An interesting thought on addiction

Last night me and my brother were good and high after smoking a big doob, and as such we started contemplating the little abstract concepts in life as per our usual roughtine when high. So a thought occured to us on addiction. Please keep in mind, no substances are to be named here, just the notion of being addicted.

As we all know, when one becomes addicted (both physically and psychologically) to a substance, there is an overwhelming craving to injest it again, a need to have it again so as to maintain a comfortable state of homeostasis. Thus, we do anything to obtain it, crave it with all our being, and sometimes fight to resist the urge to take it.

Now suppose for a month (or so) we give some highly addictive substance to a person without their knowing (lets say we slip it in their morning coffee). After a long period of injesting this substance, the person is very addicted without knowing it. Then we suddenly cut off the daily administration, initiating withdrawl symptoms. So the question arises, would the person still crave that substance? He/She doesn't know what is causing the withdrawl, so would there simply be a period of intense discomfort presumed to be an illness, or would that person have a craving for something and just not know what that something is? Would they know they need to take something to feel better?

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Originally Posted by Billionfold

They'd probably just drink a lot more coffee, and let caffeine replace whatever the other substance was.

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We're assuming this is heroin-strength addiction though...

I see what you're saying: If you gave someone a strong addictive substance without them knowing, then stopped giving it to them, would they still crave it.

Interesting question. I don't think they would crave anything in my opinion, but if they did become addicted to something, then stopeed and suffered withdrawl, they would still get sick, without any craving. If they were unaware of taking a substance, then they wouldn't know what to crave.

So I think, they would experience all the withdrawl symptoms, similar to a bad flu, but no craving. They would still sweat, vomit and all that stuff, but they would figure it's the flu.

of course they would still crave it, they just wouldnt know what it is they're craving. if we're talking a hard drug TYPE of addiction, an addiction like that just doesnt go away. take a baby for instance, a baby doesn't know it needs to breathe or even what air is, but if you take air away from that baby, you can bet your bottom dollar that its gonna squirm!

I find it interesting that you would slip it in their morning coffee because they are more than likely physically dependent on that morning caffeine. As for your question, you obviously would experience all the withdrawal symptoms found in any physical addiction. There would probably not be any psychological addiction because they are oblivious to the fact. The only way you could practically perform this experiment would be to introduce very minute portion of the addictive substance and continue with incrementally larger doses. If you slipped .5g of cocaine in their coffee the person would certainly notice the difference! I think the results are fairly predictable. Interesting question though.

It is an interesting question. I think if you were to put it in the same thing everyday perhaps they would crave that particular thing. If not....I think you'd just feel like crap without knowing why. I think the baby is example is a good one. :)

If the substance is physically addictive, they would experience withdrawal.

Some things are very dangerous to stop after being on them for a period of time, including many common Rx medications, and sudden withdrawal leads to very serious health consequences, even death in some cases.

Enough studies have been done with rodents, and other animals to show that addiction is physical in mammals. Even chimps can get hooked on tobacco.

Addiction, been there and hated it.
I do believe the U.S Gov. has done all kinds of testing with addictive substances over and under the table. Any answer to a question on addiction can be found with a little browser work I bet. So I am going to look into it a little bit and see if there is something worth bringing back here for you.:thumbsup:

the craving is the psychological side of the addiction. the experiment is impossible to perform because in order to reach a point of addiction the subject would have to be given large enough dosages of the substance to feel its effects, once they feel the intoxication the jig is up. if it were possible though, there would only be the effects of the physical addiction to contend with.

I think they would crave it but might not even know what they were craving or even that they were craving. Said person may simple think he or she is very sick and ill and see the doctor. Thats what i would do if i experienced withdrawal without knowingly ingesting any substance.