[ExI] addiction
William Flynn Wallace
foozler83 at gmail.com
Thu Mar 17 00:52:33 UTC 2016
On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 7:42 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:44 AM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>
> > On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 5:21 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I don't think people are going to get very far with understanding
> >> addiction until they understand why human (some at least) can be
> >> addicted at all.
> >>
> >> You folks are sick of hearing about it from me, anyone have an
> >> evolutionary pathway to this curious trait.
> >>
> >
> > To addiction? Why did addiction evolve? This seems ultimately simple to
> me
> > (sorry for jumping in here nearly a year late, but the thread never got
> > here and I thought I had something to add when it came up out of random
> > chance.)
>
> Addiction didn't evolve. Every characteristic we have is either from
> direct selection or a side effect of some characteristic that was
> selected. Addiction is clearly a side effect of chemicals that happen
> to fit the endorphin binding site. The reward circuits, of course,
> did evolve.
>
> And it's not just sex that causes the release of reward chemicals.
> Attention from other humans is rewarding because integrated attention
> amounts to status, and especially for males, status is essential for
> getting nooky (or was in the stone age).
>
> Keith
>
One could speculate that the people who get addicted are either low in
endorphins as a result of their usual lifestyle (or perhaps even
genetically low), or are high in them and the drug or whatever is just a
fantastic, incredible high unattainable any other way.
I was instantly addicted to morphine at age 9 after ear surgery. Have
not felt that good since. No pain was the very least of it. Perhaps would
have been satisfied to stay that way.
bill w
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