Addiction

 Some would argue that there is only one such a thing as ‘addiction’ and therefore not much distinction, at least psychologically, between an addiction to say, heroin, and something seemingly more benign like Candy Crush. Addiction is a pathological relationship to an experience that avoids pain, and includes an element of loss of control and adverse effects on the individual’s life. One could get addicted to anything as long as it successfully distracts from pain and discomfort. But not all substances and not all behaviours are equally addictive. 

What makes most of the addictive experiences in our society so hard to resist is the stripping away of complexity and resistance. The easier we make our lives the more susceptible we are to easily digestible but highly addictive traps. 

Take carbohydrates for example. I’m open to the idea that out there someone struggles with a dependency on whole grain, complex cereals but I’m going to venture a guess that the rate of addiction to  grinding your own wheat is significantly lower than those of us who struggle with our consumption of simple carbs like white bread and pasta. Media works in a similar way. The more easily digestible the entertainment the harder it is to put down. Sexually arousing images and videos are designed to pique our interest but provide them at all hours of the day at any moment without risk of rejection or the complex emotional connection of a relationship IRL and we develop a pornography habit on our phone. 

Pharmacokinetics teaches us that the faster and easier a drug gets to your brain the more likely you are to get addicted. No one I’m aware of gets addicted to nicotine via the patch. This is because the release of nicotine is gradual, as opposed to the quick hit from inhaling cigarette smoke. Injecting opiates is much more likely to lead to dependency than ingesting the same drug, which is why methadone can scratch the chemical itch without adding to the addictive cycle.

Technological advances have stripped away much of the inconveniences, tedious tasks, and waiting that we have been used to for millenia. Even in my short lifespan I went from having to wait for a specific day and time to see my favourite show to now growing impatient if Netflix takes more than five seconds to load the next episode. I used to have to wait for my parents in a specific spot so they could pick me up but now with texting I never have to wait for a ride, and even if I did have to wait these days I could keep myself occupied the entire time with my phone.

Life has gotten easier and that is exactly why it has gotten harder.

Why read the book when you can watch the movie? Why watch the movie when you can watch the 5 minute Youtube synopsis? Why walk when you can drive? Why bake bread when you can buy it for $3? Why play the Game of Life with your kids or build a fort out of couch cushions when they could just eat a bowl of Life cereal and play Fortnite?

Paul Bloom argues that there is a link between pain and meaning. It’s why scary movies and spicy food appeals to us. Some of the most proudly meaningful memories we have often involve events that were painful, uncomfortable, or difficult. Perhaps intentionally choosing pain can keep us from suffering long term from the consequences of depending so much on pleasure. Like going to the gym, we have to now manufacture artificial struggle in our lives in order to stay healthy and sharp. Our consumerist culture has worked so hard to eliminate discomfort that the majority of us have now lost our inherent antifragility. All leaves, no roots.

Addiction is not a moral failure at the individual level, but it is at the societal level. The quicker and easier we get what we want the quicker and easier we will self-destruct. Ancient wisdom has been warning us, from Musonius to Nietzche to Wall-E, that pleasure that comes easy also goes just as easily and yet we still buy hot’n’readys from Little Caesar!? Cass Sunstein and others have demonstrated that choice architecture can drastically alter our behavioral outcomes. When society presents unhealthy, hedonistic, self-serving instant gratification as the default option then we are naturally going to lean in that direction. Even the most disciplined among us will succumb to at least a handful of vices.

As paternalistic as it may sound, we could really use some help from those in charge of society and culture to make it so that bad choices are a little harder to choose. Breaking up open drug scenes, taxing fast food or candy, consumption tariffs on imported goods so that locally made products could compete, would all be highly unpopular policies that would end up making it slightly easier to maintain our humanity in the face of opulence and extreme gratification.

At a personal level we would benefit from a sort of voluntary austerity. We almost have to pretend every once in a while that we are as deprived as our ancestors were. It’s really what camping is all about. Cooking your food over a fire instead of hitting up the drive-through might save you a few bucks but more importantly it will save your soul (or at least a slice of it). Doing things the hard way for the sake of doing hard things is an evolutionary win-win. Instead of opting for the stripped down, digestible version we should select more nuanced thinking, complex nutrients, and hard to reach highs.

It’s all about the slow burn.

Some experiences and some substances have been manufactured to deliver direct results to our brains making them terribly difficult to resist and manage. This is true for all of us. Someone who struggles with addiction is not lesser than someone who is, we're all susceptible, but it very well could destroy their life nonetheless and should not be shrugged off either. There is much more we should be doing to reduce addiction related suffering and death but perhaps we could start with managing our own addictive tendencies by finding joy and meaning in choosing difficulty, complexity, and discomfort in order to develop a deeper sense of meaning.