Now controversially spans all sorts of behaviours

necessarily go on to become 
an addict, and there are also 
some people who are addicted 
who do not have it. So genetics 
and biology only play a 
contributory part to begin with.” 
Instead, some people 
may have an unfortunate 
combination of genetics and 
a certain personality type, such 
as sensation seeking, which 
together make them susceptible. 
Findings like these are leading 
to new approaches for treatments. 
Heilig’s group is working on 
medications that reduce the 
production of GABA released 
by nerve cells in the amygdala. So 
far this seems to work in the rats.
The addiction lottery
13
19
42
27
6
2
RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws

---

14 September 2019 | New Scientist | 
47
is that very few people would be classed as a 
genuine addict, he says. “The key difference 
between an excessive healthy enthusiasm and 
an addiction is that healthy enthusiasms add 
to life and addictions take away from it.”
Significantly, time spent on the behaviour is 
not a criterion for addiction, he says. One of his 
most highly cited studies compared two cases, 
both men who were gaming for up to 14 hours 
each day. The first was married with three 
children and a career before he lost everything 
as a result of his playing. The second had just 
left university, had no partner or children and 
went on to meet his wife playing 
World of 
Warcraft
. His time spent gaming decreased as 
a result, and he now works in the video-game 
industry. “Computer games were the most 
important thing in his life, but when he got his 
first job, the gaming stopped just like that,” 
says Griffiths. “It was quite clearly nothing to 
do with loss of control or addiction.” 
Griffiths regularly receives emails from 
parents who are shocked and worried by the 
amount of time their children spend playing 
computer games or on social media. This is the 
“technological generation gap”, he says. If their 
children still go to school, see friends and have 
other hobbies, he says, they aren’t addicted.
We know that only 15 per cent of people 
who are exposed to an addictive substance will 
end up hooked, and what determines whether 
or not they do is one of the burning questions 
of addiction research. One suggestion is 
that it is down to differences in the brain’s 
molecular machinery (see “The addiction 
lottery”, page 46), although genetics and 
personality also play a part. 
And while some people manage to cut out 
addictive substances from their lives, that isn’t 
always possible for certain behaviours. This is 
why abstinence isn’t always the answer, says 
psychologist Richard Graham, head of the tech 
addiction service at Nightingale Hospital in 
London. He encourages those worried that 
they are veering towards unhealthy tech habits 
to use the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 
family media plan, which involves establishing 
“clean” tech-free zones in the home and 
technology-free periods every day. 
For the individuals affected, the clinicians 
who treat them and the scientists who study 
them, addictions are as real as heart disease, 
just far less understood. And the more we 
know about them, the more we can do to treat 
them. “My addiction has taught me that life is 
very precious,” says Ian. “I destroyed a lot of 
people, including myself.”
❚
Moya Sarner (@MoyaSarner) is a 
writer based in London. She is writing 
her first book, 
When do you grow up?