In this article, I talk about my experience challenging arguments of addiction put fort by Kurzgesagt with Johann Hari a few years back.

During my time off after my undergrad studies, I started taking online courses from a wide range of fields. In one of the courses, I was learning about the science behind addiction and effective ways of treatment. At around the same time, the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt uploaded a video on addiction. The arugments in the video seemed clearly flawed to me. So, I decided to do more careful research and point out the flaws in their reasoning.

The video argued that social connection is enough to pull a person out of addiction. But all evidence suggests that the most effective way to treat addiction is by following a recovery pathway that takes in account the biological, psychological and social factors. I expressed the same to my course instructor Dr. Femke Buisman-Pijlman to get her opinion on the issue. Here response is below:

Dear Surya, Thank you for sharing this. It is indeed *quite simplistic*. There are a few good points in there. Social connections are important and people who do not have a strong secure bond with people are more vulnerable to drug effects and addiction. However, assuming that they *can easily switch to get a strong bond is where this idea becomes too simplistic for me*. My research focusses on how early social environment shapes the developing brain and our chance to get into trouble with drugs and alcohol. We are setup to bond, but we need to have positive early social interactions to learn that they are rewarding. If we miss this window, I think social interactions can be important but it will be different. Weighing social and drug rewards are *more likely to go in favour of drug reward* as social relations do not have the same impact. Social integration however is important to help people succeed in remaining drug free.

I was also able to see flaws in each of the arguments put forth in the video. So I made a video to counter their argument. At this point, most audience liked the video by Kurzgesagt, not many saw the flaws. When I put forth my counter argument, it was gathering a lot of views very quickly and many people started telling me I was wrong. I was quite disappointed to see that response back then and made the video private. (I used harsher words back then; I would do it differently to more effectively communicate my point if I had a chance but the core point I was making is just as valid)

Turns out, just couple of months back Kurzgesagt agreed that the video was a one-sided view of the topic and took it down. This makes be happy, because I now know I wasn’t a complete crackpot. In retrospect, I should’ve stood my ground instead of walking away in face of criticism.

I’m quite impressed that such a big YouTube channel took down the video even though it had so many views and they put months into making it. But the Johann’s talk on TED is still up with the bold title “Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong”. I’m hoping that having my video up would help counter the facts at some extent. I would redo the video pharsing my arguments differently if I had the time.