The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

[MoeMentim (OP)]

  This is a great article about the changing views on addiction.  while it's painfully slow to change societies views on this it is happening.  I believe it actually started nearly a hundred years ago with the AA 12 step model we all know of.  That's when we started to look at addiction as something other than a moral failure, namely a medical/physiological problem.  That was a great start & I have mad respect for the 12 step model, but it's not the final word.  As i said, changing society happens slowly.  This new view takes it a step further, that it's largely a societal problem more than a physiological one. 

  if you add up my adult years (im 46) as an active addict and my adult years in 12 step recovery they'd be about equal.  I credit AA with saving my life and with an enourmous amount of personal growth and overcoming, but i now think the mechanism of action isn't necessarily the steps themselves but the community that forms in the rooms.  It's a common and solid piece of advice that one get active & immerse themselves into the program, get a sponser, help others, etc...  This equates to one being pulled out of the isolation & really connecting with others & i now think that's actually the greater benefit. 

  Anyhow, check out this article, it explains it better than i can.  Also, to borrow a phrase straight from AA, if nobody's told you today that they love you, I do.  So there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

[Thoms]

For all intents and purposes I had a pretty happy life growing up. I am bipolar though and was raised to be paranoid about heaven and hell being raised in a Christian home. I suppose that is enough. Hell if I know. What's everyone else's experience. I wonder if they fed the rats heroin instead of coke if it would be different.

[FlorAtive]

Holy Christ Almighty. Thank you thank you thank you for posting this. Being in my first real trial of recovery in 10 years (I'm 27 as of 2 days ago), this is huge. Nobody, including myself has been able to put a finger on what caused my severe addiction with opiates. I had a wonderful childhood, a loving family and all the fixins'. I've had an emotionally immature girlfriend for 10 years, hot as hell, everybody wanted her and all that jazz... she is a twin too. My addiction began after our beginning of dating. I lost any potential of social life when she became controlling and convincing me that my select group of friends were the bad influence. This article just made me look at a few different things about my life from a totally different angle.. Things i was always aware of, but never truly CONSIDERED. I've always been the nerdy type.. the know it all, but didn't test well in school. I was the type to be on Jeopardy. I had plenty of friends from all the different crowds in and during school, but really none outside of school. I have a lot of reflecting to do thanks to this article and also currently being in the middle of an extended stay away from home with other family in the middle of nowhere America to try and get my recovery on the road. This is killer stuff. I'll be ordering that book first thing tomorrow.
54 days clean with 3 relapses of 20-40mg hydrocodone (was an IV heroin and fentanyl addict) and 1 failed attempt at a glass of poppy tea.. So really no relapses lol.