Heroin is the most addictive substance in the world. During the Vietnam War sixty percent of American soldiers took heroin. It was available on the airbase runway as soon as new recruits disembarked from their military flight, and it was available on military bases where ordinary Vietnamese cleaners would supply the drug. The military authorities turned a blind eye to this substance abuse until such time soldiers returned to the United States, where the scale of the problem was finally realized. The problem with taking heroin is that it has a ninety-five percent relapse rate. Only five percent of users give up the drug. There was clearly going to be a problem if hundreds of thousands of military veterans returned as lifelong heroin addicts. Only they didn’t. Upon their return from Vietnam fully ninety-five percent of U.S. heroin addicts simply gave up the drug with no medical or psychiatric intervention. This was a complete reversal of the normal trend for heroin addiction. After a large, nationwide study, lasting several years, it was found that the change in environment was enough to delete the desire for the most addictive substance in the world. Simply by returning home, being among friends and family, and changing their environment, was enough to cure those military heroin addicts.
Fast forward fifty or so years and consider this true story. One prominent, wealthy Silicon Valley CEO employs a young lady to stand over him while he uses his computer. Her job is to slap him hard in the face every time she finds him using social media websites. The CEO felt so unable to work due to the pull of social media that he had to hire someone to slap his face. What links the American solider returning from Vietnam and the social media using CEO is a radical change in the nature of addiction over the last twenty years.
In the 1960s researchers and clinicians thought that addictions involved substances. People got addicted to alcohol, to nicotine, or to drugs. The first indication that people could get addicted to something other than a physical substance emerged when scientists began to explore gambling addiction and the changes it produced in the human brain. This started a wave of research into behavioral addiction, that showed people could become addicted to behaviors as well as substances.
Predictably, that first wave of research into behavioral addictions was carried out on animals. While observing animals confined to small spaces scientists noticed that they sooth themselves by repeating the same actions over and over again. It was soon noticed that amphetamine users also displayed such repetitive behavioral traits. This repetitive behavior was given the name “punding”—a Swedish word for idiocy or being blockheaded. Over the subsequent decades the research progressed and attention was turned towards patients with Parkinson’s disease. When people being treated for Parkinson’s disease have excess dopamine they indulge in excessive, addictive behavior. They gamble and have hyper-sexuality; they also mindlessly and repetitively shuffle rocks from place to place. This is because excess dopamine induces “punding” or blockheaded, repetitive behavioral addiction.
When American GIs took heroin, when a 1960s kid took speed, when a Silicone Valley CEO needs a slap to get him off Facebook, and when a Parkinson’s disease patient inadvertently has too much dopamine induced by his medicine a number of sites in the brain are activated called the reward centre. When these are activated dopamine release is increased. The problem with this is that over time dopamine receptors in the brain become desensitized. This produces tolerance, which results in a person needing ever more stimulation of the brain’s reward system to experience a high. But it’s not just the pleasure pathway in the brain that is activated by dopamine. What links together American GIs, Facebook-addicted Silicon Valley CEOs, and Parkinson’s disease patients is a specific area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This area is lit up by addictive behavior. As addictive behavior continues, the nucleus accumbens becomes weaker and starts to atrophy (waste away), which leads to cognitive decline. This happens in heroin addicts who have blunted their dopamine receptors and it happens in people with Parkinson’s disease. It is this same area of the brain that is targeted by heavy internet and phone use. People who have internet addiction, or messaging addiction, or video game addiction also damage their nucleus accumbens, leading to poor self-control, poor decision making, poor planning, a decreased ability to complete tasks, an increased craving for even more internet use, and quite possibly atrophy and cognitive damage.
Most people listening to this epitome will not have a substance addiction. There will be few, if any, who struggle with alcohol or drug abuse. For most, the drug of choice is coffee or diet Coke. However, behavioral addictions are rife, with psychologists in the United States reckoning that every single person they see has some form of behavioral addiction induced by the times that we live in. Many people listening to this will recognize some type of behavioral addiction. For most, it will be mindlessly clicking from tab to tab on a browser. For many, it will be the ping of new messages. For some, both men and women, it will be some form of strange hyper-sexuality encouraged and facilitated by the online world. This mindless clicking is a form of punding, the digital equivalent of shuffling rocks or repetitive behavior. It induces dopamine and over time blunts our receptors, effectively causing brain damage, meaning that we need ever more stimulation for our high.
In the 1990s and early 2000s clinicians who treated internet and gaming addicts primarily saw young adults. In 2007 the iPhone was born. In 2010 the iPad was born. Shortly afterwards Google jumped on the bandwagon. And, at around the same time, Wi-Fi became widespread and fast, meaning people could also use their computers everywhere. The result was that clinicians and treatment centers reported an utter explosion of people seeking treatment for internet addiction. Moreover, the demographic of addicts changed. No longer was addiction confined to young men: it cut across gender, generations, age, and personality types. At some point the place that many people found themselves spending much of their time was a screen, and that screen, as we now know is not a place of health. Rather, it is a plague upon all of us. Few are quarantined from its reach. All of us need to find a new place of health, whether we feel we are addicted or not, and thanks to pioneering research we now know that the place of health is to be found in nature.
Kleinburg is a small village on the outer edge of Toronto settled on hilly land by the Humber river. The village, and importantly her houses, are surrounded by trees, greenery, trails, and nature. It doesn’t have the urban hip vibe of downtown Toronto, nor does it have the cables and Wi-Fi that are a stain upon much of metropolitan Toronto, and this is a very good thing. A Dutch study first showed that more green space around a person’s house equated to less stress, and, less health problems due to stress, including heart attacks. This was replicated in New Zealand, where researchers also found less anxiety among people who lived near nature. In Spain better overall health was found among people who lived near greenery. The same was true in England. In bonny Scotland, a landmark study, published in the prestigious British Medical Journal, used a mobile EEG machine to record the emotional health of urban walkers in different settings. Those people who walked in greenery, even within a city, rather than in a shopping or commercial area showed less stress, lower frustration, and a better mood. Across the globe there was a cascade of studies showing that living in green spaces, near trees, or near nature, led to better health—much better health—even after social and economic influences were taken into account. But it was right here in Toronto that perhaps the most fascinating study was conducted.
In 2015 an international team overlaid health questionnaire responses from more than 31,000 Toronto residents onto a map of the city, block by block. It was an incredibly detailed health map. They found that having ten or more trees in a city block, on average, improves health in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000, or moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income, or being seven years younger. Those living on blocks with eleven or more trees showed a boost in heart and metabolic health equivalent to what one would experience from a $20,000 gain in income. They found lower mortality and fewer stress hormones circulating in the blood in people living close to green space.
The problem is that not every Toronto resident can live in leafy Kleinburg. People are confined by work, finances, and a whole host of other valid reasons. Fortunately, it is not necessary to relocate in order to experience the health-giving effects of nature. A fifteen-minute walk in an area with trees leads to a sixteen percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol. This is an important finding because elevated cortisol is linked to poor memory, lower immune function, weight gain, and heart disease. Just fifteen minutes of walking in nature during the day has a restorative effect upon the heart during sleep at night, reducing the risk of a heart attack. Such a walk also benefits the liver and reduces pro-inflammatory cytokine levels. Whereas a forty-five minute walk in nature is enough to reset and improve attention, concentration, and short-term memory.
Because of these health benefits, public health officials in Japan recommend “forest baths,” whereby urban dwellers spend short periods of time in forests. They bathe in nature. While greenery confers specific health benefits, just being away from urban settings, or from “gray” space, whether in the desert or by the sea, confers similar benefits upon cognition, health, and stress.
There will be some people who cannot live near greenery or cannot find a green space to walk in during the day. The solution to this conundrum has been found in Finland. There, the Finnish government recommends that all Finnish people spend five hours a month in nature. These five hours help to prevent depression, and elevate mood, while reducing stress. Five hours a month in nature is doable for most people, even if it’s a city park, or by the lakes. But there is one caveat: the further away from man-made buildings the more magnified the beneficial effects upon people’s health.
At this juncture we want to pause for a moment and ask everyone to conjure up in their mind an image of a cup of coffee. Now try to suppress this image. It’s difficult. It keeps coming back. Now, instead of thinking about coffee, think about a Porsche. In your mind, your thoughts change and are directed towards the Porsche—although some of you will be thinking about drinking coffee in a Porsche. The point of this pop psychology demonstration is to show that suppression rarely works; it requires too much willpower. In contrast, replacement of one activity with another is a much more successful strategy. Think back to those American GIs: as soon as they replaced their environment in Vietnam with their hometowns in America their heroin addiction disappeared, and they had an unprecedented ninety-five percent cure rate. Clinicians who work with internet addicts report the same findings. The key to people living an offline, post-digital human life again is to replace the online world and the phone with other activities; and spending time in nature is crucial.
First there has to be a period of complete abstinence, lasting only three days. This can take the form of travel or a period away in a remote cabin. During this period, being in nature, whether hiking or just spending family time helps a great deal. David Strayer is a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Utah. He conducts brain experiments in the Yosemite National Park, lugging around EEG machines to record brainwaves in volunteers. He notes that our brains aren’t tireless machines that can keep performing at an optimal level day in and day out. He found that the brain needs three-day breaks away from mental stimulation in order to reattain optimal cognitive performance. Typically, after a three-day break, the brain performs fifty percent better, especially at higher order problem solving and creative tasks—hence Einstein thought up relativity while gazing across Lake Geneva. Professor Strayer states that this three-day break acts as a cleaning mechanism for the brain. Further studies on children using clinical mental health testing procedures backed this up by showing that the mental, emotional, cognitive, and social health of children improves after three days in nature away from devices.
After these three days it typically takes sixty-six days for new habits to form. During this time there has to be a focus upon activities that have a beginning and an end. Simple tasks, such as making the bed, has a beginning and an end. As does reading a book. Reading a newspaper has a beginning and an end; reading the New York Times online has no end. Sending and receiving real letters has a beginning and end; emails and messages are never ending, while handwriting has important cognitive benefits, that typing just does not. The obligatory prayers have a beginning and an end; whereas social media is seemingly endless. This emphasis on activities that instill routine, that have a beginning and an ending, is not a simplistic solution. For one thing, such activities have worked in internet addiction clinics around the world. For another, activities that have a structure with a beginning and an end typically do not produce a dopamine rush, which, as we have mentioned, blunts our dopamine receptors, and requires more stimulation leading to addiction, and actual, real brain damage. Alongside activities that have a beginning and an end, clinicians who treat internet overuse emphasize physical exercise, as well as a social life that includes friends and family. Sitting alone in a room with a computer is just not going to work—our devices need to be kept away from us in separate rooms.
We began this reading in Asia with the American GIs and we shall end with another lesson drawn from Asia. In a small tract about life in seventeenth-century Hyderabad there is a record of the day’s activities by a learned Hyderabadi lady. There was a time for prayer, for learning, for physical activity, for hunting, for rest, for family, and for socializing. To recreate this day in our own time is not viable for most people. The point is that there was a rhythm to the day. One activity began as another ended, in a day punctuated by prayer and rest. Each activity had a beginning and an end, there was not endless clicking, endless eating, endless work chasing millions, or slopping on the sofa, and there was no danger of a dopamine overload. This rhythm is important. Our physical body is bound by rhythms. Our pulse, our gait, our organs and respiratory system, our hormones are all influenced by rhythm.
Thanks to the very recent work of Professor Tsai at MIT we now know that the brain is profoundly influenced by these rhythms. A brain that functions correctly produces deep gamma oscillations, which have only been known about for the last ten years. These gamma oscillations suppress the production of beta-amyloid plaques that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, and they invigorate other cells to destroy these harmful plaques. Alzheimer’s disease patients have impaired gamma oscillations. Outside of Alzheimer’s disease, impaired gamma oscillations leads to cognitive problems, poor attention and perception, bad information processing, and a faulty memory. The causes of impaired gamma oscillations include overwork, a lack of rest, a failure to think deeply and profoundly about things, and especially stress. In fact, all work and no play doesn’t just make Jack a dull boy, it also makes him a stupid boy. In contrast, bathing in nature on a regular basis, removes stress helping our brain and our body back into rhythm, and it repairs our gamma oscillations, preventing cognitive decline.
And so the place of health is not found in overwork, on our phones, or on our screen; it is found in nature and in real-world, meaningful activities. It is in nature that we must spend some of our time banishing our stresses and addictions. This isn’t a call for a nostalgic return to the 1950s. Nor is it a call for late-eighteenth-century Luddism. Rather, it’s a call to stop punding with repetitive, endless, blockheaded behavior; it’s about living a post-digital life, in which we acknowledge the benefits of technology, but also the flaws and limitations of living an online, always-on life, seeking instead to replace it with more meaningful activities that have a beginning and an end. Remember, it’s not just about suppression and abstinence, it’s about replacing our mindless online life with an offline line. To this end, everyone can find five hours a month to spend in nature, and we strongly encourage this. Our mind, our family life, and our health depend on it, and all will improve—even if our addictions, whether to coffee, the internet, or messaging remain.
Postscript: overwork and being a very important person
In the 1960s the Japanese coined the term “karoshi,” which means “death from overwork.” This was applied to executives who believed themselves to be indispensable, and who gloried in letting others know how busy and important they were. They believed themselves to be invincible, always ploughing on with projects and work, and believed lesser mortals, who didn’t work such hours, to be weak. Then they died from strokes, heath attacks, or other stress-induced diseases. The reoccurring themes among such people are that they spend more time at work than is necessary; they already have enough worldly possessions; their ego believes that they are very important people; they are too weak to say no; and they start to lack the ability to stop. No doubt some workaholics feel that they don’t have internet addiction, because they are always working. But a work addiction also includes checking emails and phones constantly, even when in company, when off work, when getting up in the morning, or when traveling home. Europeans have started to recognize this problem. One innovative Dutch firm has attached pulleys and ropes to all the desks in the company. At 6:00 p.m. sharp all the desks and chairs are pulled up into the ceiling, and the floor space becomes a yoga studio; people are unable to carry on working. Some major European car manufacturers switch off their email servers in the evening and during holidays to stop work coming in out of hours. There are important lessons here. If work and email is your life then take a break, get off the treadmill every evening and weekend, and get out into nature, otherwise the projects and long-term responsibilities that you cherish will not happen: you may not be as invincible as you think, you’ll age, be beset with fatigue, get ill, maybe you’ll get cancer, or perhaps even have a heart attack like those harried Japanese executives, and eventually you’ll be of no use to anyone.