Addiction is a problem that affects more and more people, however, the dependence that comes with its use may not be directly related to drugs, but to other processes, today we will understand why we are not addicted to drugs, but what they cause.
To begin with, it is important to focus our attention on one of the countless experiments conducted with lab mice, which has provided us with a lot of important information.
What we are going to expose next happened in the 1980s and its results were quite revealing.
The experiment consisted of placing a rat in a cage. Inside the cage were two bottles: one contained pure water and the other contained water containing cocaine or diluted heroin.
Whatever mouse was used, the result was always the same, the rat became addicted to the water containing the drug and consumed it until it finally died, which unfortunately is behavior that we can observe in many addicted humans.
But do we lose an important detail? The rat is alone in the cage. What if he had more mice around him?That was the next step in the experiment.
A small cage containing a small mouse park was created, in this cage there was food, colorful balls and everything you needed for your pleasure What was the result in this case?
Many rats did not drink the water containing the drug, and those who drank it moderately, in this way, although all experiments in isolated mice ended up causing their death from overdose, this did not happen in the case of groups with access to the park.
One thing became very clear after this experience: rats isolated from others and found in a poor environment in stimuli tended to become addicted and, as a result, test their own lives by not knowing how to moderate their drug use.
The same goes for people. Addiction is not directly related to them, but to what they generate.
“Addiction is caused by a feeling of disconnection with the addict. Isn’t it the drugs, it’s your cage, your surroundings?-Johann Hari-
When we become oussed from others, voluntarily or not, our brain begins to produce less myelin, causing changes in cognitive and emotional behavior that can lead to depression, anxiety or fear.
With this we feel bad, because as people we have to connect with others, we are very social beings.
When this does not happen and we are isolated for different reasons, we can become addicted much more easily, the reason is that drugs increase the secretion of dopamine, a substance that generates well-being.
In addition, the effects of drugs numb our brains, prevent us from thinking, cause disinhibition and allow us, for a moment, to move away from anything that causes pain, that is, drugs act as a form of avoidance.
Despite everything we have explained about why we are not addicted to these substances, but about their cause, we should mention one important aspect of addiction: family history.
If our parents are addicted to drugs or have a harmful relationship in which they are always on the verge of divorce, we may feel displaced, ignored and isolated as children.
As we now know, it is an exceptional breeding ground to take refuge from drugs, because our real life environment is not a cage full of friends like the one in experience, it is likely that this environment is more like the rat cage that was alone.
Many people, after using cocaine, heroin or any other substance, feel guilty for promising not to fall into the trap again, what they do not know is that they are not addicted to substances, they are addicted to the sensation generated by the substances. The question is, why do people want to feel that way?
Anything that might affect us emotionally can cause us to look at drugs for another way of feeling.
If, moreover, we are surrounded by people who also consume these substances because of problems and difficult situations that have made them isolated and unhappy, it ends up becoming a cycle from which it is difficult to get out.
If addiction is not to blame for substances, then why are people addicted to their mobile phones or video games?The reason for our dependence is not in the background, but in what they make us feel and in the possibility of moving away, even for a while. moment, of all that we have to solve.
In the end, our addictions are nothing more than an exhaust valve, however, the problem will still exist until we take a different approach to solving it.