Jordan Peterson on Addiction: How Noah's Mistake Reveals the Key to Breaking Free

Dr Jordan Peterson has a very interesting take on addiction I found it particularly intriguing because I believe it's very in line with a Jewish thought and many of the things that the Bible and that the Torah teaches I'm going to play the clip let me know if you agree with it or not in the comments I have some thoughts to share afterward you're wired so that exploration and positive emotion are basically the same and the reason people like cocaine for example is because cocaine makes them feel like they're doing something High order worthwhile one of the best ways of overcoming an addiction is to find something better to do maybe you like drinking like maybe it's a great dopaminergic drug free so you have lots of reason to drink so then you stop drinking and you go through the withdrawal maybe that happens in a treatment center but you go back to your normal environment you relapse almost immediately partly why you need something better to do pursuit of something worthwhile provides the kick that the drug had substituted for the first thing that comes to mind is the biblical story of Noah of Noah the Torah tells us the first thing that Noah did after getting off of the Ark after being in there for so long after the flood the first thing he did was he began to plant a Vineyard and the Torah says the term Vel Noah no began commentaries also explained that the word v began can also come through the word which means to do something that is like profane or mundane as if to insinuate that Noah somehow messed up what was the mess up that he did what led to his addiction what led to his big mistake of getting trashed and passed out drunk naked what led to all of this so commentaries have different explanations different Explorations and different ways of looking at what may have caused Noah to do this but was fascinating to me was rashi's interpretation Rashi is the commentary that focuses on the most literal interpretation of the Torah of the Bible and Rashi says he should have planted something else should have done something better should have done something else here's the thing with addiction you can't have addictive behavior and sober Behavior at the same time you can't crave like an addict and you can't at the the same time crave sobriety you can't act like an addict and at the same time act sober you can't do the same thing at the same time so Rashi says he should have just done something else should have done something better and those types of behaviors and attitudes sober Behavior sober attitude can actually help an addict heal research shows this and Jewish tradition teaches us a little bit of light chases chases away and dispels so much Darkness that's my story and I'm sticking to it