95% of U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War broke their addiction nearly overnight, when they returned home to the states. Only 5% relapsed back into addiction. Apparently, relapse rates for heroin clinics are normally around 90%.
When the soldiers changed environments to a place that contained none of the stimuli-triggers for heroin usage that they had overseas, they found it far easier to quit. In typical cases, people return home from a clinic to a place that contains all of the old, familiar triggers for usage, and thus have a very difficult time quitting.
These individuals return to their prior routines, like a hand fitting back into a glove. The soldiers, however, left their gloves overseas, and instead returned to the addiction-free routines they had before the war, or they developed new ones.
The environment directly plays a huge role in driving behavior.
By consciously changing our environment, we can reduce or eliminate factors linked to undesired behaviors, replacing with new environmental features that we can more easily associate with desired behaviors.
There was also a study done on rats that showed they would not seek out drugs when in an a nurturing and stimulating environment. Kurzgesagt have made a great video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg
I wonder if tourists who get addicted carry the habit back at a different rate? Part of the reason to explain the GIs drug usage was, well, they were in a nasty war and probably knew some people who were KIA and wanted an escape.
95% of U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War broke their addiction nearly overnight, when they returned home to the states. Only 5% relapsed back into addiction. Apparently, relapse rates for heroin clinics are normally around 90%.
When the soldiers changed environments to a place that contained none of the stimuli-triggers for heroin usage that they had overseas, they found it far easier to quit. In typical cases, people return home from a clinic to a place that contains all of the old, familiar triggers for usage, and thus have a very difficult time quitting.
These individuals return to their prior routines, like a hand fitting back into a glove. The soldiers, however, left their gloves overseas, and instead returned to the addiction-free routines they had before the war, or they developed new ones.
The environment directly plays a huge role in driving behavior.
By consciously changing our environment, we can reduce or eliminate factors linked to undesired behaviors, replacing with new environmental features that we can more easily associate with desired behaviors.