Random thought on opioid addiction, no offense meant to people actually dealing with addiction, but I wonder if this might be useful: I read that opioid withdrawal makes people feel pain because the brain gets accustomed to extreme levels of pain suppression and without opioids their pain tolerance is so low that everything itches and hurts. This makes me wonder if this effect is kind of similar to autistic sensory sensitivities, just turned up to 9000. Could it be that withdrawal doesn’t create pain, but simply amplifies and turns attention to small pains and discomforts that are already there, but normal people just don’t notice or get used to ignoring? If so, opioid addiction may be like a canary in the coal mine, where people get used to being in pain and lack healthy tools to deal with it. If opioid addiction is largely because of painful withdrawal rather than just pleasure, could techniques to avoid pain be helpful in dealing with opioid addiction? Autistic people often need various coping strategies, like ear plugs to avoid noise or special clothing to decrease everyday friction that normies take for granted, and they can be more sensitive to internal bodily signals like pains that most people just don’t think are a big deal. Could the same coping skills and additional treatment for mild chronic pain etc be used to help treat addiction? If teaching physical and emotional pain avoidance/management skills to addicts when they are going through withdrawal is impractical, why not also teach them to non-addicts who might be at risk or just people in general, before they have a chance to become addicted? Less pain to begin with means fewer reasons to escape pain using drugs, and more chances to learn. Maybe everyone can benefit from taking small pains and discomforts and unhappiness more seriously as a society. And I don’t mean purely mental skills—we probably shouldn’t treat addicts or people at risk of becoming addicts the same way we treat normies. When people are really sensitized or in crisis, mental tolerance, mindfulness and reframing probably isn’t very helpful. We also need more physical ways to remove causes of pain, like widely available comfortable, itch-free clothing, ergonomic beds and chairs, quality air and quiet areas, treatment and prevention of minor chronic issues like inflammation and joint damage with age, etc. Instead of telling people to tough it up, treat minor pain and unhappiness as early warnings, and normalize healthy comfort-seeking before being in crisis. Also normalize and invest in treatment and prevention of low-grade health issues that people don’t typically go to the doctor for. These may seem like luxuries but are cheaper than long-term addiction and prison.
I knew closely several opiod addicted people and had myself addicted to nicotine. Physical withdrawal symptoms is only a small part of the problem in both cases. Although I tend to agree with you on this part:
withdrawal doesn’t create pain, but simply amplifies and turns attention to small pains and discomforts that are already there, but normal people just don’t notice or get used to ignoring
You really can thoughen up and endure days to weeks of the physical withdraval, but then you have to deal with the months to years of the psychological addiction.
Opiod addiction is like a short circuit in motivation: Normally, when some problem bothers you, you are motivated to solve it. Opioids give an illusion of all problems disappearing, and teach people this flawed behavioral pattern: Instead of solving the actual problem, just take a dose. And this becomes a vicious cycle: addicted person spends all money on drugs, it produces more problems and more urge to solve them with taking more drugs. Planning horizon reduces to hours. Some prefer to steal money to get a doze even knowing that they will be caught the same day.
Thanks for the input! If addiction is more because of psychological pain (“problems that bother you”) than direct physical pain, could the same approach work but with mental pleasures/distractions from pain instead, like games, toys or organized social activities? Edit: And coping methods to avoid/decrease mental and social discomfort, which can include but are not limited to just therapy or communication, but could be things like new job/friends or prioritizing things in life differently. I read that some people trying to fight addiction get overwhelmed by having to get everything together at once, or being expected to just quit and function like normal immediately. If they were supported to have fun/play and feel better first in healthier ways, could it be more helpful?
Of course. And this is what many good rehabilitation programs do.
But the mere distraction is again, only a temporary solution. Patients need to relearn healthy behavioral patterns, otherwise they may fall back eventually.
Games are good in that sense that they provide a quick feedback loop. You had a problem and quickly solved it without a drug.
Random thought on opioid addiction, no offense meant to people actually dealing with addiction, but I wonder if this might be useful: I read that opioid withdrawal makes people feel pain because the brain gets accustomed to extreme levels of pain suppression and without opioids their pain tolerance is so low that everything itches and hurts. This makes me wonder if this effect is kind of similar to autistic sensory sensitivities, just turned up to 9000. Could it be that withdrawal doesn’t create pain, but simply amplifies and turns attention to small pains and discomforts that are already there, but normal people just don’t notice or get used to ignoring? If so, opioid addiction may be like a canary in the coal mine, where people get used to being in pain and lack healthy tools to deal with it. If opioid addiction is largely because of painful withdrawal rather than just pleasure, could techniques to avoid pain be helpful in dealing with opioid addiction? Autistic people often need various coping strategies, like ear plugs to avoid noise or special clothing to decrease everyday friction that normies take for granted, and they can be more sensitive to internal bodily signals like pains that most people just don’t think are a big deal. Could the same coping skills and additional treatment for mild chronic pain etc be used to help treat addiction? If teaching physical and emotional pain avoidance/management skills to addicts when they are going through withdrawal is impractical, why not also teach them to non-addicts who might be at risk or just people in general, before they have a chance to become addicted? Less pain to begin with means fewer reasons to escape pain using drugs, and more chances to learn. Maybe everyone can benefit from taking small pains and discomforts and unhappiness more seriously as a society. And I don’t mean purely mental skills—we probably shouldn’t treat addicts or people at risk of becoming addicts the same way we treat normies. When people are really sensitized or in crisis, mental tolerance, mindfulness and reframing probably isn’t very helpful. We also need more physical ways to remove causes of pain, like widely available comfortable, itch-free clothing, ergonomic beds and chairs, quality air and quiet areas, treatment and prevention of minor chronic issues like inflammation and joint damage with age, etc. Instead of telling people to tough it up, treat minor pain and unhappiness as early warnings, and normalize healthy comfort-seeking before being in crisis. Also normalize and invest in treatment and prevention of low-grade health issues that people don’t typically go to the doctor for. These may seem like luxuries but are cheaper than long-term addiction and prison.
I knew closely several opiod addicted people and had myself addicted to nicotine. Physical withdrawal symptoms is only a small part of the problem in both cases. Although I tend to agree with you on this part:
You really can thoughen up and endure days to weeks of the physical withdraval, but then you have to deal with the months to years of the psychological addiction.
Opiod addiction is like a short circuit in motivation: Normally, when some problem bothers you, you are motivated to solve it. Opioids give an illusion of all problems disappearing, and teach people this flawed behavioral pattern: Instead of solving the actual problem, just take a dose. And this becomes a vicious cycle: addicted person spends all money on drugs, it produces more problems and more urge to solve them with taking more drugs. Planning horizon reduces to hours. Some prefer to steal money to get a doze even knowing that they will be caught the same day.
Thanks for the input! If addiction is more because of psychological pain (“problems that bother you”) than direct physical pain, could the same approach work but with mental pleasures/distractions from pain instead, like games, toys or organized social activities?
Edit: And coping methods to avoid/decrease mental and social discomfort, which can include but are not limited to just therapy or communication, but could be things like new job/friends or prioritizing things in life differently. I read that some people trying to fight addiction get overwhelmed by having to get everything together at once, or being expected to just quit and function like normal immediately. If they were supported to have fun/play and feel better first in healthier ways, could it be more helpful?
Of course. And this is what many good rehabilitation programs do.
But the mere distraction is again, only a temporary solution. Patients need to relearn healthy behavioral patterns, otherwise they may fall back eventually.
Games are good in that sense that they provide a quick feedback loop. You had a problem and quickly solved it without a drug.