
Evolutionary Advantages of an Addictive Personality - oblib
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-evolutionary-advantages-of-an-addictive-personality/
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toasterlovin
Just an anecdote, so feel free to ignore. I have a family member who is a drug
addict. It seems obvious to me that the same part of their brain which is
responsible for their addiction is also responsible for them being a pretty
amazing athlete. They would practice sports obsessively, chasing those tiny
little hits each time they made a basket or caught a ball, in a way that was
categorically unlike every other kid I ever knew. I'm not saying the addiction
mechanism works like that for everybody else, but it's pretty clear to me that
this person would do extremely well in an environment without modern drugs.

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myth_drannon
If anyone is unfamiliar with the work of Gabor Mate, he basically says
childhood trauma is the source of our addictions. Listen to his talk on Tim
Ferris's podcast.

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toasterlovin
Susceptibility to addiction is highly heritable (around 50% of variation is
due to genetic factors according to this[0]).

[0]:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506170/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506170/)

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crimsonalucard
How does sensation seeking and novelty have to do with addiction? Isnt
addiction the opposite? Addiction is the seeking of the same experience over
and over again.

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toasterlovin
Yeah, but you have to decide that you're going to pop that first pill, snort
that first line, inject that first syringe, etc.

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crimsonalucard
When it comes to addiction itself. There are people who can take heroin once
and not be addicted while others who are addicted on the first try. The
article is unclear about whether "addiction" correlates with novelty or
whether novelty is actually correlating with trying out new drugs.

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DJBunnies
Mmm, yes, my confirmation bias.

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joeatyl
This article was needlessly flowery.

