[ewokone]

Reading the 'in the realm of hungry ghosts' from Gabor Mate I learned that is not the substance itself but 3 major circumstances which trigger addiction in the human: powerlessness, isolation and stress. These key factors bring up behaviour patterns for addiction. Let it be sugar, sex, Screentime, drugs, food, sport, buying things, etc.... Really helped me to reflect on my patterns and I also learned about the difference between passion and addiction.

My 50 cents here.

[spodek]

As a New Yorker near some of her favorite places, who also picks up litter every day, I see the plastic these places generate, as will people 500 years from now. I wish they would find an addiction that doesn't pollute so much. Not that they're any different from Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and peers, but they certainly contribute their share.

[derwiki]

I know SF was made fun of for this, but the ban on plastic drinking straws made sense. Now all the boba shops use compostable straws and they’re fine.

[winkeyless]

Feel bad about this too. Blue Bottle uses compostable cups which sets an example

[amelius]

Smoking and socializing seem to go together, though. At least, that's how it appeared to me at a distance from observing other high-schoolers.

[dilap]

Bumming a cigarette is how my mom met my dad.

I also used to smoke, and it really was, on the one hand, a great way to meet people, and on the other, to maintain casual friendships w/ the people who happened to be around you (e.g., people working in the building next door).

Still, not worth it on balance. But I miss it.

[snarfy]

If you go to conventions to network, the smoking section is the best place to meet people.

[zamfi]

Perhaps those who suffer from isolation find solace in both cigarettes and the socializing that occurs with their use?

[slumdev]

It also makes someone look 63% cooler.

[melomal]

I was thinking the same about this whole post. At the end of the day it sounds like it is more aligned with addiction based on the sugar side of the drink. Big Gulp probably have the same ravaging followers too it's just not as on-trend though.

[thih9]

Interesting to see sport on the list, I never thought about it this way. If anyone else is interested: https://aeon.co/ideas/how-people-with-sports-addiction-are-l...

[Deivuh]

Makes sense, back a few years ago I was so into weightlifting that I would spend around two hours at the gym. And whenever I had to skip or move my workout from my schedule because of an early meeting or an errand I would be very irritable for the rest of the day.

[dmos62]

I get powerlessness and stress, but how does isolation come into it?

[girvo]

I didn’t care how lonely I felt if I had heroin, and being involved in that “scene” meant meeting and interacting with people who were in similar (crap) situations to myself, which we bonded over.

[soulofmischief]

The Rat Park experiments showed us that well-socialized rats were less likely to develop addiction to cocaine than socially deprived rats.

"Researchers had already proved that when rats were placed in a cage, all alone, with no other community of rats, and offered two water bottles-one filled with water and the other with heroin or cocaine-the rats would repetitively drink from the drug-laced bottles until they all overdosed and died. Like pigeons pressing a pleasure lever, they were relentless, until their bodies and brains were overcome, and they died.

But Alexander wondered: is this about the drug or might it be related to the setting they were in? To test his hypothesis, he put rats in “rat parks,” where they were among others and free to roam and play, to socialize and to have sex. And they were given the same access to the same two types of drug laced bottles. When inhabiting a “rat park,” they remarkably preferred the plain water. Even when they did imbibe from the drug-filled bottle, they did so intermittently, not obsessively, and never overdosed. A social community beat the power of drugs."

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/what-does-rat-park-tea...

[spicybright]

This is very much debunked, but keeps getting propagated because people like the results. It's never been able to be re-produced.

[dmos62]

The "Follow up experiments" section of the Wikipedia article somewhat contradicts you:

> Studies that followed up on the contribution of environmental enrichment to addiction produced mixed results. A replication study found that both caged and "park" rats showed a decreased preference for morphine compared to Alexander's original study; the author suggested a genetic reason for the difference Alexander initially observed.[9] Another study found that while social isolation can influence levels of heroin self-administration, isolation is not a necessary condition for heroin or cocaine injections to be reinforcing.[10]

> Other studies have reinforced the effect of environmental enrichment on self-administration, such as one that showed it reduced re-instatement of cocaine seeking behavior in mice through cues (though not if that re-instatement was induced by cocaine itself)[11] and another that showed it can eliminate previously established addiction-related behaviors.[12] Furthermore, removing mice from enriched environments has been shown to increase vulnerability to cocaine addiction[13] and exposure to complex environments during early stages of life produced dramatic changes in the reward system of the brain that resulted in reduced effects of cocaine.[14]

> Broadly speaking, there is mounting evidence that the impoverished small cage environments that are standard for the housing of laboratory animals have undue influence on lab animal behavior and biology.[15] These conditions can jeopardize both a basic premise of biomedical research—that healthy control animals are healthy—and the relevance of these kinds of animal studies to human conditions.[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park#Follow_up_experiments

[asiachick]

The Rat Park experiments were debunked

[TheSoftwareGuy]

How?

[shawnz]

There have been some failures to reproduce the results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park#Follow_up_experiments

[samus]

My guess (haven't read the book): humans are social creatures, and too much company with just our own thoughts is not healthy in the long run. It might not cause addiction by itself, but it's definitely a disrupting factor for mental health. Interaction with other humans can help to interrupt unhealthy thought loops and help people to reflect on their state of mind.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

For many people, isolation is a stressor.

[Galaxity]

Well, isolation commonly causes loneliness, depression, boredom, etc. Primary causes of doing things that can be addictive to relieve them.

[hhjj]

maybe lack of calibration?

[3np]

That really hit close to home, thanks.

[jimmygrapes]

I learned this ages ago as HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, tired.