Very rarely does a week go by that I do not receive emails on my column. But what is rare is for a column to strike such a common chord that I get multiple requests for a follow-up column. Last week’s column on “A Path To Victory Over Addiction” resulted in me getting grateful emails from multiple states and also multiple suggestions and requests for a follow-up. Those requests generally landed in two categories. The first was from the medical community and the physiological perspective; the second was from hurting families and the support perspective.
On the medical side of things, a column from Harvard Health does an excellent job of simplifying a complex problem. “In nature, rewards usually come only with time and effort. Addictive drugs and behaviors provide a shortcut, flooding the brain with dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Our brains do not have an easy way to withstand the onslaught.
“Addictive drugs, for example, can release two to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards do, and they do it more quickly and more reliably. In a person who becomes addicted, brain receptors become overwhelmed. The brain responds by producing less dopamine or eliminating dopamine receptors – an adaptation similar to turning the volume down on a loudspeaker when noise becomes too loud.
“As a result of these adaptations, dopamine has less impact on the brain’s reward center. People who develop an addiction typically find that, in time, the desired substance no longer gives them as much pleasure. They have to take more of it to obtain the same dopamine “high” because their brains have adapted – an effect known as tolerance.
“At this point, compulsion takes over. The pleasure associated with an addictive drug or behavior subsides – and yet the memory of the desired effect and the need to recreate it (the wanting) persists. It’s as though the normal machinery of motivation is no longer functioning.