Drug Addiction Is a Learning Disorder, says Maia Szalavitz | Big Think
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Drug Addiction Is a Learning Disorder,
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Author and neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz says that your brain doesn't necessarily choose to become addicted to gambling. Rather, it just really wants to figure out a pattern. This 'want' doesn't need any foreign chemicals in order to make it work. In the mind of a serious gambler, their brain wants to find order in the game's structure so bad that it will keep the person playing, telling itself that it will figure it out and that it's just one step away from becoming rich. This doesn't happen to everyone - on the contrary, addictive gamblers are a small yet potent percentage of all gamblers - but their brains mimic that of a severe drug addict trying to get their next fix. Maia's latest book is Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.
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MAIA SZALAVITZ:
Maia Szalavitz is widely viewed as one of the premier American journalists covering addiction and drugs. A neuroscience writer for TIME.com and a former cocaine and heroin addict, she understands the science and its personal dimensions in a way that few others can. is the first book-length exposé of the "tough love" business that dominates addiction treatment. Her newest book is Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Maia Szalavitz: Addiction is: compulsive behavior despite negative consequences.
And it's really important to start by defining addiction because for a long time we really defined it very poorly.
We used to think that addiction was “needing a substance to function”.
And what that resulted in was that cocaine was “not addictive” because cocaine does not produce physical withdrawal that is noticeable. You may be cranky and irritable and crave cocaine, but you won't be puking and shaking and have the classic symptoms that you would see with alcohol or heroin withdrawal. So cocaine wasn't addictive.
Then crack came, and we realized that defining addiction in that way not only harms people by telling them that cocaine is not addictive, it also harmed pain patients because people who take opioids daily for pain will develop physical dependence, but they are not addicted unless they have compulsive behavior despite negative consequences.
To me, non-drug addictions are really, really interesting because some people have argued that drugs are addictive because they change the brain and that addiction results from unique pathology related to the particular chemicals of the drugs.
It is certainly the case that the chemistry matters, but addiction can occur completely without any external chemicals.
And the reason that that happens is that addiction is not simply exposure to a substance, addiction is a pattern of behavior, and certain patterns of experience are inherently addictive.
And gambling is a good example of this because what gambling does is it gives you intermittent reinforcement. And so every unpredictable amount of times, you win.
And this is a puzzle to our pattern-seeking brains, and we keep thinking we're going to find a pattern and it's going to sort out and we're going to understand it, and we're going to get rich. Or we find that sort of the constant immersion in these ideas that allow you to escape: “Well I've got to do-this is going to soothe you and allow you to escape from your life,” and stuff like this.
I think gambling is also really interesting because we've had an enormous explosion in the availability of gambling, but we have not had an enormous explosion of gambling addictions. ‘
And again, this is because the population rate- there's only a certain percent of people who will be vulnerable.
Now, you can make more of those people by traumatizing them and taking away their economic ways of living, but you can't create them by providing more substances or more addictive opportunities.
My problem is that opiate withdrawal makes you feel like shit, for MONTHS, even years. Post acute withdrawal syndrome. It's not just cognitive. Your brain does not produce enough endorphins to get pleasure from anything else. You can't concentrate or sit still. You lose the will to do anything except avoid more pain. I can't find anything that holds my attention or is rewarding. It has been 7 months. The depression is so bad that I can't get out of bed sometimes. I ride my bike for exercise to try and get out of the slump, and the "rush" works for about 30 minutes, but then I am back to where I started. I don't know what to do.
There is a good channel on here (UA-cam) called calm support.com, Ive found the advice useful. Its not my channel.
ride more
The longer you stay in recovery the more your brain will heal. You will eventually get to a point where you can enjoy things more than you could while not in recovery.
Might be that the opiates ruined your reward system for a time, but it's already free of their effects. However the problems that caused the addiction could still be out there and they are causing the deppresion. I remember the times when I was younger and I had deppresion episodes so that I couldn't even get out of bed, because I had no reason to do so. No matter how hard I tried to enjoy something I just felt nothing, even when I exercised. Luckly, few years ago I started getting better to the point where I was almost free of those episodes. And around 9 months ago I got into opiates and other substances (1-2 times a week). I don't think I ever got addicted, even though the craving for them was strong and sometimes I was counting days between doses as I tried not to get into binges. However, I was usually enjoing myself even if I wasn't taking anything. I think it is so because my problems weren't crushing me like before and I just needed to relax and get a breath from time to time.
I know this got into quite lengthy comment and I might sound arogant, as if I knew everything about those problems, but I just wanted to show my point of view as it (anecdotaly) proves the statement of the video.
I had similar and no opiates involved (although the reward system well and truly messed-up in my brain, believe it!) I have been feeling like crap recently. I ride, and I feel a LOT better. Ride more. Ride HARD, really push those endorphins (requires pain from muscles). Ride somewhere spiritually-fulfilling with clean air - or at least sunny, for the Vitamin D and serotonin creation. Apparently the brain even produces its own natural cannabinoids when you exercise hard enough. Also read Duff McKagan's book. His pancreas exploded. He was an alcoholic as well as all sorts of other substances with problem use (opiates included). A few kind people, and lots of *riding his bicycle* saved him. The good thing about bicycles is, when in good working order, they're up to 90% energy-efficient. Meaning they're a very good way to get out what effort you put in, and immediately, directly. This is great for reprogramming the brain's reward system, or at least the psychological side of it. Find the biggest hills you can and conquer them. It works.
wow, an actually pretty good bigthink video, I was missing these
I'm struggling with alcohol addiction, so this was really comforting for me. This lady is going somewhere.
+Hannah I strugged 5 years strait going back and forth. Nobody thought I would make it but I assured them I was always learning more new things from my mistaakes! Eventially I made it out and im living more fully now. Good luck to you its possible
Ray Ali I sure as hell have made my fair share of mistakes. And thanks for the concerns, it helps knowing that I'm not the only one.
Fantastic! Finally. The most useful explanation of addiction. Learned helplessness is the biggest problem with current treatment for people who struggle with pleasure seeking through compulsive behavior. When people are constantly told they have a disease, which is irrational, it takes away the need to change. Addiction is learned and it can be unlearned. The brain is either a prison, or a frontier.
Amen
Great video. I completely agree. It's really hard to get people to rethink addiction. It's a complex topic with no simple answers.
I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter. - Steven Wright
You're not funny. Please try to understand addiction, and please don't mock those that are going through addiction with silly, trivial, trite comments.
Caroline young
1) I do not claim to be funny.
2) I'm actually pretty familiar with addiction.
3) I didn't mock anyone.
I think you're being slightly oversensitive.
Love it! Too bad that some people are so hyper-sensitive.
capitalist4life If you’ve ever happened to gone through a traumatic situation dealing with addiction, you’d be a little more compassionate, and realize that can be a trigger.
Even though you post this 5 years ago I think this is funny! 🤣🤣🤣 thanks.
People need to learn to relax and not be so serious, even when dealing with serious matters. Being so black and white makes for a SUPER boring life! 🥱
Just drop the mic after "the future of drugs is better drugs." Nuff said!
What she is discussing about dependence vs. addiction, is what i have always called physical addiction vs. psychological addiction. I thought this was already understood in the general population? Heroin may be physically addictive, while crack-cocaine is psychologically addictive. Of course there can be a combined effect. A heroin addict who has successfully detoxed, is no longer physically dependant can still suffer a psychological addiction that can lead to a relapse years down the road.
I was addicted to soap, but im clean now
Brilliant! She is right on mark!
Bad choices are BAD Choices... no matter how you want to spin it.
What makes something a bad choice.what if everybody around you is doing it and having positive experiances.putting your hand in fire is clearly a bad choice you learn that because you see or experiance the immediate pain so most people wont make that choice.but when you see people all around you having positive experiances you get curios how could that be a bad choice
Too fucking right. I have a VERY strong reaction to Oxytocin, the love HORMONE. Feels like the best drug (same for everyone, really). My problem is I've had such an abusive childhood and often adulthood that it's like going SKY HIGH to get any little bit of love or whatever. So I freak out and lose my shit, and it's very similar to drug addiction / drug reaction (psychosis, even!) and I've conquered a couple of addictions, so for me to say it's bad, means something... My only conclusion is that people need to be allowed to love without fear - and taught self-defence and spiritual pride alongside each other (like your typical spiritual martial arts paradigm). Our pathetic materialist culture is the opposite of that and is bullshit.
Sadly, with me, I gotta smoke weed to be a productive member of society because I'm surrounded by people oblivious to the world/reality around them and being around all these people who aren't confident and who don't love themselves and only look toward assimilation for acceptance is FUCKING DEPRESSING.
Filling your lungs with poison and your brain with temporary happiness won't make those fuckers disappear. More like they won by making you hurt yourself just to deal with them
And yet you aren't even strong enough to get through the day without drugs? glass houses bro, glass houses.
Whatever you need to tell yourself... Not saying that smoking on occasion would be harmful, but feeling like you need to smoke to be able to handle the world is not healthy
@chestbuster1987
You're right, they won, cause you can't win with them because all they do is blame the victim instead of trying to understand their situation because it's "too depressing".
You're essentially saying "you're sensitive" and you're acknowledging that the person is sensitive but you don't bother to care why or what's making that particular person feel that way.
Sooo, statements like this are the cause of why people do drugs because you're marginalizing someone without trying to understand or help their situation.
"Suck it up" That's all I been doing.
She says: "People are always going to want to alter their consciousness..."
She should have been more clear and said: " SOME people are always going to want to alter their consciousness..."
In addition: Just because SOME people will always want to alter their consciousness doesn't mean it need be through the use of drugs or consumption of anything. Meditation, fasting, and other practices have been known to greatly alter consciousness as well.
Yes , but in this video its about drugs , so don't get out of topic OK ?
youschtube YOU SAID:
It should be known that she meant some people..."
REPLY: No it doesn't. She most certainly could have been talking about it as an innate propensity of "humans as a species." Such classifications often exist in sociology, psychology, and philosophy.
It is all, "Compulsive behavior despite negative consequences." Even caffeine falls into this category. I would drink soda in my sleep. The compulsion can be the consequence.
I like the Szalavitz’s explanation of the process of addressing an existing addiction:
-Identifying the survival crisis
-Figuring out why you are using drugs to fix the problem (“What purpose is the addiction serving?” ~Szalavitz)
AND
-Eliminating the need for drugs, in solving the problem. (Address in the underlying issues leading to use, by means of non-chemical solutions).
Asking, “What is the survival crisis?” Is so much more helpful than, “What is your problem?” or, “What’s wrong with you?”
Loved everything about this
Good summary of the position.
Insightful!
Very interesting view, clearly explained.
aw man, I was making so much money convincing people that demons were responsible for their addictive behavior and not themselves. now I've got to find a new way to fleece the gullible
just tell them jesus is responsible for everything, bad things happen to people jesus doesn't like....
I like how you added "and not themselves" but your both wrong and right.Yin-Yang:Yin is dark "demons" Yang is bright "angels" so metaphorically everyone has at least 1 demon and 1 angel,1 and 1 is balanced so neither is overpowering the other and is neutral but 1 angel and 2 demons will make one "Dark" and addictive behaviors are Yin "dark" or "Demonic".Disclaimer:Do not read this stoned or you'll trip hard and fight aliens.
dankpool wasn't being serious, dude. But your metaphors are correct for the human condition.
TVismyopiate well, I was serious about taking personal responsibility as opposed to blaming fictional entities or "energy" or ghosts or devils or some kind of magical balancing act like yin and yang for ones faults or shitty behavior.
I don't actually fleece gullible people because I feel bad for them, so that's the part where I wasn't serious
dankpool
Shit man, people actually don't take it as a mere metaphor - one created for simplification of visualisation purposes, are you telling me?
I agree with her.
is the internet a drug? is love a drugs?
Shes saying exactly what jerry Garcia said years ago
Interesting and insightful.
she is rite on about opiate's taking away depression and anxiety
Don't I know it.
Childhood Trauma creates addiction. Kratom *Mytrogyna Speciosa is brilliant at helping people withdraw and stay off of opiates. It is also great for depression, anxiety, pain and more. It is natural. A plant in the coffee family. Great video
Good cannabis (as opposed to a LOT of the crap that's out there on the market) is also quite light and good for people if used wisely and a low body-load strain applied in mild doses... with exercise in proportion.
Psychedelics definitely help more than no psychedelics at all, you should have noted that clearly.
I prefer wim hof method over psychedelics, have tried both
I really like Maia Szalavitz’s books. I don’t read tons of books, but I have read three that she authored or co-authored. However, at the end when she talks about newer drugs with less risk “soma’’ from Brave New World came to mind. The perfect drug is blissful but a little creepy.
Excellent talk: lots of facts and common sense.
Want a wonderful way to look at the problem of addictions
if we redefine addiction as "going up the stairs" it actually becomes incredibly easy to overcome!
Not to compare smoking with hard drugs but once I understood that I'm am addicted I quit cold turkey. Renouncing 10+ years of habit just like that. Every time I got over the impulse to light up I felt success. I just don't understand how some people are smart enough to understand they are addicted but still chose not to change.
Smoking -meaning nicotine? Nicotine is, gram for gram (mg) more addictive than heroin, did you know this fact? "Hard drugs", well, nicotine IS one of them...
This is the same reason why a lot of soldiers in Vietnam could shoot up heroin, or use any other substance, and upon arriving at their countries be completely sober without any issue.
hey big think! I really hate how the text in your thumbnails is in the bottom so that it'll be covered by youtube stuff and I can't read it. the text isn't even the name of the video usually so I'll never know what the text said.
People that have never tried drugs have learning disorders. Looking at you big think.
Thats oppisite of what she said dumbass
Precisely.
erm, Maia Szalavitz pretty much said she'd been an addict.Point disproven.
only co - n counter relating, i think
Any and everything can be addictive. You don't need negative consequences to be addicted to something, imo. Build up your ego and you can beat any addiction through will power.
Such a good quality content !
An ex opiate user who speaks about addiction. I’m tuned!
a high dose of lsd changes you forever and you drop many of your habits, it's your decision what you want to become, it can fuck you up really badly or save your life. it's not just a drug. you will always learn more in a higher state of consciousness than a lower like depression
The answer was and always is weed my friend
Thankyou.
I went from oxy for pain then my pain was gone so i went to subs to break free but transitioning to nothing seems impossible because physically i cant feel normal. What can i do? It seems to me that my brains ability to produce its own dopimine has atrophied after years of manual override and it feels like my brain will never function right again.i hope this question finds you you seem to have good insight
Legal drugs for the win, eh? :-p
Interesting stuff, good video!
Wow..learning something new.
empowering.
Good video.
"The future of drugs is better drugs." lol An addict will abuse anything and everything possible. The future is lack of need for drugs.
um... yeah... I hear you on some of that...but yeah...NO!!! Do not agree re; better drugs being the solution????
I've heard that tea from a plant named Iboga makes you pose these questions
I'm addicted to being alive.
Oxygen is a hell of a drug!
Soooo, drug addicts are stupid? STOP THE PRESSES!!!
Redefining: How we "solve" problems in the 21st century.
If the old definitions don't apply, then that's necessary. Unless you buy into the hoary AA shit about needing a sky fairy to make you better?
So useless. So we're fucked until someone creates the perfect drug.
Nope, it's allready here and it's cannabis, and have been around for thousands of years without a single death.
super smart lady man thats awesome^-^
"To overcome addiction, you have to become addiction!"
Well....she looks like Tim Roth
This person's premise of pain is false. Her thinking and conclusion is as well. Pain for instance, is cortically integrated as are all human pain interpretations. There is no binary interpretation. You can't say you will be cranky and craving and shaking but not puking therefore the connection is not physical. The experience of long term pain can be sensitization or 'Centralized Pain' and can evidenced across all pain spectrums. The longer pain is experienced by the brain the less likely the brain will be to resolve the pain - and the more incomplete the resolution will be. This includes pain via electrical modulation as well. It can result in a long term glial cell inflammatory process and breakdown of the dorsal horn, peripherally. With ever present thalamic involvement The greater the pain the more likely subjective experience of stress and pain will have a similiar - like effect upon a person. They act upon the same pathway. It is not the person but the pathway. Pain is the pathology or disease not the symptom in modern medicine. Neuropschy is still dealing with definitions not reality. Learning does have a role. The brains capacity to learn may also have been damaged.
Btw - I realise this may be interpreted a no or dire situation/solution. To the contrary, By showing that her premise was incomplete my intent was to underline that those subject such a condition must respond to themselves and responded to as a 'total' human being. Achieving homeostasis (balance) of endocrine, immune, pain (perception) and neurotransmitter systems (*now comprehensively altered by the drug) do not respond to an an unaccepted academic definition. If a person can craft a treatment plan for themselves incorporating the best that others have to support it - they may do better. I'll offer a few ideas later - I have to run
I think the best solution is to pick a certain amount of time for an addict to live in a cage without dignity or rights, that will fix the problem -_-
Even better when we release them lets put them in a program that has zero tolerance for honest human mistakes and when they eventually faulter we throw them back in said cage!
I see what you did there 😉
Sry to tell you, but it's going to be worse and even harder to stop for them after you release them. Self-doubt, heartache and depression are the biggest reasons why people get addicted to heroin (at least in Europe). I doubt the cage experience will better those problems. I think you probably have a very wrong idea about how addicts look like and behave in general. A great deal of them have problems with self-esteem, and the drug frees them of their problems with themselves at the beginning, which is why even if they start having problems because of societies stigmas or financial ones, they won't let go of it, because they feel they can't survive without it. That's also why even when they actually truly want to stop, thoughts of the drug will haunt them non stop until they give in to the pressure.
There are a lot of shady people that are addicted to drugs, no doubt about that, but being a drug addict doesn't make you a bad person. It's simply because you would never guess or notice that the nice person before you is addicted, that all the addicts you do notice seem to be bad and shady people. A lot of them lead normal lives and those surrounding them don't even notice, not at the job and not their friends, sometimes for years, until something else uncovers the problems the person has. They may deserve our hate if they become criminals to finance their addiction or whatever reason, but they don't just for being addicted. Some of the most sensitive and nice people I ever met in my entire life were heroin addicts. They were very thankful for the most simple things, like just getting treated like human beings.. seeing them fighting against the addiction was sad, but I never felt the slightest bit of hate towards them.
jail is the best place some people have ever been. theres nothing like beign thrown into a one man cell, detoxing and with a hole in the middel of the flooor for a restroom. did i mention that they flush the toilet when they want to and the lights stay on all night. the nights alone walking back and forth feelong the holidays unfold around you is an austere thought. not being able to use the toilet for a week because of the horrible food and lack of healthly environment is always a good feeling. waiting every wekend for comissary to get the instant folgers stuff just to take a shit was fantastic. not like the hospital i should have been stayin in where i once experienced constipation for the full involuntary month. even with laxatives the atmosphere was just so dry. ever seen a mentally handicap person try to make it in jail? it wouldnt have been funny if he didnt sing to cover up his masturbation to the picture hanging in the shower the other guys drew him. if he wasnt yelled at by the gaurd to stop singing while doing his deed that moment probably wouldnt have been so hilarious. all reguards to the man but he was like a radio being flipped to different stations every ten seconds. he took the longest showers. the devil went down to georgia
hahaha.
... no nego my heritage... babies born in cotton n cloud cradled... mad max ... i want yo b special e ability too...
funnny u bring up heroine.
. im phobic since generations... 2 msybe
.. but... thoughts arrive like butterfly effect...
no pain. not equipped to .
... welL..
there is an issue w both parties. ... demand what paw low reward system nuf to kilL pain. or dopsmine lose their count.
.. i got a hunch... but... im not gonna suffer pain for health no contact due sensitive relating orientation. toxic cogn
escimo ice.
.
👇🏾Like if your here for school ?
Very informative, but I still won't empathize with addicts.
Good video.