Video Transcript

Narrator: It turns out, rats like cocaine. Sort of. In the 20th century scientists wanted to study drug addiction. They put a rat in a cage and gave it two bottles. One bottle had normal water, and the other bottle contained water laced with cocaine. Turns out the rats almost always prefer the drug water and almost always end up drinking too much and overdosing. Scientists concluded that drugs like cocaine are so addictive they “hook” rats into using them even to the point of overdosing. 

But then, in the 1970’s, a scientist named Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rats were all alone in their empty cages. So he decides to redo the experiment. Bruce invented “rat park”. And rat park is heaven for rats. It has cheese.  It has tunnels. It has rat toys. And, most importantly, the rats have the warm company of other rat friends. They also still have both water bottles. One normal water bottle and one water bottle with cocaine. And Bruce wondered: what would rat park rats do?

Here’s the fascinating thing: the rats in rat park didn’t use the drug water. And if they did use it, they didn’t overdose. These rats would maybe try it a few times but that’s it. In the first experiment, almost 100 percent of rats overdose. But in rat park, almost none of them do. 

Bruce Alexander’s rat park cast some doubt on the idea that drug addiction is caused merely by physiological “hooks” from chemicals. Maybe addiction occurs in the absence of community and relationships. But then again, humans aren’t rats. Is there a similar experiment we could look to in humans to test this theory?

The Archives of General Psychiatry conducted a detailed study of soldiers who returned from the Vietnam war. In Vietnam, many soldiers took to alcohol, heroin, and other drugs. The concern at the time was that these thousands of soldiers would return home and all still have these addictions. People were concerned about the impact these thousands of veteran junkies would have on the nation. But it turns out, 95% of the soldiers who used drugs overseas did not continue using when they returned home. Back with their families and communities, it seems the “addictions” did not have a hold on them. 

In the early 2000’s Portugal decided to decriminalize all drugs, and redirect government funding from “cutting off” and “isolating” addicts, into programs that aimed to reconnect them to society. Instead of using the old model of addiction “hooks,” they tried something that was less focused on the body and more focused on relationships, responsibility, and community. The results were a 50% decrease in drug use in Portugal. And the cases of overdosing are down.

Johann Hari wrote a whole book about this development in the science of addiction. He concluded his book by saying: “the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.”

Usually when we think about illness or the physical well being of our loved ones, it makes sense to focus just on the body. But some doctors and scientists have begun expanding research in these other areas… to take into account more than just bodily treatments, but mental and social treatments as well. 

We’ve since learned that loneliness may be a greater risk factor for your health than smoking or not exercising. The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry found that older adults who lived alone or were no longer married were 70 to 80 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who were married or lived with others. Numerous recent studies have linked loneliness with both poor health and early death. Analyzing data from the National Institute on Aging’s Health and Retirement Study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, geriatrician Carla Perissinotto of the University of California, San Francisco, found that adults age 60 or older who identified themselves as lonely were 59 percent more likely to experience decline in their ability to perform daily activities and had a 45 percent higher likelihood of dying. Knowing this, it’s no surprise that pessimism, hostility and similar traits are associated with higher levels of stress and inflammation, now understood to be a shared biochemical foundation of many chronic illnesses.

But maybe in the face of severe illness or suffering, we need more than just physical help. Maybe we need something deeper.