A hundred years ago, drugs were banned for the first time, throughout this century of war on drugs, our teachers and government officials have told us a story of drug addiction, this story is so ingrained in our minds that we already consider it a fact. That seems obvious, clearly correct.
However, the American Chemical Society has invaded this landscape by changing the rules of the game by claiming that drug addiction, alcohol or any other destructive habit is not the result of a “personal defect” but a natural consequence of brain chemistry.
- Several experiments have shown.
- In many situations.
- That what really causes addiction is the need for dopamine.
- A chemical responsible for the “happiness level” (Newcombe.
- 2016).
Drugs are treated by a part of the brain called the ventral tegmental zone, commonly known as a reward center, which is exactly where the brain processes everything that makes a person feel good.
In addition, this is where dopamine is produced, the neurotransmitter that provides the feeling of pleasure, according to The Washington Post.
A cocaine addict, for example, is addicted to this substance because he has not been able to establish a bond with anything else up to that point, so the opposite of dependence is not sobriety, it is the human connection.
“Addiction can be a disease of the mind” – Osamu Dazai-
The substances, in themselves, do not give us a good feeling, this is due to the signals that our brain and the rest of the body receive that we must pay attention to the action we perform (use drugs or hug a relative) and associate. her with good feelings awakened.
Some medications may increase dopamine levels up to ten times more than normal.
In this way, the brain adapts to dopamine overload by reducing its number of chemical receptors, meaning that an addict may end up needing more and more stimulants to maintain the same level the first time it consumed the substance.
On the other hand, the British writer Johann Hari has gathered a lot of evidence that people who “live in a happy environment”, that is, when the brain produces sufficient amounts of dopamine in daily life, are not as likely to develop an addiction. (Swanson, 2015).
“Addiction does not negotiate, and gradually spreads in me like fog. -Eric Clapton-
Hari quotes Vancouver University psychology professor Bruce Alexander, who argues that “addiction is an adaptation” medium and similar to one?Cage? (Alexander, 2010).
In one of his experiments, she discovered a strange fact: rats used cocaine water to death when they were alone in their cages and had nothing to do but use drugs.
What would happen, he wondered, if we tried to carry out the experiment differently?Then the teacher built a mouse park (Rat Park), it was a fun cage, in which rats had colorful balls, the best rat food. , tunnels for walking and many friends. Everything a mouse could want.
At the rat park, everyone tried two bottles of water because they didn’t know what they contained, but what happened was amazing. Rats who had a good life didn’t like medicated water.
In general, they avoided drinking it and consumed less than a quarter of the medications taken by isolated mice, none of them died. Meanwhile, rats who were alone and unhappy became addicted, which did not happen with any of the mice living in a happy environment.
At first, scientists thought this was just a peculiarity of mice, until they discovered that, at the same time, an equivalent experiment was taking place with humans, their name was the Vietnam War.
Time magazine reported that heroin use was as common as chewing gum among American soldiers. There is clear evidence to support this claim: 20% of soldiers developed heroin addiction during the war, according to a study published in Archives of General Psychiatry.
However, 95% of the soldiers who became addicted quit drugs. Very few have been rehabilitated, they went from a terrible cage to a nice place, so they no longer wanted drugs.
Professor Alexander argues that this discovery is a great tact challenge for classical vision, which holds that addiction is a moral failure due to hedonistic excesses as well as liberal vision, which sees it as a disease that occurs in a chemically kidnapped brain. .
In fact, he argues that addiction is an adaptation. You’re not the problem. It’s your cage.