Understanding Addiction and Connection

Almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong. You get a rat, and you put it in a cage, and you give it two water bottles. One is just water, and the other is water laced with either heroin or cocaine. If you do that, the rat will almost always prefer the drug

water and almost always kill itself quite quickly. In the '70s, Professor Alexander comes along, and he looks at this experiment, and he noticed something. He said, "Ah, we're putting the rat in an empty cage. It's got nothing to do except use these drugs.

Let's try something a bit different." So Professor Alexander built a cage that he called Rat Park. They've got loads of cheese. They've got loads of colored balls. They've got loads of tunnels. Crucially, they've got loads of friends. But here's the fascinating thing.

In Rat Park, they don't like the drug water. You go from almost 100% overdose when they're isolated to 0% overdose when they have happy and connected lives. What if addiction isn't about your chemical hooks? What if addiction is about your cage?

What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment? Maybe we shouldn't even call it addiction. Maybe we should call it bonding. Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond, and when we're happy and healthy, we'll bond and connect with each other.

But if you can't do that because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief. Now, that might be gambling, that might be pornography, that might be

cocaine, that might be cannabis, but you will bond and connect with something because that's our nature. The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.