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Here is a much more powerful proof that changing environment can help you change yourself. https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits https://jamesclear.com/heroin-h

by blunte 9y ago

Here is a much more powerful proof that changing environment can help you change yourself. https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits

dwaltrip 9y ago
Synopsis: 95% of U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War broke their addiction nearly overnight, when they returned home to the states. Only 5% relapsed back into addiction. Apparently, relapse rates for heroin clinics are normally around 90%. When the soldiers changed environments to a place that contained none of the stimuli-triggers for heroin usage that they had overseas, they found it far easier to quit. In typical cases, people return home from a clinic to a place that contains all of the old, familiar triggers for usage, and thus have a very difficult time quitting. These individuals return to their prior routines, like a hand fitting back into a glove. The soldiers, however, left their gloves overseas, and instead returned to the addiction-free routines they had before the war, or they developed new ones. The environment directly plays a huge role in driving behavior. By consciously changing our environment, we can reduce or eliminate factors linked to undesired behaviors, replacing with new environmental features that we can more easily associate with desired behaviors.
- besasam 9y ago
  There was also a study done on rats that showed they would not seek out drugs when in an a nurturing and stimulating environment. Kurzgesagt have made a great video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  I wonder if tourists who get addicted carry the habit back at a different rate? Part of the reason to explain the GIs drug usage was, well, they were in a nasty war and probably knew some people who were KIA and wanted an escape.
  - dwaltrip 9y ago
    Yeah, that makes sense.I think this affect was taken to the extreme with the environment of the Vietnam war vs. civilian life in America. I imagine it would apply to tourists, just not nearly as strongly. It would be interesting to see numbers.
abalone 9y ago
A very good book on this is Biology of Desire by Marc Lewis. Cites the Vietnam heroin example, and gets into the neurobiology of bad habits. Key points are that addiction is neither a choice nor a disease, and self-control is a depletable resource (so being overly suppressive can lead to binges). Recovery benefits from emotional events that reframe one's relationship with the bad habit and exploring the traumatic roots of it.

by blunte 9y ago

Here is a much more powerful proof that changing environment can help you change yourself. https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits

dwaltrip 9y ago

Synopsis: 95% of U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War broke their addiction nearly overnight, when they returned home to the states. Only 5% relapsed back into addiction. Apparently, relapse rates for heroin clinics are normally around 90%. When the soldiers changed environments to a place that contained none of the stimuli-triggers for heroin usage that they had overseas, they found it far easier to quit. In typical cases, people return home from a clinic to a place that contains all of the old, familiar triggers for usage, and thus have a very difficult time quitting. These individuals return to their prior routines, like a hand fitting back into a glove. The soldiers, however, left their gloves overseas, and instead returned to the addiction-free routines they had before the war, or they developed new ones. The environment directly plays a huge role in driving behavior. By consciously changing our environment, we can reduce or eliminate factors linked to undesired behaviors, replacing with new environmental features that we can more easily associate with desired behaviors.

besasam 9y ago
There was also a study done on rats that showed they would not seek out drugs when in an a nurturing and stimulating environment. Kurzgesagt have made a great video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg
oh_sigh 9y ago
I wonder if tourists who get addicted carry the habit back at a different rate? Part of the reason to explain the GIs drug usage was, well, they were in a nasty war and probably knew some people who were KIA and wanted an escape.
- dwaltrip 9y ago
  Yeah, that makes sense.I think this affect was taken to the extreme with the environment of the Vietnam war vs. civilian life in America. I imagine it would apply to tourists, just not nearly as strongly. It would be interesting to see numbers.

abalone 9y ago

A very good book on this is Biology of Desire by Marc Lewis. Cites the Vietnam heroin example, and gets into the neurobiology of bad habits. Key points are that addiction is neither a choice nor a disease, and self-control is a depletable resource (so being overly suppressive can lead to binges). Recovery benefits from emotional events that reframe one's relationship with the bad habit and exploring the traumatic roots of it.