
Intellectual pursuits may buffer the brain against addiction - currysausage
http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/07/13/brain-addiction/
======
Devthrowaway80
This just sounds like a rehashing of the famous Rat Park experiments, where
happy rats in a good (from a rat's perspective) environment refused morphine,
but rats in traditional cages guzzled it. It seems like putting rats through
little rat challenges would be stimulating and result in happier rats as well.

I think it's a stretch to say that intellectual activities buffer against
addiction. I think the simpler explanation here is just that happiness buffers
against addiction, which is not as linkbaity since it is common wisdom in
recovery circles and has already been shown in other, more famous experiments.

I did degrees in computer science and pure mathematics, had all sorts of nerdy
"intellectual" pursuits and still wound up addicted to alcohol, partly because
I was deeply depressed and unhappy with who I was. Anecdotal, true, but I
offer it as counterpoint to the handful of "I do nerdy stuff and am not an
addict, ergo this article must be correct" comments in here.

~~~
Absentinsomniac
I'd imagine a blanket statement about what works for everyone is misguided,
yeah. "If you have intellectual pursuits, that will prevent addiction"
obviously can't be stated as a fact. I'd imagine it's much more complex and
maybe contingent on various factors, like how individuals calculate self-worth
and what types of emotional or life experiences folks feel they are lacking on
a day-to-day basis. Or something along those lines.

But I have read research that shows there are some signs of predisposition
towards drugs. Assuming those studies were thorough, then that's probably also
a component. I guess the next step is repeating and then teasing out how
important certain factors are when it comes to prevention / prediction.

------
Absentinsomniac
This jives with my experience using pretty much everything, including heroin.
A high-level unscientific explanation I've had is basically folks prone to
addiction feel like heroin or whatever replaces the feelings of success and
companionship etc. I made it most of the way through college being an
occasional user and passed up opportunity's to get shit because I was focused
on a project or had hope of something happening that was exciting in the short
term. This is probably a-typical. A lot of guys I knew are dead or fell in
without much of an interest in other things. Like they had poor prospects in
life.

~~~
marincounty
The government should set up free bupenorpine centers. This generic drug
should be made easily available to addicts. I am so tired of hearing about
heroin death stories. We can debate what's the best treatment, or why people
do drugs. The government should pay doctors to administer this drug to
addicts. A years supply? If it's lost, or stolen they will be forced to go to
treatment centers? Oh, yea--one more time; the drug should be offered free of
charge, and addicts shouldn't have to jump through hoops in order to get it.
You can get the dose down to 1-2 mg/day without feeling much discomfort.
(Right now the government makes doctors take a class in order to prescribe it.
Doctor's can only gave 100 patients. Most Doctors--will drag the patient in
for office visits--why? For money of course? Plus, they are ticked off they
needed to take that reduculios class on this drug.(I can't imagine, even the
D- graduate, having a hard time grasping the mechanism, and dosage of this
drug? It's just not a complicated drug? Especially in small dosages?

Sorry, about the rant; just tired if hearing about deaths from heroin!
Especially, when I know their are addicts that want help.

~~~
task_queue
I agree completely that there should be free and easily accessible addiction
treatment centers available to those who need it.

I just don't think buprenorphine is the solution.

It's easily abusable and worth relatively a lot on the black market.

You run into the same problem you did with methadone: you're on an opioid that
has a 16-27 day half-life. You will be withdrawing heavily for much longer
than you would if you cold turkeyed a street opioid.

You're replacing one opioid with another, one addiction with another. This is
100% anecdotal, but I only know people who have had months and years of abject
misery trying to come off of buprenorphine.

For hardcore opioid addiction, it might make sense. But there are options like
the Naltrexone injection that doesn't involve replacement therapy.

~~~
girvo
Naltrexone implants are worse than bupe. Sure, you can't use, but your
addiction is still there. None of the current solutions are perfect, but the
implants are by far one of the worst in my opinion. Bupe worked extremely well
for me, it allowed me to stop using heroin and get my professional life back
in order, without the spectre of where my next fix (and the $300 for it) was
coming from. Tapering bupe was easy for me, and jumping off at 0.4mg was easy
enough that I merely took two weeks off work.

------
pasbesoin
I am coming to the conclusion that addiction is in significant part a symptom
rather than a cause.

In my own case, I am not "addicted" in the traditional sense, but following
some adverse health events that have not been resolved, I have become more
more habituated to using TV and "the Internet" to "tune out". When you are in
chronic physical discomfort, it is easy to fall into doing whatever is most
convenient and immediately effective to take your attention away from this.

I also ended up in some terribly noisy work and home circumstances (yes,
both). This is another stress that one can seek to escape, especially when it
is chronic.

And, said stress, as also the physical discomfort described above, severely
throttles cognitive ability, in my experience.

TL;DR: It's a slippery slope. Avoid health and environmental issues, _before_
they become chronic, self-reinforcing problems that may lead to behavior that
has traditionally been defined as the source problem.

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dpatrick86
Maybe it's because intellectual pursuits are themselves an addiction all their
own?

[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/uosc-
fk062006...](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/uosc-fk062006.php)

~~~
darkmighty
That would make sense for me: I see no fundamental difference in the "high" I
get when solving math problems and the "high" I get when conquering a hard
game.

The difference between what we call addictive and the rest (e.g. sports vs
drugs) imo is the impact on your health and your long term ability/disposition
to perform other activities: intellectual pursuit can propel your career,
improve your ability to solve problems, and directly reward you monetarily. If
drugs had this side effect they wouldn't be labelled as such.

~~~
pmalynin
Sometimes when I'm programming a really interesting problem (no the regular
nodejs/express crap) I literally become wired.

~~~
obituary_latte
Not sure why you are being downvoted. Maybe the jab at node etc. but this is
quite similar to what the op alludes to. The engagement; the need to solve the
problem can have quite intense experiencial results--along the lines of
chemical intradiction in other circumstances.

------
philwelch
Fun fact: cocaine is technically legal in the United States for medicinal and,
apparently, research purposes. There is a single US company licensed to import
coca leaves: the Stepan Company, which extracts extremely pure cocaine from
the coca leaves, sells the spent leaves to the Coca-Cola Company (which uses
them as an ingredient) and the cocaine to Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which
is presumably where UC Berkeley sourced the cocaine for this experiment.

~~~
girvo
Cocaine is semi-routinely used for dental and sinus surgery in Australia. My
mother had cocaine used in her sinus surgery only 8 years ago.

------
CamperBob2
One possible case in point, the mathematician's mathematician Paul Erdős, who
was said to be a heavy methamphetamine user. From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s)
:

    
    
       After 1971 he also took amphetamines, despite the 
       concern of his friends, one of whom (Ron Graham) bet him 
       $500 that he could not stop taking the drug for a 
       month.[18] Erdős won the bet, but complained that during 
       his abstinence, mathematics had been set back by a 
       month.

~~~
Blahah
I think what Erdos did is almost the opposite. I say this as someone who has
thoroughly explored both extremes. Intellectual pursuits provide intelligent
people with the stimulus they need. When they are bored, in particular when
they are prevented from pursuing their intellectual activities, some drugs
offer a way to squash the desperate need for stimulus. However, when there are
no restrictions, some other drugs provide the opportunity to push your
intellect to its limits, eschewing, temporarily, the need for sleep,
sustenance or distraction, to focus on the intellectual task at hand. Very
broadly speaking, depressants fulfil the first need and stimulants fulfil the
second.

I can say after much exploration that the un-stimulated brain is much more
interesting in the medium and long term than the (chemically) stimulated
brain. But I don't know anything better than depressants for seeing you
through those times when you can't think or work freely.

~~~
DyingAdonis
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the Juice of Sapho that
thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."

------
task_queue
This is the most HN sentence available, but:

Sitting down and really learning the internals of a language, it's community
and tools enough to construct a large project with competence was definitely
significant in my recovery from addiction.

------
ibsufupu
Isn't this the same thing as eating more when you're bored?

------
pjc50
See previously
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park)

------
contingencies
What about when "daily drill included exploration, learning and finding hidden
tasty morsels" _becomes_ the addiction?

Mmm, French cheese.... Belgian beer ...

I just spent three months gallavanting around Europe with my wife and young
child, despite being technically homeless. During which time, I successfully
quit smoking. However, many people's conservative rational/peer-pressure
response to my situation would be "don't spend money" and "buy a house".

Conincidence, _or not_?

~~~
batou
Interesting. Either way that sounds like a glorious way of using your time.

------
nicholas73
My addictions are all "intellectual"... stocks, gambling, HN, Starcraft,
Wikipedia.

Since I've never had any addiction to substances I assume the above is what I
am susceptible to.

I never had problems controlling alcohol and I couldn't even get high on the
times I tried [thing you smoke]. I can handle a lot of drinks but I just don't
really have that desire unless there are hot girls around. [thing] just gives
me a headache only.

~~~
jedberg
I'm pretty sure you can just say pot, weed, or marijuana if you want to sound
smart. :)

~~~
nicholas73
Not trying to sound smart. No point in posting you did [thing] that is illegal
in some states.

~~~
dimino
But you just did.

~~~
nicholas73
Actually I did not.

------
tlarkworthy
This is a minor variation of a 1980s result. It's the environment that is the
biggest factor in drug use. This study does not disambiguate that it's
intellectual pursuits over general higher standard of living. So I question
the conclusion but not the effect
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park)

------
amsilprotag
I don't think the research does an adequate job differentiating intellectual
activity from agency. Is the learning and exploring their substitute for
addiction? Or is it the linking of action and effort to reward?

I'd be interested in comparing the inert mice to mice that are rewarded
sporadically for a physically demanding but intellectually effortless task,
such as running on a mouse wheel. I'd guess the results would be similar.

------
jmilloy
As others are noting, I suspect you could accurately trim that down to
"Pursuits may buffer the brain against addiction." When all you're thinking
about is the next bike ride you're going to go on, or how your homebrew cider
is going to turn out next week, or what new thing your niece is going to
surprise you with... those sorts of things work the reward system well, too.

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infofarmer
OK, so basically memrise.com is the only thing between me and hard drugs. All
the more reason to go practice my Mandarin.

------
robobro
A chess master / drug friendly guy once told me that his standard for ways of
living relate to his chess game. He said he tried crack for a week or two, and
while he was on it, his chess game suffered; that was enough for him to sober
up.

Seems like this general principal is how faith can be used to treat alcoholism

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amelius
I'm wondering why there isn't more research towards reducing the side-effects
of drugs.

I mean, drugs are clearly a product that has certain desirable properties. So
why aren't we improving the product, rather than trying to keep people away
from it?

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andyidsinga
hmm. I read the title as "incremental pursuits..."

which made me wonder...

