help me understand addiction

[MongGrel]

This is how it was explained to me so feel free to point out any inaccuracies.

Addiction is, simply put, a hijacking of your brain's reward system. Our brains evolved to motivate us to seek out behaviour that continued our survival. Things like food, sex, love, and friendship.

Addictive substances work by essentially mimicking a lot of the same chemicals behind this process. Specifically endorphin, the feel good neurotransmitter. It blocks pain receptors and give us a sense of euphoria.

Endorphin is an opioid. Chemically similar substances can also latch on to its receptors in the brain. Namely opium based drugs like morphine.

When we do something enjoyable, ie that releases endorphins, it also triggers a release of dopamine. This neurotransmitter is responsible for reward-seeking. The higher the pleasure stimulus, the more dopamine gets released. This was beneficial to our primitive ancestors, since dopamine motivated them to keep mating and seeking out calorie dense foods. Artificial stimuli illicit such a strong pleasure response that our brains think we've hit the survival jackpot. So a ton of dopamine gets released with each "hit".

Over time, this wears out our dopamine receptors. They become more desensitized to the stimuli, so you need more of it to get the same response. Another brain chemical called DeltaFosB starts to build up. It activates genes responsible for addiction, and rewires the brain to crave "it" more and more, whatever "it" is.

You're addicted when you can no longer control the seeking behaviour.

Best answer I've seen so far.

I do not know where sin has anything to do with it, it's not a religious thing.

 

[disappoint]

Addiction is not a disease: A neuroscientist argues that it’s time to change our minds on the roots of substance abuse

That article is spot on.

 

[disappoint]

Skimmed the article. The fellow is really just playing a semantics game with the word "disease." He's not offering anything that seems to run contrary to the contemporary understanding of addiction processes.

You really should try not skimming it. First of all the author is a she and not a he. Her name is Laura Miller. The article is correct. I can't find one fault with it. Most certainly not playing a semantics game.

 

[destrekor]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

:thumbsup:
That was a phenomenal article.

I've been coming around to the idea that we should focus on decriminalization with strong recovery and reintegration networks. I hadn't realized Portugal has already demonstrated it can be done with dramatic success!

With the US jails overcrowding entirely due to the war on drugs, we have created a self-fulfilling prophecy that continually stokes the fires. We desperately need to break this, as a country, or we'll all continue to tumble down lower. No matter how well off our best can be in this country, when we have things like the riots going on today, it can be tough to understand, but that will continue to pull us in until things just finally hit the boiling point.

When you continually put people into jail for things that you can help treat, you mar their future potential to rejoin society in a quality workforce, and relegate them to menial employment that doesn't fulfill anything, and rarely pays all the bills. So they wallow in their misery that is caused by previous incarceration. Sure, they caused the problem in the first place you say, but society can still do much better to help them early on in the process.

 

[Imp]

I have a very mild form of autism, and i know how strong that desire is to feel good but also to fit in. Because having autism in a normal world, often creates a desire to flee that normal world, being tired of it.

I may or may not be in the same boat (surprise!) -- elderly family member almost definitely has it, never diagnosed. Desire to fit in is gone though. Logical part took over and I just don't care what anyone thinks about me anymore. Honestly, never been happier.


Edit: About addiction, I read a story about how Portugal approaches drug addicts. They put them into communities or something like that, and it was found that people using meds for legit procedures don't usually get addicted no matter the strength of the drug.

 

[futurefields]

A serious inquiry. I have had multiple surgeries in the last 4 years. Two were very painful long term rehabilitation type (back to back rotator cuff surgeries). So I consumed quite a few pain pills.

Why do some people feel such a strong need for pain medication? When the doctor stopped prescribing pain pills I was like oh well.

"oh ho ho look at me better than these other people oh ho ho"

get off your high horse lady

 

[disappoint]

:thumbsup:
That was a phenomenal article.

I've been coming around to the idea that we should focus on decriminalization with strong recovery and reintegration networks. I hadn't realized Portugal has already demonstrated it can be done with dramatic success!

With the US jails overcrowding entirely due to the war on drugs, we have created a self-fulfilling prophecy that continually stokes the fires. We desperately need to break this, as a country, or we'll all continue to tumble down lower. No matter how well off our best can be in this country, when we have things like the riots going on today, it can be tough to understand, but that will continue to pull us in until things just finally hit the boiling point.

When you continually put people into jail for things that you can help treat, you mar their future potential to rejoin society in a quality workforce, and relegate them to menial employment that doesn't fulfill anything, and rarely pays all the bills. So they wallow in their misery that is caused by previous incarceration. Sure, they caused the problem in the first place you say, but society can still do much better to help them early on in the process.

Yes it was. But the U.S. has another addiction on it's hands that article didn't talk about, an addiction to money. No way the powers that be here want to follow in Portugal's footsteps. It doesn't pay as well to the law enforcement/courts/prison industrial machine to rid people of addiction.

 

[TheVrolok]

You really should try not skimming it. First of all the author is a she and not a he. Her name is Laura Miller. The article is correct. I can't find one fault with it. Most certainly not playing a semantics game.

The author I meant is Marc Lewis, the one whose ideas are being discussed. He's talking about addiction as part of the adaptive/learning nature of the brain. None of this is "rethinking" addiction. It absolutely is a semantics game playing on the word "disease." Essentially it's using the word clinically vs colloquially.

I don't find fault with anything he says either, I agree entirely with it, but that doesn't change my original post in the slightest.

If you enjoyed that article, I would recommend "The Addictive Brain" from The Great Courses. Fantastic lecture series. Just noticed it's on sale now, too. Well worth it.

 

[HeXen]

I smoked cigs for a while as a teenager but never got addicted while I had friends that got addicted to them after a couple or so weeks, i merely got bored with the act of doing it and never smoked again nor had any urge or ill effects once I stopped. Which is odd since every single other member of my family smoked back then...even my cousins under 12 chewed tobacco.
Since then I've done Opium, LSD and quite a few other drugs during my college years and never had a physical or mental dependance.

So from that, I assume it might be a gene thing or just how the brain is wired. I'm probably an oddball if even nicotine didn't give me ill effects after stopping.

 

[futurefields]

hey hey smoke weed every day

 

[who?]

Samuel L. Jackson said he realized in rehab that he doesn't have an off switch. Craig Ferguson believes that the anorexics are put with the alcoholics in the rehab dining room because the anorexics will say "tell me when I've had enough" and the alcoholics feel that there's no such thing as enough.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

After my first knee surgery, I was addicted to Darvons. It simply didn't register consciously with me until the doctor said he wasn't renewing the prescription. I was taking 5 mg every four hours around the clock for 6 weeks straight. I spent two days in bed and never got up recovering from the worst hangover I've ever had. Anyone can get addicted, the OP just never exceeded his tolerance.

 

[clamum]

Addiction is not a disease: A neuroscientist argues that it’s time to change our minds on the roots of substance abuse

Hmmm, that is pretty interesting and seems to make sense.

I don't know if I could ever be "cured" of addiction though. I've been sober for 23 months and very rarely think about drinking and have no cravings. If I picked up even a 40 oz or a half pint tonight, I'd be right back to drinking a fifth a day in absolutely no time, though. And I don't see that ever changing, to be honest. Just can't handle the shit anymore... can't stop once I start.

 

[bradly1101]

You all have like 18000 posts, therefore you are all Anandtech forum addicts.

Because it hurts so good.

 

[bradly1101]

Anything that feels good can be addictive once it causes self-harm or harm to others. My second partner had what seemed like an innocuous obsession with Beanie Babies, until I found out where he was hiding them and that he had taken out payday loans to buy them at something like 60% interest. When I confronted him he said, "Someone just sold one for $300!" The addiction wreaks havoc with logic.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Addiction is not a disease: A neuroscientist argues that it’s time to change our minds on the roots of substance abuse

I skipped this link. Now i have read it.
I feel this article and the writer of the book have it right.

 

[William Gaatjes]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

This article about "rat park" is also interesting and strikingly similar to what is observed in the human world and is just plain true. If you want to stop using drugs and not relapse, you need to get out of the environment that triggers you to relapse and use drugs again.

 

[brianmanahan]

You all have like 18000 posts, therefore you are all Anandtech forum addicts.

this thread is just an addict call-out

intervention will begin in 3, 2, 1...

 

[tcsenter]

Something else to consider, some people's reward/pleasure/motivation system is just plain borken (through biology) and develop anhedonia to some degree or another:

From Sleep Study, Clues to Happiness

This is personal since I have narcolepsy with cataplexy, along with a co-morbid case of treatment resistant depression with vegetative features (it's all intertwined). So much about the brain we do not yet understand.....

 

[Grooveriding]

Developing an addiction to prescription meds from not having been an addict of one form or another before generally takes a long term of being on the rx. Your meds were also not very strong. Sounds like you had a responsible physician who is thoughtful about what sort of pain management medication he prescribes. It's going to be a different response to narcotics for someone who has developed an addiction before, once the seed is planted and all that jazz.

My wife herniated a disc exercising a few years ago and was given an rx for two 2mg dilaudid tablets a day with a one month suppply, an opiate based morphine derivative, very strong. An rx I wouldn't have written for that injury, because while it's intensely painful initially, ideally you want an anti-inflammatory long-term and just a very short course of an opiate based painkiller, 5 days worth, to get through the initial hump of unmanageable pain. With that sort of injury if it is not serious enough to warrant surgery, it's a matter of allowing your body to adjust to the pressure of the disc against the spinal column and physical therapy to recover and get past the pain. She took the dilaudid for a couple days and then starting asking me about alternatives because she didn't like the feeling of what amounts to a toned down heroin high that you get from it.

Some physicians are irresponsible with prescriptions and let patients stay on them too long or prescribe a more powerful drug than is needed. This can lead to addiction. As far as believing you just don't have the addiction 'gene', this is hogwash. Anyone can develop an addiction when you are dealing with drugs that develop a physical addiction component. If you smoke 10 cigarettes a day every day for a month, you will become addicted and crave nicotine. Getting over that and resisting the drive to get more then becomes a matter of individual personal will, but you will be addicted whether you like it or not.

I suppose we all may have different definitions of what we think addiction is. Maybe for some it's not being able to control that urge and giving in to it that amounts to addiction. For others it may be having ingested enough of something to have developed an addiction and not whether you can control the compulsion or not.

 

[TeeJay1952]

The Pharmaceutical companies make steroids in a pack that changes dosage as you complete the cycle so make pain meds in a decreasing amount after 3 days till placebo for last couple of days

 

[brianmanahan]

hey hey smoke weed every day

it is apparent that you do

 

[olds]

Personally, I don't understand how people get "addicted" to things. I think they are just weak minded.
If you don't want to do something, don't do it. I learned that when I realized that I had control over my hands and they did what I tell them to do.

 

[destrekor]

Personally, I don't understand how people get "addicted" to things. I think they are just weak minded.
If you don't want to do something, don't do it. I learned that when I realized that I had control over my hands and they did what I tell them to do.

You trolling?

Not everyone understands addiction. That's fine. No reason to be condescending, to belittle, or fashion yourself superior.

Some people have certain types of personalities, or certain neurotransmitter balances that lend to the statement: "some people are just wired differently."
I myself have an addictive personality. I can do well by myself, but I can struggle and also lose.

 

[IronWing]

You trolling?

Not everyone understands addiction. That's fine. No reason to be condescending, to belittle, or fashion yourself superior.

Sure there is. This is the internet.