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Failing to Create New Habits Doesn’t Mean You Lack Willpower
What we learned from heroin-addicted Vietnam War veterans and then promptly forgot.
On May 16, 1971, a headline on the front page of the New York Times read, “G.I. Heroin Addiction Epidemic in Vietnam.” This wasn’t an exaggeration. According to a report from the Department of Defense, 51% of soldiers had smoked marijuana, 31% had used psychedelics, and 28% had done hard drugs, like cocaine and heroin.
Naturally, the U.S. Government was concerned. They feared these soldiers would continue to abuse drugs when they returned home. This kickstarted a program for the rehabilitation of service members, which included tracking addicted members.
The fear, however, turned out to be misplaced. And what we learned from this ordeal is one of the most useful facts about human psychology that we’ve ever discovered.
What happened to these soldiers?
When the soldiers returned home, they didn’t become the raging junkies that everyone feared they’d become. Even though many of them had been addicted to hard drugs, like heroin, that addiction virtually ceased upon them returning to America. Only 5% of service members who were addicted to heroin remained addicted after one year. After…
