Is this a new way to fight addiction?

If you could take the high out of drugs, what would be the point in taking them? Sujata Gupta meets the unorthodox doctor who thinks he can block some of the world’s most addictive pills.

Toru had always been anxious as a child, but the problem worsened when he was 19 and attending college in Tokyo, Japan. A social science major, he would feel his heart race every time he had to present in front of his class. A psychiatrist prescribed clonazepam, an anti-anxiety medication that belongs to a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines (which also includes Valium and Xanax).

Initially, Toru felt calmer, even when he had to speak in public. Soon, though, the drugs’ potency began to wane and, after about a year, Toru quit taking them. His anxiety escalated. He stopped sleeping and began experiencing panic attacks, one so severe that he called an ambulance to take him to the emergency room. So Toru did the logical thing: he went back on the drugs.

Despite his struggles, Toru completed his degree and began working in information technology. But he had developed a temper and struggled to hold down a job. At a particularly low point, he destroyed a computer and got fired. After that incident, Toru stopped looking for work. Periodically, he would try to go off the meds again, but the withdrawal symptoms always proved too severe.

This article is published in collaboration with Mosaic. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Sujata Gupta is a contributor to Mosaic.

Image: A nurse poses for a photo in a trauma center of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman