Posted by
Andrews on Saturday, December 26, 2009 12:34:00 PM
I know, I know, I am already behind on the posts I promised and yet have the audacity to publish
ANOTHER "Upcoming Posts" posts...
However, I found something today so bizarre and amusing I had to mention it. And since it fits so well with my many concerns about our views of drugs and addiciton ("
Drug Legalization", "
Required Waste") as well as mental illness ("
Mental Illness") that I had to mention it. What I found was a bizarre discussion on Amazon.com about
"World of Warcraft addiciton". More importantly, I found one writer who actually agrees with me, or seems to, though I suspect his politics and mine may differ quite a bit.
Be that as it may, I am fascinated by the modern trend to not only turn everything into an "addiction" but to come up with some overblown brain chemistry explanation for every misbehavior. Basically, my thought is, dopamine and serotonin are involved in almost everything that happens in your brain, so finding an event or behavior is "dopamine releasing" or "serotonin mediated" does not tell us anything. The minute something "releases dopamine" or worse "releases endorphins" someone thinks that makes it addictive. But the truth is, every thought releases chemicals and changes brain chemistry. Reading this released chemicals and changed brain chemistry. That does not mean changing such behaviors is beyond the individual's control.
Concerning dopamine, there is a simple explanation. Whatever you like seems to release dopamine, dopamine controls pleasure. And, weak willed people cannot avoid doing things they find instantly gratifying. It is not addiction, it is lack of self-control and inability postpone gratification.
But more on that when I return to this topic. I hope to do so this weekend, but we will see. It will be interesting to look at the whole subject of addiction, and the larger topic of mental illness and brain chemistry. As those topics play a big part in our victim-centric culture, it is a topic which deserves more attention than I have given it to date.
POSTSCRIPT
In the nature of a disclaimer, I have dealt with the three big physical addictions. I have gone through opiate withdrawal three times (in one year), though for medical reasons (see "
Standing By My Principles"), I currently smoke, and when I was in my twenties I drank tremendous quantities and felt a bit of discomfort when quitting. (Though in that last case I never drank enough to experience the DTs, just modest flu-like symptoms.) So I have first hand knowledge of addiction, but I also can say that I have undergone medical treatments that make me more uncomfortable than addiction and withdrawal did, so I have some doubts about how "impossible" fighting addiction may be. It is hard, but more often for psychological than physical reasons. (eg. I still smoke partly because I enjoy it, partly because I refuse to be
forced to stop smoking by health nazis. It sounds like an excuse, but as I voluntarily discontinued opiate pain killers and underwent four days of withdrawal rather than suffer long term, mild discomfort by "tapering down", I think I can say fairly that I am not put off by physical discomfort.)
And, in the nature of a second disclaimer, I played World of Warcraft for some months, maybe a year, many years ago. I found it enjoyable, and met some nice people, especially as we "seniors" stuck together since we could actually write intelligibly and had little interest in the teen chats. It was a nice pass time, if a bit juvenile, and as my job was
VERY slow at the time, it filled hours when I was on-call but had nothing to do. And, from my experiences playing the game, I would never put it anywhere close to addiction. It was a game, and like any game, one could get caught up and play longer than anticipated, but that was it. It was nothing like a real, physical addiction. And since these people are alleging real, physical addiction, not just compulsive behavior, I have to say I can't buy into what they are claiming.