Rat Park
This is an excerpt from my husband, Vince Antonucci’s, book Restore.
It’s true, but you’re not going to believe me. Ready? Some sicko got a bunch of rats addicted to morphine. Heroin is basically liquefied morphine. Yes, it’s true, this sicko got rats hooked on heroin. You probably have a lot of questions. “Did he get them started on a gateway drug to start? Maybe he first sold them marijuana and taught the rats how to roll their own joints? Did the guy throw big parties for rats and offer them heroin in the bathrooms? Were there any vice cop rats, working undercover as druggies, just waiting for the big transaction to bring the whole operation down?
I don’t know all of the answers to those outstanding questions. Here’s what I do know…
For years experiments were done where scientists put a lone rat in a cage and gave it two water bottles. One was filled with water. The other contained water laced with morphine. The rat chose morphine and quickly became addicted. In no time it was pawning off all of its possessions for drug money and waking up one morning with a face tattoo.
The scientist conducting the experiment (i.e. the drug dealer) said the rat proved that drugs cause addiction. Drugs, it was said, have “hooks” that are inescapable.
In the late 1970’s a professor named Bruce Alexander questioned that commonly held belief. It is questionable. For instance, when people go into a hospital for surgery they are often put on diacetylmorphine. Diacetylmorphine is heroin. But patients don’t come out addicted to it. You’ve probably had a grandparent who fell down the stairs, had surgery, was put on diacetylmorphine, maybe even for twenty straight days, but no addiction. Why isn’t your grandma a heroin junkie?
Alexander’s hypothesis was that the reason the rats chose the drug water was because “severely distressed animals, like severely distressed people, will relieve their distress pharmacologically if they can.”
To test his hypothesis Alexander built “Rat Park.” Rat Park was like Disneyland for rats. It contained 16-20 rats, food, balls, wheels, and tubes. As in the previous experiments, two water bottles were offered. One water bottle had water, the other water laced with morphine. But, unlike in the lone rat in a cage experiments, this time almost no rats chose the drug water, virtually no rats became addicted, and none overdosed. In the previous experiment, almost every rat overdosed.
So what’s going on?
A professor from the Netherlands named Peter Cohen, commenting on these results, said, “Maybe we shouldn’t even call it addiction. Maybe we should call it bonding.” The idea is that humans have a natural need to bond. We are supposed to bond with each other. But, Cohen postulates, if something gets in the way of that, we’ll bond with something else that will provide some sense of relief. For you it might be … a video game, or a Netflix series, or beer, or your phone, or prescription drugs, or gambling.
Because of the abuse I suffered from my father, bonding with other people has always been the one thing I didn’t want to do. I decided early on that if you let people in, they hurt you. So I put up walls. But I have to bond. I have to connect to something; it’s my nature. I now realize that’s part of what’s going on with me and food. If I’m not connecting with other people, I connect with ice cream.
So you don’t want to live a life where you’re dependent on some substance or activity? You don’t want to struggle with addiction?
Make friends.
Turns out: People aren’t healthy in isolation.
What If I’m Already Addicted?
Let’s go back to Rat Park for a minute. This super fly drug-dealing, rat-poisoning pusher Professor Alexander also tried another version of his experiment. This time he put lone rats in solitary cages and forced them to consume morphine hydrochloride for 57 consecutive days. They became raging addicts. They were then removed from their isolated existence and brought to Rat Park, where they immediately became part of a thriving rat community. As with their previous cage, Rat Park had two water bottles, so there was the choice of water or morphine water. Almost every drug-addicted rat chose … the plain water. Some exhibited signs of withdrawal, but even still, when surrounded by rat friends, they chose plain water.
Left alone for much longer, they would have overdosed and died. In Ratland, they broke free of their addiction and regained a good life.
It’s not just rats. For instance, 20% of the American soldiers who went to war in Vietnam used and became addicted to heroin. When they came home from the war almost all of them did not remain addicted, did not go to rehab, they just stopped. 95% stopped taking drugs when they returned to friends and family who loved them and provided the opportunity to return to a normal life.
Turns out: People don’t heal in isolation.
————————————————————
As a therapist, I encounter many people who are struggling in isolation. Some have addictions, but others struggle with anxiety, depression or low self-esteem. One of my treatment recommendations is to create community, even if it’s with a person or two. Isolation isn’t healthy for us; we need people in our lives.
You are not alone. At the Renewing Life Center we have a team of professionals available to help you. Click here to schedule an appointment today!
Jennifer Antonucci, M.A., LMFT, LCADC