Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari | TED

Translator: Niels Justus Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

One of my earliest memories

Noget af det første jeg kan huske, var da

is of trying to wake up one of my relatives and not being able to.

jeg ville vække et familiemedlem, og var ikke i stand til det.

And I was just a little kid, so I didn't really understand why,

Jeg blot var et barn, så jeg forstod det ikke rigtigt,

but as I got older,

men da jeg blev ældre, indså jeg,

I realized we had drug addiction in my family,

at vi havde stof-misbrug i min familie.

including later cocaine addiction.

som senere inkluderede kokain-misbrug.

I'd been thinking about it a lot lately, partly because it's now exactly 100 years

Jeg har tænkt meget over det i den seneste tid, til dels fordi det nu er præcis 100 år siden

since drugs were first banned in the United States and Britain,

stoffer blev forbudt i USA og Storbritannien

and we then imposed that on the rest of the world.

og vi tvang resten af verden det.

It's a century since we made this really fateful decision

Det er et århundrede siden vi lavede denne skæbnesvangre beslutning

to take addicts and punish them and make them suffer,

at pågribe misbrugere og straffe dem og lade dem lide,

because we believed that would deter them; it would give them an incentive to stop.

fordi vi mente at det ville afskrække dem - det ville give dem et incitament til at holde op.

And a few years ago, I was looking at some of the addicts in my life who I love,

Og for nogle få år siden undersøgte jeg nogle misbrugere, som jeg holdt af,

and trying to figure out if there was some way to help them.

og forsøgte at finde en måde at hjælpe dem.

And I realized there were loads of incredibly basic questions

Og jeg erkendte, at der var masser af helt basale spørgsmål,

I just didn't know the answer to,

som jeg bare ikke havde svaret på,

like, what really causes addiction?

som f.eks. hvad forårsager misbrug?

Why do we carry on with this approach that doesn't seem to be working,

Hvorfor fortsætter vi med den metode, som ikke lader til at virke.

and is there a better way out there that we could try instead?

og findes der en bedre metode, som vi kunne prøve i stedet for?

So I read loads of stuff about it,

Så jeg læste en masse om det,

and I couldn't really find the answers I was looking for,

og jeg kunne ikke rigtigt finde de svar, som jeg søgte.

so I thought, okay, I'll go and sit with different people around the world

Så jeg tænkte, ok, jeg vil opsøge de personer i verden,

who lived this and studied this

som beskæftigede sig med det her,

and talk to them and see if I could learn from them.

for at tale med dem og se, om jeg kunne lære noget af dem.

And I didn't realize I would end up going over 30,000 miles at the start,

Jeg vidste ikke at jeg skulle rejse 50.000 km

but I ended up going and meeting loads of different people,

og ville møde mange forskellige mennesker,

from a transgender crack dealer in Brownsville, Brooklyn,

lige fra en transseksuel drug-pusher i Brownsville i Brooklyn,

to a scientist who spends a lot of time feeding hallucinogens to mongooses

til en forsker, som brugte meget tid med at fodre mungoer med hallucinogener,

to see if they like them --

for at se om de kunne li' dem

it turns out they do, but only in very specific circumstances --

-- det viste sig, at det gjorde de, men kun i særlige omstændigheder --

to the only country that's ever decriminalized all drugs,

til det eneste land som nogensinde har afkriminaliseret alle stoffer,

from cannabis to crack, Portugal.

fra cannabis til crack -- Portugal.

And the thing I realized that really blew my mind is,

Og den erkendelse, som virkelig tog mig,

almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong,

var, at næsten alt det vi tror om misbrug, er forkert.

and if we start to absorb the new evidence about addiction,

og hvis vi begynder at absorbere de nye beviser om afhængighed,

I think we're going to have to change a lot more than our drug policies.

så tror jeg, ​​vi er nødt til at ændre meget mere end vores narkotikapolitik.

But let's start with what we think we know, what I thought I knew.

Men lad os starte med hvad vi tror vi ved, og hvad jeg troede, jeg vidste.

Let's think about this middle row here.

Lad os se på den midterste række her.

Imagine all of you, for 20 days now, went off and used heroin three times a day.

Forestil jer i gik i 20 dage og tog heroin tre gange om dagen.

Some of you look a little more enthusiastic than others at this prospect.

Nogle af jer ser lidt mere entusiastiske ud end andre ved den ide.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Don't worry, it's just a thought experiment.

Bare rolig, det er bare et tankeeksperiment.

Imagine you did that, right?

Forestil jer at i gør det.

What would happen?

Hvad ville der ske?

Now, we have a story about what would happen that we've been told for a century.

Vi har en 100 år gammel fortælling om, hvad der ville ske.

Vi tror, at fordi der er kemiske kroge i heroin

We think, because there are chemical hooks in heroin,

as you took it for a while,

når man har taget det i et stykke tid,

your body would become dependent on those hooks,

at kroppen vil blive afhængig af disse kroge,

you'd start to physically need them,

at man vil få et fysisk behov for dem,

and at the end of those 20 days, you'd all be heroin addicts. Right?

og at efter disse 20 dage vil alle være heroin-misbrugere - ikke?

That's what I thought.

Det var det jeg troede.

First thing that alerted me to the fact that something's not right with this story

Det første, der gjorde mig mistænksom ved den historie

is when it was explained to me.

var, da jeg blev forklaret,

If I step out of this TED Talk today and I get hit by a car and I break my hip,

at hvis jeg går ud og bliver ramt af en bil, og brækker hoften,

I'll be taken to hospital and I'll be given loads of diamorphine.

så vil jeg komme på hospitalet og få en masse diacetylmorfin.

Diamorphine is heroin.

Diacetylmorfin er heroin.

It's actually much better heroin than you're going to buy on the streets,

Det er faktisk en langt bedre heroin, end den man køber på gaden

because the stuff you buy from a drug dealer is contaminated.

fordi det man køber hos en drug-pusher er forurenet.

Actually, very little of it is heroin,

Faktisk er der kun lidt heroin i det,

hvorimod det, som lægen giver dig er helt rent.

whereas the stuff you get from the doctor is medically pure.

And you'll be given it for quite a long period of time.

Og man bliver givet det over ret lang tid.

There are loads of people in this room,

Der er mange her i dette rum,

you may not realize it, you've taken quite a lot of heroin.

som ikke er klar over, at de har taget end hel del heroin.

And anyone who is watching this anywhere in the world, this is happening.

Det sker overalt i verden,

And if what we believe about addiction is right --

og hvis dét vi tror om afhængighed er rigtigt,

those people are exposed to all those chemical hooks --

så er alle disse mennesker udsat for de kemiske kroge.

What should happen? They should become addicts.

Hvad burde så ske? De burde blive misbrugere.

This has been studied really carefully.

Dette er blevet undersøgt meget grundigt.

Det sker ikke. Du har sikkert set, at din bedstemor ikke kom ud

It doesn't happen; you will have noticed if your grandmother had a hip replacement,

she didn't come out as a junkie. (Laughter)

efter en hofteoperation, som en junkie.

Da jeg hørte dette, virkede det så underligt

And when I learned this, it seemed so weird to me,

so contrary to everything I'd been told, everything I thought I knew,

så modsat af, hvad jeg havde fået at vide og hvad jeg troede jeg vidste.

I just thought it couldn't be right, until I met a man called Bruce Alexander.

Jeg troede ikke, at det var rigtigt, indtil jeg mødte Bruce Alexander.

He's a professor of psychology in Vancouver

Han er professor i psykologi i Vancouver,

who carried out an incredible experiment

som har foretaget et utroligt eksperiment,

I think really helps us to understand this issue.

jeg synes virkelig hjælper os til at forstå dette spørgsmål.

Professor Alexander explained to me,

Professor Alexander forklarede mig

the idea of addiction we've all got in our heads, that story,

at den ide om afhængighed, som vi alle har,

comes partly from a series of experiments

delvis stammer fra nogle eksperimenter,

that were done earlier in the 20th century.

der blev udført tidligere i det 20. århundrede.

They're really simple.

De var meget simple eksperimenter.

You can do them tonight at home if you feel a little sadistic.

Man kan selv lave dem derhjemme, hvis man føler sig lidt sadistisk til mode.

You get a rat and you put it in a cage, and you give it two water bottles:

Man tager en rotte og sætter den i et bur og giver den to vandflasker.

One is just water, and the other is water laced with either heroin or cocaine.

Den ene er bare vand og den anden er tilsat heroin eller kokain.

If you do that, the rat will almost always prefer the drug water

Rotten vil næsten altid foretrække heroinen eller kokainen

and almost always kill itself quite quickly.

og vil næsten altid slå sig selv ihjel ret hurtigt.

So there you go, right? That's how we think it works.

Det er sådan vi tror det fungerer - ikke?

Professor Alexander kiggede nærmere på eksperimentet i 70'erne,

In the '70s, Professor Alexander comes along and he looks at this experiment

and he noticed something.

og han lagde mærke til noget.

Han sagde "Aha, man sætter rotten i et tomt bur."

He said ah, we're putting the rat in an empty cage.

It's got nothing to do except use these drugs.

"Den har intet at foretage sig, bortset fra at tage disse stoffer."

Let's try something different.

"Lad os gøre det lidt anderledes."

So Professor Alexander built a cage that he called "Rat Park,"

Professor Alexander byggede så et bur, som han kaldte 'Rotteparken',

which is basically heaven for rats.

som, dybest set, er himlen for rotter.

They've got loads of cheese, they've got loads of colored balls,

De fik masser af ost, de fik masser af farvede bolde,

they've got loads of tunnels.

de fik masser af tunneller,

Crucially, they've got loads of friends. They can have loads of sex.

og, afgørende, de fik masser af venner. De kunne have masser af sex.

And they've got both the water bottles, the normal water and the drugged water.

Og de fik både rent vand og narko-vand.

But here's the fascinating thing:

Men her kommer det interessante,

In Rat Park, they don't like the drug water.

i Rotteparken kunne de ikke lide narko-vandet.

They almost never use it.

De drak det næsten aldrig.

None of them ever use it compulsively.

Ingen af dem drak det tvangsmæssigt.

None of them ever overdose.

Ingen fik en overdosis.

You go from almost 100 percent overdose when they're isolated

Man gik fra næsten 100 procent overdosis, når de var isolerede,

to zero percent overdose when they have happy and connected lives.

til nul procent, når de er glade og forbundne.

Now, when he first saw this, Professor Alexander thought,

Da professor Alexander første gang så dette, tænkte han

maybe this is just a thing about rats, they're quite different to us.

at måske gælder det bare rotter. De er anderledes end os.

Maybe not as different as we'd like, but, you know --

Måske alligevel ikke så forskellige, som vi gerne vil tro.

Heldigvis var der, på samme tid, et eksperiment med mennesker,

But fortunately, there was a human experiment

into the exact same principle happening at the exact same time.

efter nøjagtig samme princip.

It was called the Vietnam War.

Det blev kaldt Vietnamkrigen.

In Vietnam, 20 percent of all American troops were using loads of heroin,

I Vietnam tog 20 procent af alle amerikanske tropper masser af heroin,

and if you look at the news reports from the time,

og når man læser aviser fra dengang,

they were really worried, because they thought, my God, we're going to have

så var man meget bekymret, fordi man troede "Åh Gud. Vi får

hundreds of thousands of junkies on the streets of the United States

hundredtusinder af junkier på gaderne i USA, når krigen slutter".

when the war ends; it made total sense.

Det var helt logisk.

Now, those soldiers who were using loads of heroin were followed home.

De soldater, som tog masser af heroin, blev fulgt hjem.

The Archives of General Psychiatry did a really detailed study,

Archives of General Psychiatry udførte en meget detaljeret undersøgelse.

and what happened to them?

Og hvad skete der med dem?

It turns out they didn't go to rehab. They didn't go into withdrawal.

Det viste sig, at de ikke gik til afvænning. De gik ikke tilbage på stoffer.

Ninety-five percent of them just stopped.

95 procent holdt bare op.

Now, if you believe the story about chemical hooks,

Historien om kemiske kroge giver ingen mening.

that makes absolutely no sense, but Professor Alexander began to think

Men professor Alexander tænkte,

at der kunne være en anden forklaring på afhængighed.

there might be a different story about addiction.

He said, what if addiction isn't about your chemical hooks?

Han tænkte, "hvad hvis afhængighed ikke skyldes kemiske kroge?"

What if addiction is about your cage?

Hvad hvis misbruget skyldes buret?

What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment?

Hvad hvis afhængighed er en tilpasning til miljøet?

Professor Peter Cohen fra Holland

Looking at this,

there was another professor called Peter Cohen in the Netherlands

kiggede på det, og sagde

who said, maybe we shouldn't even call it addiction.

at måske bør det ikke engang kaldes misbrug.

Måske bør vi kalde det tilknytning.

Maybe we should call it bonding.

Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond,

Mennesker har en naturlig iboende trang til at tilknytte sig,

and when we're happy and healthy, we'll bond and connect with each other,

og når vi er glade og sunde, så knytter og forbinder vi os med hinanden.

but if you can't do that,

Men hvis man ikke kan gøre det,

because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life,

fordi man er traumatiseret eller isoleret eller slået ud af livet,

you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief.

så vil man knytte sig til noget, som giver én en følelse af lettelse.

Now, that might be gambling, that might be pornography,

Det kan være spil, det kan være pornografi,

that might be cocaine, that might be cannabis,

det kan være kokain, det kan være cannabis,

but you will bond and connect with something because that's our nature.

men man vil knytte sig til noget, fordi det er ens natur.

That's what we want as human beings.

Det er det vi ønsker som mennesker.

And at first, I found this quite a difficult thing to get my head around,

I starten, fandt jeg det svært at få ind i mit hoved,

but one way that helped me to think about it is,

men en måde, som hjalp mig til at forstå det, er

I can see, I've got over by my seat a bottle of water, right?

jeg ser, at jeg har en flaske vand på mit sæde, ikke?

I'm looking at lots of you, and lots of you have bottles of water with you.

Jeg ser at mange af jer, har en flaske vand hos jer.

Glem stofferne. Glem krigen mod drugs.

Forget the drugs. Forget the drug war.

Totally legally, all of those bottles of water could be bottles of vodka, right?

Alle disse flasker kunne, helt legalt, være fyldt med vodka, ikke?

We could all be getting drunk -- I might after this -- (Laughter) --

Vi kunne alle blive fulde, (latter)

but we're not.

men det bliver vi ikke.

Now, because you've been able to afford the approximately gazillion pounds

Og da i har kunnet betale det hvide ud øjnene

that it costs to get into a TED Talk, I'm guessing you guys could afford

som det koster, at komme til TED talk, så tror jeg,

at i også har råd til at drikke vodka i de næste seks måneder.

to be drinking vodka for the next six months.

You wouldn't end up homeless.

I ville ikke blive hjemløse.

You're not going to do that, and the reason you're not going to do that

Men i ville ikke gøre det, og det skyldes ikke

is not because anyone's stopping you.

at noget vil hindre jer.

Det er fordi i har tilknytninger og forbindelser,

It's because you've got bonds and connections

that you want to be present for.

som i helst vil være til stede for.

You've got work you love. You've got people you love.

I har et arbejde i holder af. I har nogle i holder.

You've got healthy relationships.

I har sunde relationer.

And a core part of addiction,

Og en central del af afhængighed, tror jeg nu

I came to think, and I believe the evidence suggests,

og jeg mener at beviserne bekræfter,

is about not being able to bear to be present in your life.

at det drejer sig om dette, ikke at kunne bære, at være til stede i ens liv.

Now, this has really significant implications.

Det har rigtigt store følgevirkninger.

The most obvious implications are for the War on Drugs.

Den mest indlysende følgevirkning gælder for Krigen mod Drugs.

In Arizona, I went out with a group of women

I Arizona, var jeg ude sammen med en gruppe kvinder,

who were made to wear t-shirts saying, "I was a drug addict,"

som skulle bære T-shirts med påskriften 'Jeg var en misbruger',

and go out on chain gangs and dig graves while members of the public jeer at them,

og gå lænkede i kæder og grave grøfter, mens folk spottede dem.

Når disse kvinder kommer ud af fængslet, så har de en plettet straffeattest,

and when those women get out of prison, they're going to have criminal records

som betyder, at de aldrig vil arbejde i den legale økonomi igen.

that mean they'll never work in the legal economy again.

Now, that's a very extreme example, obviously, in the case of the chain gang,

Dette er et meget ekstremt eksempel med lænkede kvinder,

but actually almost everywhere in the world

men over stort set hele verden,

behandler vi, til en vis grad, misbrugere på denne måde.

we treat addicts to some degree like that.

We punish them. We shame them. We give them criminal records.

Vi straffer dem. Vi skammer dem. Vi giver dem en plettet straffeattest.

We put barriers between them reconnecting.

Vi sætter hindringer op mod dannelse af ny tilknytning.

There was a doctor in Canada, Dr. Gabor Maté, an amazing man,

Der var en doktor i Canada, Dr. Gabor Maté, en forbløffende mand,

who said to me, if you wanted to design a system that would make addiction worse,

som fortalte mig, at hvis man ville lave et system, som vil gøre misbruget værre,

you would design that system.

så ville man lave dette system.

Now, there's a place that decided to do the exact opposite,

Nuvel, der findes et sted, som besluttede at gøre det stik modsatte,

and I went there to see how it worked.

og jeg tog dertil for at se hvordan det virkede.

In the year 2000, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe.

I år 2000 havde Portugal én af de værste problemer med drugs i Europa.

One percent of the population was addicted to heroin, which is kind of mind-blowing,

Én procent af befolkningen var misbrugere af heroin, hvilket er vanvittigt mange.

and every year, they tried the American way more and more.

Og hvert år forsøgte de sig mere og mere med ´the American Way´,

They punished people and stigmatized them and shamed them more,

Man straffede folk og stigmatiserede dem og skammede dem

and every year, the problem got worse.

og hvert år blev problemet værre.

And one day, the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition got together,

En dag stak Premierministeren og lederen af oppositionen hovedet sammen,

and basically said, look, we can't go on

og sagde "Det ikke længere kan gå"

with a country where we're having ever more people becoming heroin addicts.

"med at land, hvor man har stadig flere, som bliver heroinmisbrugere."

Let's set up a panel of scientists and doctors

"Lad os nedsætte et videnskabeligt panel"

"som skal finde ud af, hvad der virkelig vil løse problemet."

to figure out what would genuinely solve the problem.

And they set up a panel led by an amazing man called Dr. João Goulão,

Og panelet blev sat op og ledt af en utrolig mand, Dr. João Goulão,

to look at all this new evidence,

som skulle skaffe klarhed over al den ny viden

and they came back and they said,

Man kom tilbage og sagde

"Decriminalize all drugs from cannabis to crack, but" --

"Afkriminaliser alle stoffer fra cannabis til crack, men"

and this is the crucial next step --

-- og det er det væsentlige --

"take all the money we used to spend on cutting addicts off,

"brug alle de penge, som vi brugte på at bekæmpe stofmisbrugere,"

on disconnecting them,

"og hindre nye tilknytninger,"

and spend it instead on reconnecting them with society."

"og brug i stedet pengene på at genskabe tilknytning til samfundet."

And that's not really what we think of as drug treatment

Det er ikke lige det, vi forstår ved misbrugsbehandling

in the United States and Britain.

i USA og Storbritannien.

So they do do residential rehab,

Så de brugte misbrugscentre,

they do psychological therapy, that does have some value.

de brugte psykologhjælp, der har nogen virkning.

But the biggest thing they did was the complete opposite of what we do:

Men det største, som de gjorde, var det stik modsatte af hvad vi gør:

a massive program of job creation for addicts,

Et kæmpeprogram for jobskabelse for misbrugere,

og mikrolån for misbrugere, så de kan starte en mindre forretning.

and microloans for addicts to set up small businesses.

So say you used to be a mechanic.

Lad os sige, at én havde været mekaniker,

When you're ready, they'll go to a garage, and they'll say,

Når man er klar, så ville man besøge et værksted og sige

if you employ this guy for a year, we'll pay half his wages.

"hvis du ansætter denne fyr i et år, så vil vi betale halvdelen af hans løn".

The goal was to make sure that every addict in Portugal

Målet var at give alle misbrugere i Portugal

had something to get out of bed for in the morning.

noget at stå op til om morgenen.

And when I went and met the addicts in Portugal,

Da jeg mødte misbrugerne i Portugal,

what they said is, as they rediscovered purpose,

sagde de, at de genfandt formål i livet,

they rediscovered bonds and relationships with the wider society.

de genfandt tilknytninger og relationer med det omkringliggende samfund.

It'll be 15 years this year since that experiment began,

Der er nu gået 15 år siden det eksperiment begyndte,

and the results are in:

og resultatet kan nu ses:

injecting drug use is down in Portugal,

Brug af sprøjte er

according to the British Journal of Criminology,

i henhold til 'The British Journal of Ciminology'

by 50 percent, five-zero percent.

nede på 50 procent, fem-nul procent.

Overdose is massively down, HIV is massively down among addicts.

Overdosis'er er reduceret voldsomt. HIV er reduceret voldsomt.

Alle undersøgelser viser et betydeligt mindre misbrug.

Addiction in every study is significantly down.

One of the ways you know it's worked so well is that almost nobody in Portugal

Den måde man ved, at det har virket så godt,

er, at kun få vil tilbage til det gamle system.

wants to go back to the old system.

Now, that's the political implications.

Dette er den politiske implikation.

I actually think there's a layer of implications

Jeg mener faktisk, at der under den, findes et lag af implikationer

to all this research below that.

under dette, til al den forskning.

We live in a culture where people feel really increasingly vulnerable

Vi lever i en kultur, hvor befolkningen, i stigende grad, føler sig sårbar

to all sorts of addictions, whether it's to their smartphones

til afhængighed af alt muligt, hvad enten det er deres smartphone,

or to shopping or to eating.

eller det er shopping eller spisning.

Before these talks began -- you guys know this --

Før disse foredrag -- det ved i --

we were told we weren't allowed to have our smartphones on,

fik vi at vide, at vi ikke måtte tage smartphones med,

and I have to say, a lot of you looked an awful lot like

og jeg må nok sige, at der var mange af jer, som lignede

addicts who were told their dealer was going to be unavailable

misbrugere, som får at vide, at deres pusher var borte

i et par timer. (latter)

for the next couple of hours. (Laughter)

Mange af os føler det sådan, og det lyder måske mærkeligt at sige det,

A lot of us feel like that, and it might sound weird to say,

I've been talking about how disconnection is a major driver of addiction

at jeg har talt om hvordan manglende tilknytning, er en stor drivkraft bag misbrug,

and weird to say it's growing,

og det er mærkeligt, at sige at det er stigende,

because you think we're the most connected society that's ever been, surely.

fordi man tror, at vi er det mest sammenknyttede samfund i verden - med rette.

But I increasingly began to think that the connections we have

Men jeg er i stigende grad begyndt at mene, at de tilknytninger vi har

or think we have, are like a kind of parody of human connection.

eller tror vi har, er lidt af en parodi på menneskelig tilknytning.

If you have a crisis in your life, you'll notice something.

Hvis du har en krise i livet, så vil du opdage

at det ikke er dine Twitter-followers, som kommer for at besøge dig.

It won't be your Twitter followers who come to sit with you.

Det er ikke dine Facebook-venner, som hjælper dig til at få det til at løbe rundt.

It won't be your Facebook friends who help you turn it round.

It'll be your flesh and blood friends who you have deep and nuanced

Det er der kun dine venner af kød og blod, som du har en dyb, nuanceret

and textured, face-to-face relationships with,

og rig ansigt-til-ansigt forhold til.

and there's a study I learned about from Bill McKibben, the environmental writer,

Der er en undersøgelse af miljøforfatteren Bill McKibben,

that I think tells us a lot about this.

som jeg synes fortæller en hel del om dette.

It looked at the number of close friends the average American believes

Han så på det antal af nære venner, som den gennemsnitlige amerikaner tror

they can call on in a crisis.

de kan stole på i en krisesituation.

That number has been declining steadily since the 1950s.

Antallet har været jævnt faldende siden 1950'erne.

The amount of floor space an individual has in their home

Antallet af kvadratmetre i deres hjem

has been steadily increasing,

har været konstant stigende,

and I think that's like a metaphor

og jeg mener at det er et udtryk

for the choice we've made as a culture.

for det valg vi har gjort som en kultur.

We've traded floorspace for friends, we've traded stuff for connections,

Vi har handlet kvadratmetre for venner. Vi har handlet ragelse for tilknytninger,

and the result is we are one of the loneliest societies there has ever been.

og resultatet er, at vi er et af de ensomste samfund, der nogensinde har været.

And Bruce Alexander, the guy who did the Rat Park experiment, says,

Og Bruce Alexander, ham der lavede Rottepark eksperimentet, siger

we talk all the time in addiction about individual recovery,

at om misbrug, taler vi hele tiden om individuel genopretning,

and it's right to talk about that,

og det er rigtigt at tale om det,

but we need to talk much more about social recovery.

men vi må tale langt mere om social genopretning.

Something's gone wrong with us, not just with individuals but as a group,

Noget er gået galt med os, ikke blot som individer, men som gruppe.

and we've created a society where, for a lot of us,

Vi har skabt et samfund hvor livet - for manges vedkommende -

life looks a whole lot more like that isolated cage

i høj grad ligner et isoleret bur

and a whole lot less like Rat Park.

og langt mindre en Rottepark.

If I'm honest, this isn't why I went into it.

Når jeg skal være ærlig, så er dette ikke grunden til at jeg begyndte på det her.

I didn't go in to the discover the political stuff, the social stuff.

Jeg gik ikke ind i det, for at lære om det politiske og det sociale.

I wanted to know how to help the people I love.

Jeg ønskede at vide, hvordan man hjalp de mennesker jeg holdt af.

And when I came back from this long journey and I'd learned all this,

Da jeg kom tilbage fra denne lange rejse, og havde lært alt dette,

I looked at the addicts in my life,

så kiggede jeg på misbrugerne i mit liv,

and if you're really candid, it's hard loving an addict,

og hvis du skal være helt ærlig, så er det svært at elske en misbruger,

and there's going to be lots of people who know in this room.

og der er mange i dette rum som ved det.

Man bliver ofte vred,

You are angry a lot of the time,

and I think one of the reasons why this debate is so charged

og jeg tror, at en af grundene til, at denne debat er så ladet,

is because it runs through the heart of each of us, right?

er fordi dette går lige til hjertet, ikke?

Alle har det ligesom dem, der kigger på en misbruger og tænker,

Everyone has a bit of them that looks at an addict and thinks,

I wish someone would just stop you.

bare nogen kunne stoppe dig.

And the kind of scripts we're told for how to deal with the addicts in our lives

Den slags recepter vi får, på hvordan vi skal omgås misbrugerne i vores liv

is typified by, I think,

synes jeg, er karakteriseret ved

the reality show "Intervention," if you guys have ever seen it.

realityshowet 'Intervention', hvis i har set den.

I think everything in our lives is defined by reality TV,

Jeg synes alt i vores liv, er bestemt af reality TV,

but that's another TED Talk.

men det er en anden TED Talk.

If you've ever seen the show "Intervention,"

Hvis du har set 'Intervention'.

it's a pretty simple premise.

Den har en ret simpel grundide.

Get an addict, all the people in their life, gather them together,

Få fat i en misbruger og alle personer i hans liv.

confront them with what they're doing, and they say, if you don't shape up,

Saml dem og konfronter ham med hvad han gør, og sig, at hvis du ikke tager dig sammen,

we're going to cut you off.

så er det helt farvel.

So what they do is they take the connection to the addict,

De tager misbrugerens tilknytninger,

and they threaten it, they make it contingent

og truer ham, og gør det betinget af,

on the addict behaving the way they want.

at misbrugeren opfører sig som de ønsker.

And I began to think, I began to see why that approach doesn't work,

Jeg begyndte at forstå, hvorfor den fremgangsmåde ikke virker,

and I began to think that's almost like the importing of the logic of the Drug War

og jeg begyndte at se, at det er næsten som en kopiering af logikken i War on Drugs

into our private lives.

ind i vore private liv.

So I was thinking, how could I be Portuguese?

Jeg begyndte at tænke 'hvordan bliver jeg Portugiser'?

And what I've tried to do now, and I can't tell you I do it consistently

Hvad jeg har forsøgt indtil nu,

- og jeg kan ikke sige, at jeg gør det konsekvent - og jeg kan ikke sige at det er nemt,

and I can't tell you it's easy,

is to say to the addicts in my life

er at sige til misbrugerne i mit liv,

that I want to deepen the connection with them,

at jeg ønsker at udbygge forbindelsen med dem,

to say to them, I love you whether you're using or you're not.

at sige, at jeg holder af dem, uanset hvad du tager.

I love you, whatever state you're in,

så jeg holder af dig, ligegyldig hvilken tilstand du er i,

and if you need me, I'll come and sit with you

og hvis du har brug for mig, så kommer jeg og sidder hos dig,

because I love you and I don't want you to be alone

fordi jeg holder af dig, og ikke vil, at du er alene

or to feel alone.

eller føler dig alene.

And I think the core of that message --

Og jeg tror at budskabets kerne

you're not alone, we love you --

-- du er ikke alene, vi holder af dig --

has to be at every level of how we respond to addicts,

skal altid findes, når vi omgås misbrugere,

socially, politically and individually.

socialt, politisk og individuelt.

For 100 years now, we've been singing war songs about addicts.

Vi har sunget krigssange om misbrugere i 100 år.

I think all along we should have been singing love songs to them,

Jeg synes, vi skulle have sunget kærlighedssange i stedet,

because the opposite of addiction is not sobriety.

fordi det modsatte af misbrug er ikke stoffri.

The opposite of addiction is connection.

Det modsatte af misbrug er tilknytning.

Thank you.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)