Notes on Hungry Ghosts

Lots of anecdotal stories of what it is like to work with addicted people, which are generally very compelling.
- lots of them are trying desperately to get clean, they are clean for ~1 week at a time, but just can’t sustain it. even when they have great reasons for getting clean (in one story, a woman is pregnant and knows that child services will take her baby away if she doesn’t get clean) — but they just can’t sober up. The drugs make them feel good for the hour, but get them into trouble that keeps them from fixing up their lives, and so they’re stuck.
- A few act like they actually enjoy getting drugs — admittedly, I would believe that for many drug addicts, the daily challenges of scoring more drugs may feel like a more meaningful life than eeking out a living bagging groceries (and they might be lucky to even get a job like that). Many will live with the sense of stigma or shame for the rest of their lives, and might never have a stable environment in which to process and heal — if that was your reality, would you really choose to give up the one part of your life which lets you forget?
- The author’s take is that most of their drug addiction challenges stem from trying to process or forget previous traumas. He brings up anecdotal experiences of trauma.
- One repeated theme is how frequently the volatility of romantic relationships seems to play a major role in the upswings and downswings of people seeking to get clean.
- As Charlie Munger says: “There are only three ways a smart person can go broke: liquor, ladies, and leverage.” I wouldn’t expect charlie munger to offer any particularly elucidating wisdom into these stories, but here we are.
- Some reference is made in the book to the homeless shelter being “the first home” that residents have ever experienced.
- The author’s reference to his own addiction to buying classical music CDs at first feels a bit out of place, but ultimately I think makes a lot of sense. Addiction is a standalone mental phenomenon — the intensity, target, and response to that addiction can have a major impact on how addiction is felt.
- Other anecdotal bits — I’m surprised by how heroin seems easier to get off of (maybe because of methodone) compared to crack cocaine. Crack seems totally destructive to someone’s life in a way that heroin just seems to get people to fast-forward.
I’m left with the sense that concentrating homeless resources all together in the same neighborhoods where drugs are sold must be the single worst way to reduce the number of people suffering from homelessness & drug addiction.
- Why don’t we spread the homeless out into rural areas where it wouldn’t be as economical to support a vibrant drug trade on the streets? You could imagine setting up suburban communities of ~15-20 people each, outside of major drug dealing hubs, but with a big enough group to support basic in-house services and a community-feel.
- Why don’t we provide housing-first approaches, that concentrate a single homeless shelter in each of small towns, and maybe give them work to do there?
- This feels like it ties in nicely with shellenberger’s advocacy for Cal-Psych, which initially i thought was needlessly cruel (how could it help to just ship these people somewhere else?) but the idea of spreading out the homelessness across many different places would help. You would absolutely not want to go the route of institutionalized asylums, but rather, dedicate towns where people could get bac on their feet, far from the open street drug trade which can quickly lure them back in.