Ok, hear me out on this. All you scientists please resist the temptation to blow me out of the water. I am going to use simple concepts for complex processes.
Here is why addiction is tough to beat. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s say that dopamine is the “feel good” chemical in the brain. It occurs naturally in certain quantities. When we engage in pleasurable activities, the Dopamine is released and we feel good. But, these activities are actually deep seeded survival mechanisms.They exist in that part of the brain dealing with survival of the species.
For instance we need to eat to survive, and procreate or have sex to insure the survival of the species. Here is what the Dopamine release looks like for rats in a clinical trial.
When the rats were given food the Dopamine level increased about 160%. When they were allowed to have sex, the level went to 200%. The bottom of the graph is time to return to normal. So, on a primal level over many years the brain has ‘rewarded’ us for doing things to survive. We want to feel good again sooo….more food, more sex.
In the upper right is the Dopamine release for Amphetamine (Meth) 1050% increase, below that left is Nicotine225% increase, upper right is cocaine 350% increase, lower right is Morphine(opiate)., 200% increase.
In other words, we have tricked our brain into feeling astronomically better than we could naturally. The instinct part of the brain says an increase in Dopamine indicates the successful execution of a survival mechanism and wants more.
OK, before the scientists blow me out of the water, just think about it. The executive, thinking part of the brain says logically I know I shouldn’t use it makes no intellectual sense. We use. Why? Because the instinct for survival and the pleasure/reward system is far older and more powerful than our conscious thought.
Do me a favor and leave a comment on this post…thanks.
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I think this loop you are describing also gets some fuel from our low self esteem, or our tendency to at some point just say “screw it. I don’t care anymore.”
That is the point I had to reach every time that I did something in my addiction that I swore I would never do. I said I would never smoke crack, but “screw it,” things are just that crappy in my life and I don’t care and it seems like it might be fun. What the heck. I’ll give it a try.
For this addict anyway, that tendency to say “screw it” every once in a while led me to a place where my addiction grew and developed and progressed. It was a critical part of how my disease progressed. I’m not sure if it was caused by a physical element like depression or if it was strictly part of my personality.
This is an excellent post and so well said. This is the same kind of research coming out of NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). The HBO program/website on addiction, collaboratively produced by NIDA, HBO, NIAAA and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shares these same kinds of findings (not said exactly the same way, but the same idea) — http://www.hbo.com/addiction.
Thank you for this post!
You caught me Lisa,
I just got home from a ‘train the trainer’ workshop put on by the Faces and Voices of Recovery. I was learning how to present the science of addiction. It is based entirely on the public domain information you cited. The trainer was using info I published a while back…http://addictionrecoverybasics.com/2008/11/25/addiction-a-diseasebrain-biology-questions-and-answers-that-are-easily-understandable-part-1-of-3/ , in my opinion one of the best pieces on addiction as a brain disease.
I will shortly be doing a post on advocacy and spreading a unified message.
Bill
Bill…I hope my comment didn’t seem like I was trying to catch you on anything — I only wanted to support you in what you were saying by sharing that others are saying it, too. This is such a critical message, I’ve found, and helps both alcoholics and family members start to move past the shame and guilt because they start to understand the brain (and thus “thinking”) has been hijacked by alcohol.
I really like how you presented it.
Lisa
P.S. I just read the interview — it IS one of the best pieces on addiction as a brain disease…
I read this article and i come to know that its really very difficult to come out of such these things when you just addict of this.
Healthy people do not reach for dopamine simulators. The dopamine is being used to cover up an unwanted feeling, like sadness. The unwanted feeling is being driven by low self worth, caused by childhood abuse of some kind. So, as life goes on, that low self worth must be replaced with the truth of their value and worthiness.
Even though the medication always “works,” a combination of growing self worth and being able to ignore the brain’s request for medication is needed.