[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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