What causes addiction? Let's use heroin as an example, as this is one of the most addictive drugs out there. This is a really stupid question, right? Heroin causes heroin addiction. After taking the drug for a certain period of time, your body becomes physically dependent on it, unable to function properly without it. But, the thing is, this isn't actually true; how we think addiction works is almost totally wrong.

When you go to the hospital with a broken bone, you are given morphine. Morphine is from the same family of drugs as heroin; it's actually much stronger and more concentrated, as it hasn't been diluted with other chemicals that cartels use to make the drug cheaper to produce. Right now, thousands of people are getting luxury grade heroin in hospitals across the country. You'd think some would become addicted, but this has been closely studied, and it simply doesn't happen.

The most fundamental research about addiction took place during the 1900s. The experiment is now well known, and was simple: you put a rat in a cage with two water bottles. One had regular water in it, and the other had water laced with heroin or cocaine. Pretty much every time, the rat will keep coming back to the drugged water until it kills itself. However, in the 1970s, Canadian psychiatrist Bruce K. Alexander noticed something strange about the experiment; the rat was alone in the cage. It had nothing to do except take the drugs. He wondered what would happen if the rat had other things to do.

In this spirit, Alexander created Rat Park. It was a large cage with tunnels to run through, colored balls to play with, and lots of rats to befriend, or have sexy times with. Rat Park was everything a rat could want. Rat Park also had the two different water bottles, and the results were very different. Barely any of the rats used the drugged water, none of them ever used it habitually, and none of the rats ever overdosed.

We also have a human version of this experiment: the Vietnam War. Roughly 20 percent of soldiers in Vietnam were using heroin, and Americans were terrified that thousands of junkies would be roaming the streets. However, this was far from the case; they just stopped using when they got back home. They didn't seek counseling, go to rehab or even experience withdrawal. Nearly 95 percent just went cold turkey. If you believe the old theory of addiction, this makes absolutely no sense, but if you believe Dr. Alexander's theory, it makes perfect sense. If you're in a scary jungle where you could have to kill or be killed at any given moment, taking heroin is a pretty good use of your time. If you then left that jungle and returned to your family and friends, it's the equivalent of being removed from the first cage, and inserted into a human rat park. Addiction isn't about the chemicals, it's about the cages we live in.

Humans are very social animals; we have to interact and bond with others in order to lead healthy, fulfilling lives. When we can't bond with other people, due to trauma or depression, we look for other things to bond with. It could be alcohol, video games, social media, gambling, or drugs, but we will bond with something. It's just human nature to do so. In order to solve the problem of addiction, we first must think of addiction differently. So, how do you sever unhealthy bonds? By creating healthy ones. Go out with your friends, or your family, or even a complete stranger if you want to. Go out and make your own version of Rat Park, because the opposite of addiction isn't sobriety, it's connection.