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  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered and it's not what you think........

I saw a thing on Russel brands. Trews the other day about the rat experiment. very interesting..tgey change their environment and they don't want smack and coke anymore....hmmmm!!!
 
Yes, I've seen reports of this study before and it all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, when the 'bad' cage is your life and you have no prospects of ever being transferred to the 'good' cage, then addiction is a very real phenomenon.
 
Couple of minor quibbles aside (gambling and other "psychological addictions" affect brain receptors in near-identical ways as drugs which directly affect them) that's a great article which speaks a great deal of sense. It's always seemed fairly obvious to me that social, mental and emotional factors are by far the most relevant ones to addiction of any form. As FUBAR points out though, changing such things is gonna be one helluva big thing unfortunately :\
 
Perhaps it is one of those things. .. once the question is asked, the words in place, maybe it is easier to reframe things and break free from a vicious cycle...
 
englandgz74 said:
But knowing some of the reasons behind the problem can help us all move in the direction of change....however hard that may be for us as individuals
Click to expand...

I was meaning more in terms of wider societal change. I'm pretty sure most addicts are pretty sure that what is suggested in the article is most likely the case but addicts don't get much of a say in society what with us all being either pitiful victims or immoral wasters and that.
 
Oh right...i think though the nature of the study was changing ones personal circumstances in the micro scale is what helped (for the rats anyway) rather than needing to change the world we live in in the macro sense. It wasn't about the rats electing a new government I was about their immediate surroundings and personal relationships.

I don't what to put words in someone else's mouth but I think what fubar meant was that his personal circumstances were what he was finding difficult to change not societies
 
I think he was just saying that in general, if someones life is really bad, with literally no one who they love to turn too... then drug addiction is going to be alot harder for them to kick
 
Of course changing your circumstances isnt easy anyone would be stupid to think that it is...but the study pointed out that changing the rats circumstances had a profound effect on their want for drugs. While someone in a terrible situation obviously cant just jump up and move to a mansion surrounded by helpful stimulating people and change overnight there are small things that we all can do to make our own situation better in a way that may seem insignificant but can still help and small changes add up. I'm not just speaking off the top of me head...when I was 26 I was living on the streets of Newcastle..homeless, no money, home,family or friends so I know what a bad situation looks like but I got out of it and made a successful career in the end...was I easy? No...can everyone who is in that situation turn themselves around? No...but there's always something however small that you can change and that helps. Its not "pull yourself together son...sort yourself out"..its taking control of your own destiny a small step at a time
 
I also dragged myself out of homelessness and sleeping rough. Why was I in that situation in the first place? Cos as an unemplyed person I was only allowed to study for 16h per week and I actually studied 14h per week but somebody somewhere ticked the wrong box and my sole income and rent money was cut off with no way to respond cos that made me homeless overnight cos landlords have no reason to give a shit about tenants when there's so many desparate for housing cos there is no affordable housing. I was then promptly sacked from my part-time job because I had no home and was therefore not ideally rested and fit for work after trying to sleep on park benches and under bushes in the middle or winter. Faceless and uncaring. So much of the near-wasteland of the last quarter century of my life could have been avoided if there were safety nets in place. Real ones not just having scripts thrown at me until I had multiple addictions to juggle and nothing else left.
 
Yeah being on the streets is a cunt alright..my situation was different to that in that my mam died and my dad took the house and kicked me out. (I had lost my job just before that) I was "lucky" in that I already had some qualifications to help me get a job but not having an address made that impossible. I would sleep outside the housing office at night and went in every day for three months until they found me a bedsit...from there I managed to get a part time Job then a full time job then a flat and so on...society is shit and the government doesn't care but whatever the solution to that is its beyond me as its always been like that and always will.

You may well disagree but my philosophy has always been if you keep banging hour head against the wall long enough the wall will break (as long as your head doesn't break first..metaphorically and literally). Despite us both having known extreme hardship and then overcoming it with or without any help from anyone else I still think that everyone can do one small thing each day to help change their life....thats just my opinion and personal mantra....i dont try to push that on anyone else as we're all different
 
Whilst I (very nearly) agree I'd suggest that this is getting into the areas that are not covered in the article. Not specifically anyway. For a great many people there are also separate mental health issues on top of those suggested by the article. We don't really have much idea of what "the cause" (if it is even as simple as any one cause) of those are but much seems to also be related to societal problems - primarily issues affecting childhood like (somewhat ironically) addiction, abuse and neglect along with various other factors. There also appears to be a strong genetic link but I am of the opinion that much of that supposed genetic aspect may actually be down to epigenetics via the medium of one's parents also being given a shitty hand in life and back on through generations.

I do believe it is possible for some to overcome any and all adversities but I also know that is simply not the case for many and those people need help not villification, patronisation and blame which tends to be the standard responses historically. This is why I say that the type of changes required to make truly significant impact on addiction are societal not just individual. None of us are islands, but we could be happy and contented archipelegos if given the chance.
 
Right I've had a drink so bare with me.... my addiction is nothing in comparison to the things others have been through... I sinmply got addicted to. I simply became addicted to doing my exercise routine. Exercise meantl EVERYTHING to me.... It was the one thing I could control. I was always bullied, and mostly by the popular "good looking" lads, it set my insecurity against the opposite sex for a life time..... (apart from the Internet which I used as my security blanket...)

Enter Herniated disc (LS/S1 herniation) Oh yes it hurt like hell but it also gave me what I'd always wanted, a close relationship with my Mam. She has osteoporosis (which was unknown to me at the time and only because I had to Google it, as my Mam's an independent person - and wants nothing knowing...)
My mam was worried about me. I was prescribed ibuprofen at first 600mg... As I had no idea of what a slipped disc was I continued with my intensive, exercise, programmed called INSANITY (I actually. deserved the T-shirt I earned; how many others would endure 60 days of pure intense, plyometric exercise training with a slipped disc? I had unknowingly become addicted to my exercise training programme, I was scared of putting on weight, losing the only attractive I had ever I ever gained; of going back to that plain n ugly person who was so very often the target of a LOT of bullying)

I was fit but that phone came, my parents sat my down. He had down again, he had hurt someone,
him and his loved one,
It scared me so,
I ripped my diaries to bits, I was so frightened n low,
Thoughts whirling, anxiety mounting,
So tired of endless days counting,
Codeine to me was my salvation,
unknown to me it was the truly evil one

Enter codeine.... Enter opiates....

My complete salvation, my complete manipulation, my complete cover-up to what was an actually reality...
Believing that codeine was my only true friend I took more and more, believing I could never be, was never ever, happy with it, I took more and more,
I took 900mg per day costing most £500 from different online pharmacies, illegal ones,
Started to believe it was the ONLY thing that mattered; how could I EVER be happy without codeine?
Went on six recovery forums; got banned from them all, started wishing my parents were no longer here as they took my best friend; codeine, away from me.
They tried to make me stop by raiding my houses. I started resenting them.
I got myself on suboxone and have been there ever since....

I was put on 8 mg on 23 May 2012, went up to 12 mg as still obsessed n thought of codeine n alcohol....
Am now on 4 mg,
Am now finally off citalopram antidepressants since 30th December 2014

Sorry, it's nothing in comparison to what others whom have experienced addiction, have gone through, but that's my story (stuff has been omitted to protect other "little" people)

Evey
 
The biggest obstacle for me is that i just love gear and right now i am very fortunate to be able to carry on a 'normal' lifestyle - when i was in treatment they kept on asking why i needed drugs and i could only answer 'I dont need them i want them cos i love em' BUT why did i get a habit... cos i was in a bad place, lonely , sad, ,mad cravings, mini break down amung other things; now apart from depresion caused by the inhumanity of man against man in this world and the sincere belief that 'we' are headed for both a natural and manmade catastrophic future in my life time also gives me the 'what the fuck' attitude.
AH i dunno just ranting..
B
 
Blondin...you and shambles put you points across very eloquently and are obviously very intelligent men. With your own first hand experience of gear and your intellect and way of getting your point across, have you ever considered a job as a substance abuse councillor ? I think you'd both be very good at it ❤��
 
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