I’ve had a few clients mention, almost in passing, that they have an addictive personality and whenever I hear that, I’m reminded of an American psychologist by the name of Dr Bruce Alexander who conducted experiments on addiction in rats, way back in the 70’s.
What he did was he created two water feeds for some caged lab rats, one was plain water, and the other was dosed with cocaine. After a short while the rats that were given the option of the cocaine took it exclusively even as they grew sick and died.
If he had left this disturbing experiment alone at that point, we would have been unsurprised at the result. Cocaine is bad and addictive and this pointless experiment proved it.
However, the doctor did not stop at that point. Instead, he created what he called the “Rat Park”.
The Rat Park was a ratty utopia, lots of exercise equipment, interesting foods, safe spaces and, most importantly, other rats!
You see, rats, like people are very social creatures by nature. They thrive in company.
Into the idyllic environment he introduced the same two water feeds, one plain water and one laced with cocaine.
The results did not match the previous experiment at all.
The rats, by and large, wanted nothing to do with the drugged water.
The experiments suggest that addiction is the result of boredom, isolation, and misery, at least in the case of rats.
That matches what I have found in my practice with people though. People who have described themselves as having addictive personalities to me seem to be unhappy with themselves, stressed out by the world and isolated from the people around them.
In society there seem to be two lines of thought about addiction. There is the right-wing theory that addicts are weak and suffer from some sort of moral inadequacy like being a hedonist or some sort of degenerate.
Then there is the left-wing belief that addicts have been hijacked and their brains held prisoner by whatever their drug of choice may be.
What I find interesting about the Rat Park experiment is that it doesn’t seem to be your morality or your brain that turns you into an addict.
Addiction would appear to be largely driven by your environment and the world that many of us have found ourselves in has left us isolated and unhappy chasing a hyper-individualist dream that revolves around money and prestige.
I wouldn’t dream of making light of the struggles that people can find with addiction or make light of the very real problems quitting can bring, both physically and mentally. I’m just suggesting that sometimes people find themselves looking in the wrong places for answers.
Willpower is rarely the solution.
The opposite of addiction isn’t sobering up or going cold turkey. It’s making strong social connections with people, being stimulated and finding joy.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
