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> People become addicts because they’re unhappy with their lives and their environment, You know what's one thing that makes people very unhappy with their liv

> People become addicts because they’re unhappy with their lives and their environment, You know what's one thing that makes people very unhappy with their lives? Severe chronic pain. Aside from the pain, it also removes a great deal of agency and self-efficacy from their lives. They can't control the pain, the medical system is basically out of their control, and now there's a societal hysteria about opiates. Beyond that, what you're describing it the difference between addiction and dependency. Any flesh and blood human will become dependent on opiates after a few weeks. It's why doctors have you taper off opiates and other meds that cause dependency. Although even that distinction seems to be going by the wayside in the current hysteria.

simplecomplex 7y ago
> You know what's one thing that makes people very unhappy with their lives? Severe chronic pain. That's my point. Having taken an opiate actually has little to do with whether they form an addiction. So we shouldn't be focused on restricting supply to treat and prevent addiction. > Any flesh and blood human will become dependent on opiates after a few weeks. Yes, if by dependency you're referring to withdrawal symptoms or tolerance. Opioid addiction however varies wildly depending on the demographic, despite all having consumed opioids. It's not the act of taking opioids that predicts whether someone becomes addicted. Research points to addiction not being caused by the drugs themselves. This isn't surprising when you consider that humans get addicted to such a wide variety of totally unrelated chemical combinations. When you think about it, isn't it a little suspicious that almost any chemical that can be consumed is potentially addictive? That strongly suggests that addiction is not about the drugs really, and research is finally corroborating this. Having said that, now think about the fact that all food is drugs (chemicals that affect and manipulate your biology) and it becomes apparent that addiction is a much much bigger issue than one might assume when only thinking about things like Oxy and booze as drugs. If one qualifies harmful diet as drug addiction it turns out the majority of our society is suffering from addiction. But there's very little research going on in this area, despite diet probably being the most prevalent and harmful form of drug addiction. You can't unsee it. The similarity between someone talking about their struggles with poor diet ("but that cheeseburger/cheetos/soda/etc. is all I have, can't I have just one thing to look forward to?") and someone talking about alcoholism or smoking is almost indistinguishable.
prepend 7y ago
> societal hysteria about opiates. I don’t think hysteria is an accurate term here as the danger and massive negative impact of opiates is very real. It is not imagined. I like the word hysteria but am careful in its use because historically it has been used to discount and ignore very real problems with large chunks of the population [0]. I think to help patients and to help people suffering from addition and at risk for addiction it’s important to understand the problem. If people dismiss the problem as imaginary or happening to “them” and not “us” it is much more difficult to not have tons of people die. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria

simplecomplex 7y ago

> You know what's one thing that makes people very unhappy with their lives? Severe chronic pain. That's my point. Having taken an opiate actually has little to do with whether they form an addiction. So we shouldn't be focused on restricting supply to treat and prevent addiction. > Any flesh and blood human will become dependent on opiates after a few weeks. Yes, if by dependency you're referring to withdrawal symptoms or tolerance. Opioid addiction however varies wildly depending on the demographic, despite all having consumed opioids. It's not the act of taking opioids that predicts whether someone becomes addicted. Research points to addiction not being caused by the drugs themselves. This isn't surprising when you consider that humans get addicted to such a wide variety of totally unrelated chemical combinations. When you think about it, isn't it a little suspicious that almost any chemical that can be consumed is potentially addictive? That strongly suggests that addiction is not about the drugs really, and research is finally corroborating this. Having said that, now think about the fact that all food is drugs (chemicals that affect and manipulate your biology) and it becomes apparent that addiction is a much much bigger issue than one might assume when only thinking about things like Oxy and booze as drugs. If one qualifies harmful diet as drug addiction it turns out the majority of our society is suffering from addiction. But there's very little research going on in this area, despite diet probably being the most prevalent and harmful form of drug addiction. You can't unsee it. The similarity between someone talking about their struggles with poor diet ("but that cheeseburger/cheetos/soda/etc. is all I have, can't I have just one thing to look forward to?") and someone talking about alcoholism or smoking is almost indistinguishable.

prepend 7y ago

> societal hysteria about opiates. I don’t think hysteria is an accurate term here as the danger and massive negative impact of opiates is very real. It is not imagined. I like the word hysteria but am careful in its use because historically it has been used to discount and ignore very real problems with large chunks of the population [0]. I think to help patients and to help people suffering from addition and at risk for addiction it’s important to understand the problem. If people dismiss the problem as imaginary or happening to “them” and not “us” it is much more difficult to not have tons of people die. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria