MEAN REVERSION
This piece titled "Drunkenfreude" got my attention with it's anecdotal observation that folks in recent years don't seem to be drinking as much*:
If alcoholism is an addiction — which it is — how can people control
their drinking just because it is no longer acceptable to get drunk?
What about smoking, another addiction? Addicts are supposed to be
powerless; is a little social disapproval more powerful than all the
rehabilitation centers and 12-step programs and fancy new drugs?
Does fashion trump addiction?
Addiction specialists and scientists have identified three causes of most addictions: early trauma, genes, and environment. Still, addiction has eluded all attempts at a precise definition or a complete understanding. In most models, environment is thought to be the least of the three so-called causes. But maybe environment is the elephant in the room. In an environment where it is not attractive to get drunk, no one gets drunk.
In his brilliant book about addiction, “America Anonymous,” Benoit Denizet-Lewis describes an experiment done by Vancouver professor Bruce Alexander in which rats in small cages were compared to rats in a specially designed Rat Heaven, a room where lab rats had everything that lab rats like. The rats in cages drank 16 times as much of the sugary morphine solution offered than the rats in Rat Heaven. Can addictions be controlled just by circumstances? Are parties and vacations an overlooked way to treat alcoholism?
If the economic good times of recent years was a driver of lower drinking, then what happens as the cycle turns? What happens when the rats lose their rat heavens?
* Image source.
Comments