, a Psychology Professor, Bruce Alexander, espied something
idiosyncratic about this experiment. The rat was solitary in its cage. It had
nothing to do but to take the drugs. He decided to do this experiment in a
different setting.
He built a Rat Park, which was a euphoric world for the rats. It
was a lush cage where the rats had coloured balls to play with tunnels to
scamper down and a lot of fellow rats to socialize to befriend with and their
they could have a lot of sex.
Basically, the Rat Park had every necessity and luxury a rat
could ever have wanted. And alike above it had the same two water bottles one
clean and the other drugged.
And this time the results were enthralling. The Rat Park’s rats hardly drunk
the drugged water (“Drunk the Drugged Water” I hope you saw what I did there),
none of them used it pathologically, none of them overdosed it nor did they
used it exuberantly. But it is the eccentricity of Rats, right?
Actually, there was also a human analysis of similar
characteristics – The Vietnam War. Around 20% American Soldiers involved in the
Vietnam War were consuming a lot of heroin. People in America were really
worried of the situation that once the war was over the States will be crawling
with a lot of Drug-addicts. The analysis of this followed the American Troops
to their homes when the war ended. The observation was rather beguiling than
expected. The soldiers neither went to rehabs nor did they went into heroin withdrawal.
95% of the Soldiers just did stopped consuming the drug after they were back
home from the war. Here the old theory which states repetitive consumption of a
drug causes its addiction does not simply holds up here and professor
Alexander’s observation seems a bit more logical here.
How?
If you are put in a ghastly wilderness, in an alien country,
where you do not want to be and you could be forced to extirpate or expire in a
jiff, Drugs definitely will be a great way to pass time; but if you get back to
your happy world to your family and friends it will just be like moving from
the cage to a human rat park.
I hope now things are a bit clearer at this point. It is not the
chemical hooks which causes addiction but it is your cage. Let’s give addiction
a new perception.
Human Beings have an intuitive need to bond and connect. When we
are beatific and up to snuff, we bond with folks around us. But when we are
unable to do so because we are traumatized, secluded or hammered down by life,
we will bond with something which will grant us some sense of relief, may it be
period. It can be checking your phone multitudinous times, or pornography,
video games, reddit, gambling, or maybe drugs. But we will bond with something
because its human nature. The only way out of bad bonds is to form good bonds,
to bond with people you want to be present with. Addiction is just a single
manifestation of crisis of disconnection which is currently happening all
around us. We all perceive it.
Since 1950s, the average number of friends an individual has is
rapidly declining. On the contrary, the floor spaces in homes are rapidly
increasing. Choosing floor space above friends and choosing substances over
connections.
The War on Drugs we all been battling since almost a century now
has even worsened the situation. We have not been helping people heal and
getting their life together rather we cast them out of the society. We have
made it more difficult for them to get jobs and become stable, we retracted
support and benefits if we caught someone with drugs. Hell, we lock them up in
prisons which exactly a cage. All we did was making them feel worse for not
recovering.
Here is the problem. Since ages we only talk about individual
recovery from addiction. But what we need to really solve the problem is Social
Recovery as we all went somewhere wrong in a group as a whole. There is a need
of a society which is more like a Rat Park and less like the Cage. We need to
talk, rediscover each other. Antonym of Addiction is not sobriety but
connection.
This post was written by:
Adarsh Narsaria is a content marketing professional , a Digital Artist and Professional Audio - Video Editor who helps companies attract visitors by making appealing promotional media, video advertisements and custom branded stationery. Previously, Adarsh worked as a marketing consultant in a Talent Acquisition Startup Business. He is currently doing his graduation.
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