What causes addiction?

Many people think that the addiction is one which is caused by over use drugs like heroin, cocaine and the chemicals present in it would cause us addict to the particular drugs. Johann Hari, the author of the book Chasing the Scream explains what is addiction in ted talks.

Professor Bruce Alexander

Alexander theory:

In 1970, Professor Bruce Alexander made a research on rats. He locked a small rat in the cage and place 2 water bottles in the cage. One bottle is filled with water and another one is filled with heroin. The rat drank heroin mixed water and it almost addicted to it. And finally, the rat died. 

Now, he made a rat park. He placed many rats in a particular place and kept all the things that rat likes and wants to play with. Now, he placed those two water bottles in the rat park. As like before, one is filled with water alone and another one bottle is filled with heroin and water. Now, most of the rats drank water and hardly some rats drank heroin. 

Rat park

Vietnam war Concept:

In the Vietnam war, over 20% of the Americans are addicted to cocaine, heroin and other drugs. After the end of the war, it may be feared that they would become severely addicted to drugs. Because, these drugs can be easily available in all streets of America. But, the 95% of the Americans who used to take drugs during war had never touched any drugs after the war (when they returned home). 

Causes of addiction:

If we are happy, we may bond with our friends, parents, neighbors and people around us. In the same case, if we are heartbroken or sad or frustrated, we would bond with something that gives us the sense of relief. (like the caged rat bonds with the heroin water). The temporary sense of relief includes not only consuming of drugs, it also includes checking of smart phones endlessly, watching porn videos or playing games. Overtime, we itself locked ourselves in the cage by hating the society. Then, we get addicted to these stuffs that gives us temporary happiness.

 Addiction is may be one of the symptom of disconnecting with the surroundings. We have to stay connected with our friends and family and our surrounding environment to lead a happy addiction free life. We have to build a society that looks lot like a rat park , lot less like isolated rat cages. Johann Hari concludes in his book by saying 

"the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection"

Johann Hari