The Science of Addiction

The Science of Addiction

Hey everyone, 

            I'm back with a rather cool and an interesting topic which is addiction and the science behind it. Now-a-days people are addicted to all sorts of things from gadgets, smartphones, drugs the internet and so on.I myself is addicted to my mobile phone i check it nearly 100 times a day. Now, what causes this addiction why this generation youths(mainly) are getting addicted to so many things and damaging their lives.

What is Addiction?

Some things we do usually feel good and are related to our continued survival. For example eating, sex etc,. but some things which aren't much good for us like drugs and staying online or playing video games way too much can also give us the the same feeling and leads to addiction..
Inside our brain there is a reward pathway that is located in our limbic system(the area responsible for emotions and the formation of memories) and as the name says it rewards us for certain actions like eating etc., A neurotransmitter called dopamine is released making us pay attention to what we are doing and repeat that action again in the future. You may think this must be good like when your brain saying you're having a great hamburger and you should do this more often but you can see where this might go wrong. Yes, the same thing can happen for drugs, video games, mobile phones.

But what if i say all the thing we know about addiction is wrong!(ya u spelled it right)

Now allow me to start with an example,say for example you broke your bone(I hope it doesn't happen lol) and you're admitted in a hospital. You'll be given loads of diamorphine for weeks or even months depending upon the severity. Diamorphine is the purest form of heroine. It is in fact the strongest addict than street heroine because it is not contaminated by all the stuff drug dealers dilute it with. There are lots of people right now who are in hospitals and are given loads of heroine. There may be a question which may arise that at least some of them would have been addict. But the answer is No it doesn't happen. For instance, your grandmother wasn't turned into a junkie after her hip replacement.

Experiments on addiction:

Scientists have been studying about addiction for a very long time and have conducted several experiments regarding it. One such experiment carried out in the 20th century is very simple. You take a rat and place it in a cage and have two bottles of which one is water and one is water laced with heroine or cocaine. Everytime you do this experiment the rat becomes more and more obsessed with the drugged water and it keeps coming for more until it kills itself. But in 1970's Bruce Alexander(Professor of Physchology) found something odd about this experiment, he thought as the rat was alone and has nothing else to do other than to take drugs. So he built a rat park(basically heaven for rats) which gave rats balls to play with, rat friends to hangout and everything a rat could dream of and conducted this same experiment. The results where quite astonishing in rat park rats hardly used the drugged water none of them ever used it compulsively, none of them overdose,you may think this scenario cannot be compared with humans. but

Vietnam war 

Helpfully there was a human experiment along the same lines. The Vietnam war where 20% of the troops were using a lot of heroin their families were really scared of this,but as soon as they returned home 95% of them quit  immediately without having to go to rehab or withdrawal. If you believe the old theory of addiction that makes no sense but if you believe Prof. Alexandar's theory it makes perfect sense. If you're being put in a place where you don't want to be and can be killed any time(war) heroin is a perfect way to spend your time but if you were taken to be with your nice home  and families it is the opposite of being in that cage. It will be like a human rat park.

"IT'S NOT THE CHEMICALS,IT'S YOUR CAGE"

Science behind Addiction:

We need to think about addiction differently.Humans have a extreme need to bond and connect, when we are happy and healthy we bond with people around us and when we are not because we are isolated, depressed, traumatized and beaten down by life we tend to bond with some thing that gives us some sense of relief. It might be endlessly checking your smartphone, excessive video games, gambling, pornography, facebook or it might be cocaine but we will bond with something because that is our nature. The path out of unhealthy bond is form healthy bonds by connecting to people you want to be with.

Addiction is just a symptom of the crisis disconnection that is happening all around us. We all feel it. The average no. of friends a person have has been gradually declining over the last century we choose big houses over people and stuffs over connection. We abandon people who have addiction problem instead of helping them and throw them in prison, which is basically a cage.

For so long, we have talked about only individual recovery from addiction but what we need is social recovery(something has gone wrong with us as a group).

We need to build a society which is lot more like a rat park and not as like those abandoned cages. We need to rediscover ourself and connect with people.

    " The opposite of addiction is connection. "

so the next time you feel like your compulsively into something talk about it to people and try to have healthy bond with people around you It really helps.

Fact Flash:

 Did you know that 40% of the population is addicted to mobile phones and most people can't even survive a day without their mobile phones. They the tend to forget how the real world works. Most smartphone users check their phones 110 times/day, while the more addicted checks their smartphones about 900 times/day. Smart phone addictions can result in OCD(obsessive compulsive disorder) and depressions.

So next time go to beach or play some sport than checking on your smartphone all day.

I guess this blog was helpful in understanding the science behind addiction. If you have any doubts regarding the concepts explained feel free to leave a comment..!

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.....................Keep Calm and Love Science...................