Addiction Rooting From Loneliness And Lack Of Community

I read recently that a study done on rats showed that rats only became addicted to the drugs provided if they didn't have a stimulating environment filled with lots of things and lots of other rats to play with. I found this revelation absolutely astounding.

Transcript

Hello everyone!

I hope that you guys are doing amazing wherever you are in the world.

My name is Bhoomshakha and I welcome you to my channel.

As always,

I'm so grateful that you're listening,

Subscribing and commenting.

In this one,

I want to speak to you guys about loneliness and the epidemic of loneliness that is pervading the human race right now,

Humanity in general.

It's kind of interesting because the coronavirus thing and the quarantine life and being on your own by yourself in your room is highlighting for a lot of people how lonely they actually are and how they're actually wanting and needing to reach out to people in their life that they've probably not reached out to in a long long time.

For an introvert,

Perhaps it's not that much of an issue because we pretty much spend our lives like this.

I know I do.

But for extroverts,

They're noticing how important it is for them obviously to hang out with their people.

But also how grateful they are that Skype exists and FaceTime exists and Zoom or Google Hangouts exist.

Because without those mediums,

It would be absolutely impossible for them to even survive this quarantine because they need to be conversing with their people on a daily almost basis,

If not weekly or maybe bi-weekly or whatever it might be.

I know my parents are both extroverts and literally all day long what they do every day is talk to their friends because not only do their friends need it,

Obviously,

But they need it as well.

They need that interaction,

That communication in order to feel connected to their people and also just to feel less lonely perhaps.

My friend was actually sharing a really interesting study with me recently and I wanted to share this with you guys because I don't know if you guys are aware of this,

But it's a brilliant study and it was done with rats like all studies are.

Basically what they did was that they gave rats the obviously a lot of drugs,

The option to have drugs.

So cocaine or whatever they could like press a button and get a hit of cocaine or heroin or whatever that drug might have been.

I'm not really sure of the details.

And so,

You know,

They could get that hit and then they would do that.

And obviously if rats were given the option and they were by themselves in the cage and they were in on their own lonely alone,

They would take that hit over and over again.

They would want the heroin hit or the cocaine hit over and over and over and over again until they died because of the overdose.

But if you put rats in an environment where there were loads of other rats around,

So it was a social environment where they had lots of stimulation and lots of things to play with and lots of puzzles and things like that and people to play with,

Other rats.

They noticed that even if they were given the option to have that hit of heroin or that hit of cocaine,

People,

Rats did not take that option.

Right?

They were happy enough and comfortable enough and I guess content enough with their interactions and people,

The rats around them,

Their life in general that they did not need this hit of cocaine or heroin.

So even if it was there,

That option was present to them,

They didn't actually take advantage of it.

Right?

Now,

Of course,

Obviously as I said,

When they were by themselves,

They needed it.

They wanted it.

They desired it.

They took a lot of it,

So much so that they killed themselves.

And this study was kind of used to show the perspective that loneliness is perhaps the major primary or the primary reason why a lot of individuals get into addiction and get into these addictive behaviors.

Because not that they want to be addicted to cocaine or heroin or any other drug,

But because they have no,

Because they're lonely,

First of all,

Because they have no human interaction and they are alone and they feel that need or desire for something more.

They feel empty inside and they're trying to fill a gap or a hole and the drug allows them to do that.

But also because they don't have enough stimulation or enough things that interest them.

They're not,

They don't,

They're excited about something every day.

They don't get up every day thinking about something that they want to do.

And so then in that boredom,

That loneliness,

All of those things kind of perpetuate this need for something more.

And addiction or the drug allows that,

You know,

Gives them that something,

Whatever they were seeking.

Of course,

It's very dangerous to seek it that way.

So obviously it's better if you find,

You know,

Your tribe or your group of people or find something that you really want to do with your life on this planet.

But that was actually really interesting to me because as a lot of people had before the study,

A lot of people assumed that people want or some people are just prone to addictions.

You know,

They're just prone to,

Prone to being addicted to random things.

If they weren't addicted to drugs,

They would be addicted to exercise or they'd be addicted to food or they'd be addicted to something else.

It's like they have this thing inside of their brain that causes the addiction.

But then,

You know,

After the study,

They realized,

Well,

I mean,

Even if the circumstances were right,

Even if they were given the drugs,

The rats actually did not want the drug.

They just wanted to be with their friends.

They wanted to play.

They wanted to learn.

They wanted to grow.

And this is pretty much,

In my opinion,

Revolutionary because it is,

I'm not saying that no addiction should exist at all.

I'm sure some addiction would still exist,

Even if everyone was happy,

Content and,

You know,

Doing their thing.

But I believe that a lot of like maybe 99% of the addiction could be eliminated if we actually thought about addiction as a loneliness epidemic side effect,

Rather than just some people,

What some people do because they're bored or some people are just prone to it.

Maybe that's not actually the truth.

Now,

Of course,

This is just one study that they've done and I'm not an expert in this regard at all.

But I do know in my own experience,

In my own life,

When I was lonely,

When I was lonely in the past,

When I was by myself and I did not have anything that I was working towards.

I did not have any aspirations or motivations.

And,

You know,

I spent a lot of time by myself.

I did notice that my inclination to drink a lot,

My inclination to try out really risky behaviors,

My inclination to do stupid things with myself actually grew exponentially.

And I would do all these things and I think to myself,

Why am I doing this?

It's just because I wanted to feel something.

I wanted to know that I could feel that I could feel this,

Fill this emptiness inside of me,

Whatever I was feeling.

As time went on and I discovered my try,

But more so I discovered what I meant to do on this planet,

You know,

My writing and my videos and all the stuff that I do,

All the content creation that I love to do.

As I discovered that,

The loneliness I was feeling disappeared and this need or desire to sabotage myself and my body and my mind completely disappeared.

In fact,

I try as much as possible not to do anything that will negate my neurons or my cells or my spirituality or my anything in any regard.

Right?

I'm always making sure that I sleep enough,

That I eat well,

That I exercise enough,

That I walk enough,

That I move enough,

That I talk to enough people,

All in the hope and desire to make myself the most optimal,

Most healthiest person out there so I can keep on going,

Keep on living,

Keep on doing the things that I'm doing because I love them so much.

Right?

So I wanted to share this with you,

This study more so because I've been noticing,

At least in my friend circle,

A lot of people who are kind of getting addicted to pot.

Now,

I'm not saying that that's a dangerous thing at all.

Obviously,

A lot of people think it's a medical thing and a lot of people use it as a medical thing,

Obviously,

Which is great that they have that option.

But I'm noticing that a lot of them come to me saying that,

You know,

They're doing it not because they want to do it,

But because they're bored or because they don't have anything that they're working towards.

They don't know what their purpose is,

Why they're here,

What they're here to do.

And so in order to negate that boredom,

Negate that lack of motivation,

That lack of inspiration,

They're using pot as a way to get through the days,

As a sort of time pass,

As a sort of a way to kind of pass the time until they die,

Basically.

It's kind of scary,

Obviously,

But also it's interesting to me that,

You know,

It's as simple as kind of making sure that you are not lonely.

So you have that tribe or group of people around you.

Now,

It's,

I mean,

There's billions of people on this planet.

So I'm sure you can find a couple of people who are in your tribe who you can associate with and you be friendly with.

But more than that,

I think it's more important to find what you're here to do.

And I talk about this quite often because I think it's one of those things that can absolutely transform someone's life,

Because it did that for me.

And so I think that's what a lot of us,

Maybe in the quarantine right now that we have the time,

Should try and focus on.

Maybe it's a question that you could ask on a daily basis.

What am I here to do?

What skills or talents or abilities do I uniquely bring to this planet that I can use in order to make the planet and the world a better place?

What can I do in order to spend the time that I'm here on this planet in the most optimal manner,

In a way that I can really contribute to the planet and the world in the way that suits me,

Suits me particularly rather than anyone else on this planet.

Right.

And so I think this is a really important question for us to ask,

Not only for the health of the planet,

Obviously,

But also the health of ourselves.

If you want to make sure that you are not dropping or drooping into these addictive behaviors,

Or you're not kind of becoming lonely or kind of becoming the kind of person who has no aspirations or growth motivations or nothing that pushes them or drives them.

I think it's a really important question to ask on a daily basis.

I know I still do,

Even though I know what I want to do with my life and my time.

On a daily basis,

I ask myself,

Is this what I want to do with my life?

And if the answer is still a resounding yes,

I'm like,

Awesome,

Great.

Let's keep on going.

If it's not,

Then I'm like,

All right,

Cool.

What else do I want to do with myself?

Right.

And so I really wanted to share all these random hodgepodge ideas with you.

Hopefully I was able to bring them together to make some sense.

If you guys have any questions about this,

Please do ask me.

I'm always here to answer any questions in video format.

And of course,

If I don't have an answer to the question,

You've asked me a question.

If I haven't done a video on it,

It's basically that I don't have an answer for it yet.

I'll research it and maybe eventually I'll come up with an answer.

But sometimes I just don't I don't know anything about it.

So like,

All right,

I don't think I can do a video on it.

Again,

Thank you so much for being on my channel.

I really appreciate it.

And I shall see you guys next time around.

Bye for now.