Dr. Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT
In an increasingly well-known TED Talk titled Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong, British journalist Johann Hari discusses the available research into the underlying causes of addiction and concludes, rather brilliantly, that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection. His statement echoes a theme that I and many 21st century addiction specialists have espoused for years—that addiction is not about the pleasurable effects of certain substances and behaviors, it’s about the user’s inability to connect in healthy ways with other human beings. In other words, addiction is not a substance or behavioral disorder, it’s a social disorder.
This, of course, is contrary to what most folks believe about substance abuse and other forms of addiction. In general, people think that the pleasurable effects of alcohol, cocaine, heroin, porn, gambling, spending, and the like are the primary drivers of addiction. And why not? We know for certain that these substances and behaviors trigger the release of dopamine and other pleasure-related neurochemicals into the brain. In other words, potentially addictive substances and behaviors do make us feel good, and because we like to feel good, we tend to go back for more. Hence, the human propensity for addiction. Or so it seems at first glance. Bolstering this belief is the fact that most of the early research and theories on the root causes of addiction centered on the brain’s pleasure response—primarily the dopamine rush. Even the National Institute on Drug Abuse initially espoused this view.
However, this long-held belief is incorrect. If it wasn’t, then everybody who ever took a sip of alcohol would become a raging drunk, everyone who ever ingested an opiate (even via prescription) would end up in a back alley shooting heroin, and everyone who ever looked at porn would be calling Seeking Integrity for help. But that isn’t even close to what happens. Only about 10 percent of the people who try a potentially addictive substance or behavior eventually become addicted. The rest of the people either walk away completely or enjoy the substance/behavior only casually (i.e., recreationally).
The Rat Park
Given the above, one wonders what is really going on with addiction. Obviously, there is more to the equation than just the dopamine pleasure response. Admittedly, the experience of pleasure does play some role, mostly by opening the doorway to addiction. But it is nevertheless clear, based on the fact that most people do not become addicts, that over time a person’s initial experience of pleasure is not what causes them to return to an addictive substance or behavior again and again, compulsively and to their detriment.
This is a conundrum that scientists began to explore in the late-1970s and early-1980s. Most notably, Canadian psychologist Bruce Alexander looked at the results of studies in which rats were placed in empty cages, alone, with two water bottles to choose from—one with pure water, the other with heroin or cocaine-infused water. Those experiments showed that, as time passed, the rats would uniformly get hooked on and eventually overdose from the drugged water. Researchers unsurprisingly concluded that the potential of extreme pleasure, in and of itself, causes addiction. Case closed, right?
Not for Alexander. He was bothered by the fact that the cages in which the rats were placed for study were small, with no potential for stimulation beyond the drugged water. Alexander thought, Of course they all get high. What else are they supposed to do?
In response to this perceived shortcoming, Alexander created what we now call The Rat Park, a cage approximately 200 times larger than the typical isolation cage, with Hamster wheels and multi-colored balls to play with, plenty of tasty food to eat, and spaces for mating and raising litters. And he put not one rat, but 20 rats (of both genders) into the cage.
Then, and only then, did Alexander mirror the old experiments, offering one bottle of pure water and one bottle of drugged water. And guess what? The rats ignored the drugged water. They were much more interested in typical communal rat activities such as playing, fighting, eating, and mating. Basically, with a little bit of social stimulation and connection, addiction disappeared. Even rats who’d previously been isolated and sucking on the drugged water left it alone after they were introduced to The Rat Park.
Interestingly, both Alcoholics Anonymous and the addiction treatment community as a whole realized that connection was a key to recovery long before Alexander’s rat park experiment. In fact, the often parallel work of formalized addiction treatment and 12-step recovery programs primarily involves connecting the addict to other people.
That said, developing healthy interpersonal connections as a part of recovery and healing is not easy. It takes time, effort, and a willing support network. The good news is that we know for certain that this type of recovery and social connection is possible—even for the most problematic of addicts.
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If you or a loved one are struggling with sex, porn, or substance/sex addiction, Seeking Integrity can help. In addition to residential rehab, we offer low-cost online workgroups for male sex addicts and male porn addicts new to recovery. Click HERE for information on our Sex Addiction Workgroup. Click HERE for information on our Porn Addiction workgroup.