Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari | TED

This is my favourite addiction talk. Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari [VIDEO]

I'm going to chip in here as I feel I'm qualified to do so as a recovering hard drug addict (clean almost a year). Addiction like most human conditions is complex, to debate this article it helps to have a clearer understanding of what causes addiction. I'm going to state my beliefs as truth, they are after all my truth. Addiction comes in many shapes, substance misuse, alcoholism, food addiction, porn addiction, consumerism and gambling to name some. They are not caused by the substance (or object etc) per se, i will paraphrase from a talk i will link to, if your grandma breaks her hip and is given medical quality opiates to relive her pain, she doesn't suddenly become a junkie. Addiction is borne from the inate human desire to form relationships. If we cannot form relationships with people (because we are socially isolated, homeless and have no one to turn to, have issues that no one else understands for example) some people will substitute those relationship with people for relationships with "stuff". You may recognise in yourself that you do this with technology. For some people the bonds they form are with more destructive thinks that $400 juice machines or the latest apple product, they are with substances that provide temporary feelings of acceptance but simultaneously corrode your very human-ness. It's not strictly correct to say that one drug leads to another; shit, disconnected lives lead to substance abuse (rich and famous people can be isolated too) it's also not

Reminds me of this TED talk: [VIDEO] "Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong" , where he asserts that addiction isn't caused by the things we typically correlate with it. I was going to try to summarize, but I don't think I can do it justice. Its not long. > I think people drink and drug for a reason. We just mostly don't bother to try to figure out what the reason is for this specific person Absolutely. This is totally in line with what that guy says in the video too. One thing he says: "The opposite of addiction is connection." I know that personally, when I have problems that I struggle with and don't feel like anyone in my life can help me with or talk to about them (sadly has happened once or twice in my life), I have a tendency to binge, with anything that provides a brief escape, be it alcohol, drugs, video games, TV series', chocolate. Of course, its never been too bad, severe or long lasting for me, so it hasn't been too much of a problem and I wouldn't claim it comes close to what an alcoholic or heroin addict goes through, but I can at least see how someone might slip into such things, as a distraction from reality. And its usually coupled with a feeling of isolation and loneliness, feeling like you're alone with problems you don't know how to solve. So you hide from them instead. That's the impression I got after thinking about my past situations at least.

There are much more plausible explanations, like the one Johann Hari gives: [VIDEO] or in plenty more detail, in his book on the topic.

If you are open to questioning the “junkies” and their “choice to be so” stereotype, you may find this TED talk useful. [VIDEO] Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari

Not just racial disparities. Women make up slightly more than half the population. Even if we just limit our scope to white men, I don't see much argument for the idea that white men have it nominally worse off today than they had it 50-80 years ago. I only see that they are not as far ahead of women and racial minorities as they were 50-80 years ago. And 70 years ago was the end of WWII. I assume it was an accident to include that in your range. Regarding the explosion of "disease of dispair", suicide, drug use, etc. I do acknowledge that but I don't see how it's related to the OP. The OP appeared to be talking about relative wealth as being socially disruptive. Let's run a thought experiment there. If we could magically decimate the wealth of everyone with over $1 Billion, without changing anything else, do you believe the "diseases of despair" situation would improve? I personally do not believe it would. My personal belief on that issue is that we've gained one kind of social safety net but lost another. There's seemingly countless ways in which the government offers programs to help people avoid certain kinds of suffering: unemployment insurance, medical care for the poor, disability insurance, social security, etc. But somehow we've managed to lose the other kind of social safety net... strong social ties to the community. I believe this latter thing is the root cause of the disease of despair, and I don't believe any check cut by the government, or any tax program that

I had a teenage diagnosis. I went off it because of the same drunken-misinformation and stigma. 5 year dark age. Went back on it, I was suddenly MUCH more able to build the SLEEP, DIET, EXERCISE loop I need. Going back on my meds, after educating myself properly about them, was one of the best decisions of my life. ADHD prescriptions are the first line of defense. This is simply a fact of medical science. Executive Function disparity is the result of a chemical imbalance. Receptors for dopamine and Norepinephrine in the ADHD brain are oversized, which ADHD medications correct. [LINK] I was spreading misinformation about the "drugs", when truly they are the proper accommodation and treatment. They are not "meth", they are a therapeutic dose which do not directly stimulate but rather correct a hormonal and neurological imbalance which I require to maintain my executive function and the Sleep, Diet and Exercise which all together healthy accommodate my needs. Your self-determination is your own and I so I only ask that 1) Inform yourself, don't take your uncle's word on it. 2) I implore that you reconsider spreading the harmful idea that ADHD pills are bad, which can only make us ALL worse off. Separate, but just as important: Drug User stigma is also terrible. The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is Connection. Healthy Bonds. ( [VIDEO] ) Written with sincerity, and frankly, tears in my eyes. It's a topic I've got a lifetime of experience with, an