Addiction 101 | Raj Mehta | TEDxUofM

my name is Raj and I'm an addiction killer so what does that mean I'm not addictions friend and so before we go any further do I have permission to tell the truth because in this part of my life I kind of get in trouble for telling the truth about things and so we're going to talk about addiction and what it is but most importantly I do all kinds of things I'm a former heroin addict that crawled across the streets of Detroit across broken glass to eventually graduate from U of M with a 4.0 I'm here to break some stigma okay people can change and thank you and people can change and do this for many of the people that didn't make it and so in talking about addiction we're going to be honest with each other and kind of go through some different ground but it's really important that we get basically a holistic view of what addiction is and here's our first slide addiction is not just the individual thing about the individual as a pebble that falls into a pond okay as that pebble falls into the pond it cascades outward and that impact has direct effects on that person's family and on their friends and on their school and as that cascades outward it begins to impact the county in the city and as it begins to cascade out where it begins to affect the state and the nation and in the world the bottom line is that addiction is a bi-directional reciprocal relationship with the environment the AG does not abuse drugs or alcohol in a vacuum it goes back and forth and this bi-directional relationship plays into this whole thing that we have is called mixed messages America is in a constant state of ambivalence feeling two ways about addiction for example we say that drugs are illegal but they're really easy to get a hold of just try going on Silk Road the drugs are illegal but we have kids that are abusing then they get caught and get in trouble and so we have all these things that are going back and forth all these mixed messages let's give an example of that I watch TV and America talks about people and all kinds of stuff goes on television and it's a media that kind of reinforces what our values are supposed to be so I watch politicians on television and not dumb but I can't understand some of their statements and politicians will say the children are our future in the future as our children so I'm thinking about that in terms of okay that must be very important to you what you're talking about then we begin to talk about well let's see the the actionable results of that does anybody in this room know how many places there are to lock up children in kiddie prisons in Michigan have any idea if a kid misbehaves themselves and commit some crime or gets caught with drugs how many places in Michigan can lock them up in a maximum-security facility well there's 40 there's 40 places to lock kids up let me ask you important question how many places are there for rehab for inpatient kids under the age of 18 in Michigan not going to like this one place with about a 30 day waiting list and some thing about it forty to one ratio about how you feel about children is that making sense we talked about this this is kind of the the ambivalence that we talk about America is also very unique in another way only two countries in the entire world allow prescription drugs to be advertised on television now there's a lot of countries in this world right so think about it only America and New Zealand allow Big Pharma to advertise prescription drugs on television I call that a mixed message so making sense let's go onto our next slide we talk about the disease of addiction has anybody ever heard of addiction being referred to as a disease must have heard that some point right now so let's try to figure out what that actually means according to the American Medical Association for anything to be a disease it must meet two criteria and those criteria are very simple it must have symptoms and it must be treatable the amount a person that goes to his doctor he gets his blood work results back the doctor says here's the deal you have high blood sugar sir you have diabetes think about that how is that person going to respond to his doctor well well doctor how do I treat this illness how do I deal with this disease doctor says it was very simple we're going to give you insulin so diabetes meets the model of a disease because it's got symptoms and it's treatable the symptoms are the high blood sugar and it's treatable with insulin let's go a step further imagine if your friend comes up to you and says I have the flu the influenza virus I'm very sick today I can't go to class what are some symptoms that you're going to look for in that individual while they're standing right in front of you that tells you whether or not this person has the flu anybody got some basic flu symptoms in their mind congestion fever runny nose vomiting right this person has you know physical symptoms that are readily apparent that they're ill and then telling you the truth let's go the same direction with the disease of addiction but think about it from a more sophisticated model so a person in stage one cancer walks onto the stage they say I got stage one cancer you really can't tell for sure they're ill another person comes on a stage and says I got stage four cancer it's pretty apparent that person is very ill so for the illustration of this idea I think about the stereotypical homeless drug addict alcoholic the guy that's out there panhandling money for change to get more drugs and alcohol what's different about that man physically well think about it we're going to be honest he doesn't look so good doesn't smell so good and doesn't dress so good those are signs and symptoms this guy's not doing too well let's kind of break this down a little bit further if I'm a homeless person and I'm strung out to the gills on drugs and alcohol what am I thinking about all day long what do I get more drugs where do I get more alcohol I got a fifth in my hand what am I thinking about where's the next fifth coming from I'm a heroin addict with a pocket full of heroin walking down the alley what am I thinking about where do I get more heroin so over a period of time I have this obsession with the drug and obsessions left untreated as your mind keeps ruminating over and over again that develops anxiety and anxiety that untreated will morph into depression so here I am this homeless drug addict with an obsession with drugs high anxiety and high depression but on top of that let's kind of speculate together for a person to become homeless in America it must have burned a lot of bridges mom and dad must have said to them straight to their face we are done with you their friends and family the kids they grew up with said we are done with you the employer said we we are done with you to get to that process to go to that low bottom what must have happened what some point that person must have made a bunch of promises imagine this I realized I have a drug problem I tell somebody I have a drug problem I have an alcohol problem I promise to stop that person is looking me right in the eyes and the worst part about the story is that in that moment I mean that to the very core of my being I mean that to my heart I really want to stop I won't do this again tomorrow if I'm if I kept making promises to you and I really meant them and I kept breaking those promises to you how would I feel about myself anybody have an idea well I have lower self-esteem I have lower self confidence I have lower self-efficacy and as I begin to feel really bad about myself I have high levels of anxiety high levels of depression what do you think I'm going to do all day long to make those feelings go away it's in making sense so let's talk about social signs of disease of addiction we talk about crying moms we talk about legal signs of addiction law enforcement intervening all kinds of drug charges talk about the financial symptoms of addiction and even the spiritual ones turning good men into bank robbers turning good women into prostitutes see the flu is very easy to treat it only has physical symptoms addiction is very difficult to treat it has physical mental legal symptoms financial symptoms and spiritual symptoms all going on simultaneously but the main symptom of addiction is the inability to get high successfully no I'm not challenging anybody in this room to go out and try to use heroin successfully that's not what I'm saying I'm trying to indicate is that when a person has a drug or alcohol problem they begin to have problems when they use for example if when you abuse drugs and alcohol your livers begin to fail you you're not doing it right if when you use drugs and alcohol you begin to have mental health issues you're probably are an addict if when you get high your mom begins to cry your wife begins to cry your brother begins to cry you probably have an addiction problem if when you get high law enforcement keeps showing up there could be an issue there right and if when you get high you begin to break your spiritual values your morals in your belief system there could be an issue that's going on is that making sense so we talked about on the micro level this inability to get high successfully and this is called basically addiction is a biopsychosocial disease that's undergirded by damage and dysfunction to the reward feedback loop of the brain essentially that precious part the most valuable real estate in the world the mind has been hijacked and I can illustrate this with the three C's cravings trying to control and consequences addicts have intense cravings to use drugs and alcohol if you want to know what those cravings feel like I can give you an experiment please take up Oxitec slacks and swallow the entire box and then use your willpower not to use the restroom for two days that's what cravings feel like to an addict or alcoholic we talked about those intense cravings those urges and how powerful they are the second C ties into trying to control their using at some point when a person bins to abuse drugs and alcohol they want to try to use less use with different people not use that drug over and over again and its failed control using plays into the whole stigma and damage to the psyche the final C is consequences when addicts have used drugs and alcohol they experience severe consequences over a period of time and those consequences can include death and long-term incarceration is that making sense so in America we have 2.2 million people in jail or in prison that's more than any other country in the world that's more than China and India combined and 75% less people are alcoholics and addicts and everybody knows that America is 5% of the world's population but we can assume 40% of the world's illegal drugs think about that 5% consuming 40% America is 5% of the world's population we consume 99% of the world's produced vicodin Wow it's amazing let's talk about policies and things that actually influence and promote addiction is everybody in this room aware that being caught with zero to 50 grams of any controlled substance is a felony so the powder residue on a mirror of cocaine is a felony charge one adderall and your pocket doesn't belong to you that's a felony charge one's annex that doesn't belong to you as a felony charge so let's call was a hypothetical scenario as Sodoma U of M student and I'm walking around and I haven't been studying from my examination and kind of blowing off the test one of my friends says to me hey Raj you've got a cram you got to 24 hours of studying how're you going to do that well I'm going to take some adderall so I swallow couple adderall keep one in my pocket for good luck right and I got my work done and get my examination done and the next day I want to celebrate that with a beer sound drinking a beer on campus and all of a sudden campus police show up and like hey young man what's that in your pocket don't worry officer that's just an adderall that my friend gave me for my examination now I have a felony charge then I have a felony conviction in case you don't know that with a felony charge and can felony conviction you can't even work at McDonald's can't even get a student loan and now I'm set up for this parlance take staircase downwards into the stigma and despair of addiction is that making sense we talk about things and when I kind of bring the idea home that addiction on a macro level is a systemic failure it's a failure in institutions organizations and policies that drive and promote addiction over and over again there's a famous story about the starfish on the shore a mom and her daughter come to the beach they saw thousands of starfish being washed onto the shore and on begin to look at this and the daughter watched it as well and they began observed as a starfish began to die the logo began to pick up the starfish one by one and throw them back into the water the mom is watching this and she kind of rolls her eyes she says honey it doesn't matter there's so many starfish there it's any consequential and dar looks up at her mom and she says well mom I said once they throw back in you follow I'm saying it matters to the individual it matters to their family but now we have to stop the tide we gotta stop the tide from rolling in so instead of looking at addiction from this criminal model instead of viewing addiction from the lens of criminality let's begin to look at addiction through the lens of a mental health issue as a mental health disorder is that making sense fortune favors the bold thank you for your time

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 252,537

Keywords: United States, ted talk, TEDxTalks, ted, Struggle, tedx talk, tedx, tedx talks, Behavior, English, Social Change, ted x, ted talks, Life

Id: S86t89HOYlE

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2015