Jon, to add to your Hari and Alexander approach to addiction, check out Stanton Peele’s work. I agree with Hari “It is human connection”; and that said, also go to a very favorite on understanding the disconnectedness of America and the accompanying medical consequences of loneliness, cariologist/epidemiologist, James J Lynch, especially his “A Cry Unheard: New Insights into the Medical Consequences of Loneliness” https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Unheard-Insights-Consequences-Loneliness/dp/1890862118/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678075671&sr=1-2
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Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control by Stanton Peele, 1999
You either are an alcoholic, or you are not. If you think you "could" be, try drinking addictively. You won't be able to. Nearly all alcoholics are or could easily be cross-addicted to other psychoactive drugs.
It's genetic.
In the Danish twin brothers study, 81 twins were separated at birth. One, raised by their addicted father with the mother; the other, raised by non-addicted adoptive parents. The rate of addiction in the brothers was identical: five times the rate of that in the general population.
It has nothing to do with environment or circumstances or parents, except that parental addiction increases the odds of addiction in the children. That accounts for observable familial addiction. That is best explained by ancestry: those with access to fermented fruits and grains for the longest periods have the lowest rates of addiction; those without such access, the highest rates. Think: Mediterranean populations at 5-10%, vs. Northern Europe at 20-30%, vs. Native North Americans at 75% or higher.
Ask any recovering alcoholic whether they remember their first drink. Half do. Non-addicts, hardly ever. Why? It was that important to them. They felt "powerful." From there, egomania develops, which explains most misbehaviors of alcohol/other-psychoactive drug addicts.
The typical DUI is arrested at a .16% BAL. Non-addicts are on their faces at .12, .14, .16%. Yet that same typical addict is arrested in at best one in a thousand incidents (if that) of driving under the influence. They are that functional, at least until late stage when their alcoholism becomes obvious.
It's a genetic disorder that requires instigation to get them to stop. After all, they feel powerful, like God. The instigation is always pain from consequences. It is a disease, but unlike any other in that the rest of us cannot coddle them and hope for a cure. No. They must have pain imposed from the outside--loss of privileges, loss of rights, loss of family or job, or credible threats of same. Without that, alcoholism/other-drug addiction will continue unimpeded until tragedy occurs.
We must break the myth that it is a moral failing, which creates the stigma surrounding the disease, that makes it so difficult to identify in the early stages. Only then will non-addicts impose the requisite consequences, which can inspire in the addict the "need to try sobriety."
Jon, to add to your Hari and Alexander approach to addiction, check out Stanton Peele’s work. I agree with Hari “It is human connection”; and that said, also go to a very favorite on understanding the disconnectedness of America and the accompanying medical consequences of loneliness, cariologist/epidemiologist, James J Lynch, especially his “A Cry Unheard: New Insights into the Medical Consequences of Loneliness” https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Unheard-Insights-Consequences-Loneliness/dp/1890862118/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678075671&sr=1-2
---
Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control by Stanton Peele, 1999
Stanton Peele’s books on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stanton+peele&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&crid=23ZSH59OXE9I2&sprefix=stanton+peele%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C232&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
stantonpeele
https://www.youtube.com/@stantonpeele/videos
Life Process Program Dr Stanton Peele
https://www.youtube.com/@LifeProcessProgram/videos
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Keep safe and free.
Thanks. Will check it out.
You either are an alcoholic, or you are not. If you think you "could" be, try drinking addictively. You won't be able to. Nearly all alcoholics are or could easily be cross-addicted to other psychoactive drugs.
It's genetic.
In the Danish twin brothers study, 81 twins were separated at birth. One, raised by their addicted father with the mother; the other, raised by non-addicted adoptive parents. The rate of addiction in the brothers was identical: five times the rate of that in the general population.
It has nothing to do with environment or circumstances or parents, except that parental addiction increases the odds of addiction in the children. That accounts for observable familial addiction. That is best explained by ancestry: those with access to fermented fruits and grains for the longest periods have the lowest rates of addiction; those without such access, the highest rates. Think: Mediterranean populations at 5-10%, vs. Northern Europe at 20-30%, vs. Native North Americans at 75% or higher.
Ask any recovering alcoholic whether they remember their first drink. Half do. Non-addicts, hardly ever. Why? It was that important to them. They felt "powerful." From there, egomania develops, which explains most misbehaviors of alcohol/other-psychoactive drug addicts.
The typical DUI is arrested at a .16% BAL. Non-addicts are on their faces at .12, .14, .16%. Yet that same typical addict is arrested in at best one in a thousand incidents (if that) of driving under the influence. They are that functional, at least until late stage when their alcoholism becomes obvious.
It's a genetic disorder that requires instigation to get them to stop. After all, they feel powerful, like God. The instigation is always pain from consequences. It is a disease, but unlike any other in that the rest of us cannot coddle them and hope for a cure. No. They must have pain imposed from the outside--loss of privileges, loss of rights, loss of family or job, or credible threats of same. Without that, alcoholism/other-drug addiction will continue unimpeded until tragedy occurs.
We must break the myth that it is a moral failing, which creates the stigma surrounding the disease, that makes it so difficult to identify in the early stages. Only then will non-addicts impose the requisite consequences, which can inspire in the addict the "need to try sobriety."