General

@sezbeth: oh i hadnt noticed this until now
yes i wondered if "connection" was really as much of a miracle treatment as they made it out to be. it did make sense tho
thanks for hte info

While the video itself does bring up a good point about the socio-environmental effects regarding addiction, its message that "what we know about addiction is all wrong" is wildly inaccurate. That is, while you can't necessarily treat addiction with pure environmental/behavioral therapies or pure medicinal/chemical approaches (though with some people, you very well may be able to either way), rather hybrid approaches tend to be much, much more effective.

It would also be helpful to understand what the environmental therapies actually do for the present addictions. Let's bring in the example regarding the Vietnam veterans used in the video (assuming whoever reads this will have watched the video, I wont explain the example).

What addiction will typically involve is a dysfunction or anomaly in the reward systems of your brain (some light reading for those interested in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system ). In this system, dopamine is the neurotransmitter which dictates the "reward function" or feeling of satisfaction achieved from performing a certain task that one may find pleasurable.

Now , remember how the veterans who chronically used heroin during the war oddly showed no visible signs of addiction when they came home, as the video dictates, due to the environment which they missed so much? During the war, they were using heroin as a substitute for the dopamine-producing pleasure received from spending time with one's family, however when they came home, they were again, rewarded by their neurological systems by achieving that desire, thus eliminating the need for the heroin. This isn't necessarily a "cure" for that addiction, rather a mere substitute for the anomaly which would likely still be present in their physical brains. They are still receiving the dopamine neurotransmitter, but no longer require the heroin to achieve it.

Cycling back to the beginning about the video being wildly inaccurate regarding our knowledge of addiction; it's not that biological knowledge of addiction is wrong, so much as he video is misinterpreting what is actually going on in response to the environmental stimuli. These drugs can still cause addiction if an individual is genetically vulnerable enough. Having some paradise-like environment is not some "cure-all" for addiction, though it is needed in effective treatments.

@killeem: if you feel like doing heroin, pm me and il send butt pics to stop you

accurate af