In the brain, pleasure has a distinct signature: the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells lying underneath the cerebral cortex (see illustration). The brain registers all pleasures in the same way, whether they originate with a psychoactive drug, a monetary reward, a sexual encounter, or a satisfying meal.
#ABUSE VS ADDICTION WORKSHEET SERIES#
This happens as the brain goes through a series of changes, beginning with recognition of pleasure and ending with a drive toward compulsive behavior. Just as cardiovascular disease damages the heart and diabetes impairs the pancreas, addiction hijacks the brain. Today we recognize addiction as a chronic disease that changes both brain structure and function. The scientific consensus has changed since then. Overcoming addiction, they thought, involved punishing miscreants or, alternately, encouraging them to muster the will to break a habit. In the 1930s, when researchers first began to investigate what caused addictive behavior, they believed that people who developed addictions were somehow morally flawed or lacking in willpower.
Nearly 23 million Americans-almost one in 10-are addicted to alcohol or other drugs.Consider the latest government statistics: Nobody starts out intending to develop an addiction, but many people get caught in its snare.
#ABUSE VS ADDICTION WORKSHEET MANUAL#
diagnostic manual (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition or DSM-IV) describes multiple addictions, each tied to a specific substance or activity, consensus is emerging that these may represent multiple expressions of a common underlying brain process. Neuroimaging technologies and more recent research, however, have shown that certain pleasurable activities, such as gambling, shopping, and sex, can also co-opt the brain.Īlthough a standard U.S. The word “addiction” is derived from a Latin term for “enslaved by” or “bound to.” Anyone who has struggled to overcome an addiction-or has tried to help someone else to do so-understands why.Īddiction exerts a long and powerful influence on the brain that manifests in three distinct ways: craving for the object of addiction, loss of control over its use, and continuing involvement with it despite adverse consequences.įor many years, experts believed that only alcohol and powerful drugs could cause addiction. Although breaking an addiction is tough, it can be done. Addiction changes the brain, first by subverting the way it registers pleasure and then by corrupting other normal drives such as learning and motivation.
A Harvard Health article Understanding Addiction New Insights into the Causes of AddictionĪddiction involves craving for something intensely, loss of control over its use, and continuing involvement with it despite adverse consequences.
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