ADDICTION AND YOUR BRAIN
Addiction "Hijacks" Your Brain
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine addiction has now been officially classified as a Brain Disease...
Most of us relate to addiction through our experience with smoking or alcohol. Nobody enjoys their first cigarette, so why worry about being able to stop? For many, alcohol is also an acquired "taste" in the beginning. The reason there are so many alcoholics is that like smoking the precise moment of addiction isn't easy to detect. We don't set out to become addicted to anything and most of us consider ourselves strong enough to avoid it, but the latest definition of addiction reduces the role "willpower" plays in avoiding it and confirms that addiction is a chronic brain disease. Understanding anyone can become an addict is a good reason to learn more about it. The life you save may be someone close to you or even your own...
While some of us are more vulnerable to it than others, addiction is not just about people behaving badly. All of us have the potential to acquire this disease. Can you stop, of course you can, if you catch it soon enough, while "willpower" remains your friend. Let it go on long enough and you run the risk of sending the wrong signals to an area of your brain called your "pleasure pathway," which is a term that describes the reward system built into your brain. It's supposed to promote positive behavior such as food, sex and other behaviors connected to the survival of the species. But your reward system is activated by behavior that makes you feel good and once it gets hijacked you are no longer in control...you have a brain disease.
We can all relate to the fact that there are no 90 year old heroin addicts, most hard core addicts die in their 40's or 50's. Depending upon the drug, the latest studies show that life expectancy is 15-20 years from the moment of addiction, not to mention the physical and mental deterioration along the way. Cocaine addicts often die within 5 years from the time they begin heavy usage...in Russia the average life expectancy of a drug addict is 4.4 years. Some addictions, such as Sex or Gambling, don't cause death from engaging in the behavior, they destroy lives in other ways. We can become addicted to almost anything and we may have no idea what's really taking place until we try to stop. The definition below adds additional perspective:
"Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors."
"Addiction is characterized by an inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death."
The animated image to the right is designed to help you form a mental image of your brain's Reward System to remind you it is not "optional equipment," it's built in, which means it has to be managed to reduce the risk of addiction. The chemical involved is Dopamine which conditions us to the routines we find pleasurable, good and bad. Dopamine is powerful stuff that everyone needs to be aware of. Forget just being concerned with controlling the urge for "Higher High's," the newest definition makes it clear addiction involves more than just seeking to get "High." It can be even more powerful when it's related to our desire to overcome being low. Investing the time to learn more about addiction will give you much greater insight into how your brain works as well.
Addiction is far more involved than its behavior symptoms describe---the highs, the cravings and the things people do to achieve one or avoid the other. It literally "Hijacks" different parts of your brain and when you sense that happening the best thing you can do is get help...at a minimum listen to your friends when they try to get your attention. Many of us have been at least partially addicted to something at different stages in our lives...According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse 23 million people need treatment for substance abuse, but only 2 million receive it. The problem is the population remains stable even though addicts die young because they are constantly being replaced.
The reason young people are so vulnerable is because reasoning is involved and when your frontal cortex isn't fully developed it's not as well connected to the emotion related areas of the brain, which makes it harder to withstand the peer pressure to experiment with substances that should be avoided. And that has nothing to do with self control or willpower, some young brains just develop more slowly than others. Sadly genetics are also involved, so if either you or your children are Biologically vulnerable to begin with, you may be more or less able to cope with a stressful or painful environment. The difficult economic times we face now are fertile ground for addiction, so be careful and pay close attention to those around you who may need help. Tom LeDuc