Has Modern Life Led to More Addiction?
It’s tempting to think that the widespread drug abuse and other forms of addiction we see today are a modern phenomenon. It’s easy to imagine that a tidal wave of recreational drugs suddenly washed onto the streets of Western nations like Britain and the USA during the second half of the 20th century, and continues to swell to this day.
However, while it’s true that certain substances such as cocaine and heroin (not to mention sugary food) have become more readily available in the last 30 or 40 years, I suspect that the disease of addiction has been around for far longer than we realize. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that mankind has been quietly getting smashed, one way or another, for thousands of years.
The production of alcoholic beverages dates back at least as far as the Neolithic period (9000–2000BCE), and is common in many cultures. The ancient Egyptians are thought to have been keen brewers who enjoyed consuming alcohol (no doubt sometimes to excess), and the Bible contains numerous references to drunkenness, including a passage that warns:
‘For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.’ (Proverbs 23:21)
Historical accounts show that alcoholism was widespread among London’s population during the 18th century – the average consumption of gin was around two pints per week a head (a problem which led the authorities to license spirits in the 1750s).
Similarly, drug abuse isn’t confined to modern times. During the 15th century, opium was consumed recreationally in China, and the substance was eventually banned there in 1729. And, since prostitution is known as the ‘oldest profession’, it seems a reasonable assumption that sex addiction has been around for far longer than we might think.
So, it seems likely that addiction is an age-old disease, but is the perceived rise in the number of people who suffer from its many and varied forms somehow a reflection of our modern way of living? Or have we simply become more aware of the problem? In my opinion, an answer can be given by making two points.
Firstly, I believe that people are no more addictive by nature today than they would have been thousands of years ago. Indeed, since modern-day addicts are those whom I consider the descendants of The Watchers (see Chapter 5), I believe the underlying condition is nearly as old as mankind.
However, the second point is that modern life has nonetheless created numerous outlets for addiction that are new and dangerous. This has been caused by factors such as the impact of technology, growing levels of affluence, and the erosion of social bonds such as the family and religion. As a result, I believe that those of us who are born with an addictive nature need to be on our guard against a far greater range of temptations than ever before.
History tells us that human beings have always been susceptible to certain forms of addiction. It’s an illness that can manifest itself in so many different ways, so I believe it may have been misdiagnosed as other things in the past. While it might have been obvious if a person drank himself to death during a huge binge, in many cases lifestyle factors such as chronic alcoholism may have been overlooked as a cause of death.
This is because addiction is a primary condition that leads to other health problems that may be easier for doctors to spot. Alcohol abuse can cause all sorts of medical complications, such as heart and liver disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. In days gone by these may have been recorded as the immediate cause of death, without anybody necessarily making a connection with alcohol.
Similarly, in Victorian times, if a woman had died from an addiction-based eating disorder I very much doubt it would have been recorded on the death certificate as anorexia. There simply wasn’t the medical knowledge at the time to make an accurate diagnosis, and instead it may have been recorded as a catch-all condition such as a ‘wasting disease’ or ‘consumption’.
It’s only in modern times that we’re slowly beginning to understand the true scale of how addiction impacts on the population – and even now our knowledge is sketchy.
What we do know for certain today is that addiction is widespread, and it has an enormous negative impact on public health. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) in the USA, over the course of one month in 2011 an estimated 22.5 million Americans used an illicit drug or abused a psychotherapeutic medication (such as a pain reliever, stimulant or tranquilizer).13
This figure equates to 8.7 per cent of the population and represents a slight increase from 8.3 per cent in 2002. Most of this rise was due to an increase in the use of marijuana. Rates of alcohol abuse in the USA declined very slightly over the same period, with 16.7 million Americans (6.5 per cent of the population) either dependent on alcohol or experiencing problems due to alcohol abuse in 2011.
These statistics represent a mountain of misery and health problems, but they only provide a brief snapshot, since they don’t take into account other forms of addiction.
In the UK, the official figures suggest there has been a large increase in both problem drinking and morbid obesity over the last decade. According to government figures, in 2012 there were 178,247 prescriptions issued for drugs to treat alcohol dependency.14 This is an increase of 73 per cent on the 2003 figure.
There were also 1.2 million hospital admissions due to booze consumption resulting in an alcohol-related injury or disease (this is more than twice as many as during 2002/2003, although adjusted figures due to changes in counting estimate the rise to be around 51 per cent).
These alcohol figures don’t surprise me in the least, since in the UK it has now become socially acceptable to deliberately go out and get so plastered that you don’t know what day it is! A generation or two ago this simply wasn’t the case. When I was a teenager, heavy drinking was common, but nonetheless the idea of getting so drunk that you couldn’t walk was considered a sign of weakness.
Meanwhile, the medical profession is so worried about obesity that some doctors now refer to sugar as ‘the new tobacco’ because of its harmful effect on health when consumed in excess. In January 2014, the UK pressure group Action on Sugar called on the government and the food industry to take steps to limit sugar intake.
The availability of cheap, sugar-laden food means that we’re now at more risk of food addiction than at any other time in history.
Growing levels of affluence in the Western world mean that we can now afford to gorge ourselves on sugar without it being a financial burden. During the postwar years in the UK there simply wasn’t enough food to go around for this to be the case.
The challenge thrown up by population growth has created a situation where we now consume mountains of refined carbohydrates because they are easier and cheaper to produce than other types of food. We cannot feed the world if we rely only on protein. Modern life has therefore found a way of feeding the population, but unfortunately the result is highly addictive.
At the same time, a whole industry has been created that’s devoted to selling high-sugar, carbohydrate-rich food on a mass scale. Whenever we switch on the TV we’re bombarded with slick advertising that constantly reinforces the message that it’s okay to consume large quantities of products like sweetened fizzy drinks. In supermarkets there are clever deals like multipack offers and ‘Buy One Get One Free’ (quaintly known in the industry as BOGOF), which appeal to our addictive nature.
In addition, stores often cut the price of alcoholic drinks in a bid to attract more customers. If you’re going to buy yourself a cheap 12-pack of beer to drink on the sofa while you watch The X Factor, or some other favourite show, the chances are that you’ll take advantage of the snacks the store has to offer too.
For the first time in history, most of the population of the West can eat until they’re completely satiated, every day. Ironically, though, it’s possible that the poorest sections of society are adversely affected by this, since there’s some evidence to suggest that obesity is particularly prevalent among those on low incomes (who are more likely to encounter problems in their lives that they seek to alleviate).
As many commentators before me have pointed out, the human body has not evolved to cope with this development. Nature has engineered us to be hunter-gatherers who are motivated by a degree of hunger to exercise while we gather or hunt for food. We’re simply not designed to be full all of the time, having stuffed our faces on an epic scale.
We live in a society in which almost everything we do is geared towards instant gratification. We believe that we have the right to consume whatever we want, whenever we want it. In a supermarket we expect to find all the goods we could possibly desire – all lined up, ready to buy. And for an addict, this is like throwing petrol on the fire.
Meanwhile, the internet gives us round-the-clock access to almost every product or service known to man. With a few clicks of a mouse it’s possible to find everything from weather reports to graphic sex. We expect our entertainment – from video games to music and movies – to be available for instant streaming.
Computer games are an example of this. They seem harmless and fun, and you can understand why a parent would rather their child was safe in his bedroom in front of a screen than out on the streets where hidden dangers might lurk. Unfortunately, computer gaming is highly addictive. If you’re uncomfortable in the real world they offer a form of escapism to a digital world in which your feelings of being inadequate are replaced by false self-esteem. The game becomes all important and nothing else matters.
I’m aware of cases of 16-year-old boys who will play for up to 12 hours at a time. It leaves them tired and listless and unable to function properly in the real world. They lose the ability to form personal relationships, and in extreme cases they don’t even eat properly. I’ve also known gaming addiction to affect men in their thirties, who often have parallel addictions to internet pornography.
Today’s technology allows us to be bombarded with new temptations on a daily basis. The combined effect of all this has created new outlets for addictive behaviour that simply didn’t exist a generation ago.
The web is awash with sexual content and it’s not uncommon for porn addicts to spend hour after hour searching for material of an increasingly extreme nature. In the end their habit becomes all-consuming and it can dominate their lives. Similarly, it’s now possible to gamble around the clock in many parts of the world via the internet. What would once have involved a trip to a bookmaker, is now freely available in a millisecond.
Technology also impacts on us in ways that are very subtle, but which can still activate the addict within us. Social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram are often used to portray a gloss-coated world in which everybody is having a great time. But if you’re feeling down and low, the effect of being bombarded with messages about how well everybody else is doing is likely to make you feel all the more inadequate and ‘Less Than’ others. Trying to reply to all these messages while pretending to be upbeat is in itself a demoralizing process.
The advent of smartphones has given us access to email and text services around the clock, with no respite. If you’re a Watcher who is constantly alert to danger or bad news, there’s no longer any downtime to relax. You’re always on guard against that phone call or message that’s going to ruin your day. Of course, you could switch off your phone, but that only leads to more worry because you’re out of touch. It’s a vicious circle.
These new challenges that addicts face have coincided with a change in cultural factors such as the importance of family and religion. In the past these may have acted as brakes on addictive behaviour, whereas today they often play a lesser role in our lives. This is particularly so in the UK, where divorce rates have rocketed and church attendances have fallen.
The reason why I believe this is significant is that addiction is a disease that’s isolationist by nature. When we’re alone and estranged from others we’re at our most vulnerable. In contrast, a loving family can give us a sense of security and warmth that’s very comforting (although, of course, dysfunctional family ties can have the opposite effect). Family bonds may also reinforce the idea that certain types of behaviour, like illicit drug taking or excessive alcohol abuse, are unacceptable.
Similarly, although I’m an atheist myself, I can fully understand how religion can create a spiritual sense of wellbeing that’s very comforting to potential addicts. If this means you’re less likely to be consumed by your addictive demons then I fully applaud that.
As I pointed out earlier, most self-help groups describe addiction as a ‘spiritual’ illness, and one way of interpreting spirituality is that it’s an inner sense of serenity that comes through being at peace with the world around us and having a limbic connection with the people within it.
If religious ties and family bonds can help some addicts to achieve this, it can only be a good thing. Having said that, both family and religion can just as easily be aggravating factors, so I don’t want to overstate their importance. However, the fact that these elements have less of an impact on some people’s lives may have contributed to a culture in which, in some circles, it’s socially acceptable to drink heavily and take drugs.
Meanwhile, we’ve become obsessed with the Culture of Celebrity, and our media outlets saturate us with gossip about the ever-changing roster of famous actors, singers, dancers, models and reality-show stars we find so fascinating. This creates its own pressures because it’s crazy to assume that we can all afford to wear designer clothes and live like the rich and famous. (Ironically, I suspect that a lot of products from designer brands are actually purchased by people who are neither rich nor famous, they just believe the hype.)
When we’re unable to do so it can fuel our inner feelings of inadequacy, causing us to seek out alternatives that are addictive and damaging. Similarly, advertising creates a view of the world in which everybody must drive an expensive car or have the latest gadget. If you’re born with an addictive nature, there’s a danger you’ll react to this by feeling worthless and ‘Less Than’ when you can’t afford these things.
Of course, our modern lifestyle can’t be blamed for everything. I believe addicts are born that way and then shaped by their experiences in life. What the modern world does throw up, however, are newer and greater temptations, combined with a culture that celebrates indulgence.