Wasn't there a study of addicted mice that renormalized completely in an environment with lots of social activity, lots of play, lots of good food, lots of exercise, i.e. essentially "mouse heaven"?
This seems like the opposite of that.
This seems like the opposite of that.
The instinct for "shock treatment" and to hope they hit "rock bottom" is completely misguided. While there is probably no one-size-fits-all treatment for addiction, in most cases they need resocialization, routine, exercise structured around activities that reward without the drug. In the case of serious addicts prone to relapsing or who can't get through withdrawal successfully, a slow medically supervised taper off is probably ideal.
Basically, you want to minimize the stress on the addict, avoid withdrawal, make the transition off the drug a gradual one, and stabilize them socially and economically so they have deeper ties so they build up coping strategies besides resorting to drugs. Unfortunately this is the very opposite of what we usually do. Criminal intervention often destroys social relations, results in repeated cyclical withdrawals (often with risk of overdose each time), results in job losses and housing losses, and generally just adds a great deal of chaos that makes getting stable harder.
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_y...
This sounds exactly like a rehab program to me.