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Narcan9 t1_jdeifvc wrote

The addiction system must have been an evolutionary Advantage for it to be so prevalent today. I suspect it has to do with something like thrill seeking and impulsiveness making for better warriors and increasing the chance of surviving deadly conflicts.

Those traits may not be as well suited for a more peaceful, agrarian society.

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guethlema t1_jdexgq2 wrote

While it's a difficult hypothesis to examine in a controlled scientific setting, people acting on addiction has been evaluated in many studies to be linked to a sedentary lifestyle as well. So, it can be similarly hypothesized that active lifestyles hinder people with addictive genes from acting on them.

Anecdotally as someone who is personally genetically predisposed to addiction, I find myself to be much more focused when active, and as such have found a positive feedback loop on physical activity/often repetitive tasks with a level of thinking to be more focused than my peers while doing continuous focused work.

There is a viable link as well between ADHD and dopamine, and a similar link between ADHD and hyper focus while doing certain tasks.

As a result, perhaps additional research could focus on the benefits of dopamine on hunter/gatherer and agrarian tasks, and how ADHD and addiction are modern responses to changes in dopamine release from dietary change and changes in movement. There may be benefits to the mechanisms that modernly result in addiction, perhaps overeating and eating disorders, ADHD or other dopamine expressions that persisted through evolution, where those side effects were either null or mild compared to the benefits of dopamine release.

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