What is addiction?
Addiction is a chronic brain disorder affecting body through physical and psychological dependence. The use of substances like opioids, alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs turn to addiction when the person has no longer control on his/her use of the drug. There are two main possible factors of addiction: pleasurable feelings, positive factors, and avoiding withdrawal, negative factors. In addition, environmental factors like the place that people use this drug, or the other drug users affect addiction. Basically, all these drugs produce pleasure by activating the reward system. The reward system is the sub-level of the limbic system; the limbic system controls eating, socializing, yet also drugs of abuse. In addition, it helps people to experience emotions, and alter their moods. Also, most importantly, as reward system is a sub-level of limbic system, thus it can be said that limbic system generates feelings of pressure and in return people learn to repeat what they have done to feel pleasure.
Drugs of Abuse
These drugs are imposters entering our body and mimicking the naturally occurring neurotransmitters in our brain circuits. These drugs either block or copy the actions of neurotransmitters. Thus, addiction occurs; this addiction is the product of changes in the brain regarding judgement, decision-making, and so on.
Even though it is not known who are susceptible to addiction, addicted people’s vulnerability to their addiction creates difficulty of breaking the addiction. This vulnerability is based on certain genes internally, and stress, and social environment externally. In deep, even though the “beginning” of the addiction is not entirely known, half of the addiction can be traced to genes: these genes can either affect brain circuits’ responses to drugs or body’s metabolism of the drugs. Also, in deep, even though social environment is more intense in people’s childhood and adolescence because in these phases people are more vulnerable to social life’s obstacles, hereditary factors are stronger in the addiction’s effects on people.
There are different types of drugs of abuse:
Opioids:
Many years ago, humans consume opioids in the form of morphine from poppy flowers. Also, heroin is an illegal opioid drug, and its main ingredient is morphine. This heroin, as it is injected to the vein, within 15-20 seconds, it reaches to the brain. Then brains reward system is affected, and so the next couple of hours becomes relaxed with chemically induced dopamine levels.
It is understandable that we feel relaxed and high as we consume opioid drugs, but how do we even detect this opioid drug in our body; how our body is capable of detecting opioids? The answer is simple: our body has naturally occurring opioid receptors named endorphins which control motivation, emotion, food intake, and response to pain. Other than heroin and morphine, there is a intense opioid drug named fentanyl, and this drug is only used if it is prescribed. Why can it be prescribed? To treat cough, diarrhea, and pain.
Assume you see a women on the sidewalk overdosed from, for instance, heroin – an opioid – what would treat this women? In the most effective way, opioid receptor blocking drugs would treat this women in a short notice by disabling the present opioid in the synapses not binding to opioid receptors. Yet, in long notice, psychosocial approaches like cognitive behavioral therapies (basically therapies with a professional’s help) would help the overdosed women for her to break her addiction.
Nicotine:
You smoke? If you do, the addictive substance that you inhale is nicotine. In 10 seconds as you inhale, nicotine arrives in to the brain and it attaches to proteins which in return causes many different neurotransmitters to be released. As these neurotransmitters are released, they create a pleasure and energy due to the release of dopamine from the reward system. Like many other addivtive substances, nicotine generates tolerance over time. Thus, this makes nicotine a drug of abuse.
As can be observed by non-smokers, and experienced by smokers, quitting smoking is quite hard. If the person is highly motivated to do so, then he/she can succeed, and there are ways to accomplish this goal. Pharmacotherapy, a type of drug treatment, can help. Also, nicotine packaged gums, skin patches and the alike products containing low levels of nicotine both helps the smoker to avoid tobacco’s deadly contents, and to decrease the level of nicotine taken in.
Alcohol:
Have you ever waken up to a morning with a terrible headache and vomit taste? If you have, you will know which drug of abuse I am talking about. Yes, it is alcohol. Alcohol is a legal addictive substance. Both alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse has very detrimental effects on society at any levels such as: drunken driving, sexual assault, domestic violence, and etc.
In alcohol, the substance “ethanol” is the addictive ingredient. This substance is water-soluble, so it enters to bloodstream and arrives to the brain quite easily. If, in bloodstream, the ethanol level is high, the person consumed ethanol can experience intoxication, sleepiness, blackouts and short term memory losses.
As ethanol arrives to the brain, it binds to the main inhibitory receptors in the brain (GABA receptors). Thus, it calms anxiety and weakens muscles. Also, ethanol affects the brain’s mood and memory responsible receptors, and stimulates brain’s pain-relief circuits – these circuits are fully filled with natural opioid molecules ready to bind to opioid receptors and cause painlessness.
If alcohol is excessively consumed in short period, it causes slowed heart rate, and breathing difficulties. In case of alcohol addiction, even though it is not directly known how it can occur, having a parent or grandparent with an alcohol use disorder is a good predicator for addiction. If an addicted man seeks help for his addiction, this men can use cognitive behavioral therapy, individual counseling, and support groups.
Marijuana:
Known as weed/pot, dried leaves of cannabis plant is basically marijuana. This plant
has a mind-altering chemical named THC which breaks down people’s perceptions, and alters people’s senses of time, space and self. This THC can enter to blood and then arrive to brain by either entering from lungs or entering through ingestion.
Marijuana usage is linked to abnormal neurobiology in brain regions related to addiction. In long-term usage, marijuana can affect thinking, memory and learning in a detrimental way; also, again in long-term, marijuana can lead to schizophrenia. The widely known, outward symptoms of cannabis-use disorders are higher stress levels, cravings, inability to think clearly, missing school or work, and risky behaviors.
Again, if we ask how can our body detect this THC substance, the answers is again within the body. In our body, there are THC receptors named anandamide responsible for movement coordination, memory and learning. As these receptors are affected by marijuana’s THC, these movement coordination, memory and learning are affected.
Psychostimulants:
After all of these drug names, we came to the “psychostimulants”. This word is not specified for any drug. In contrary, it is the name of the chemicals exciting our brain. Examples to psychostimulants are:
- Caffeine: As we all know, this is the “thing” in the coffee. This substance is legal and commercially available, and as can be guessed, it excites our brain.
- Amphetamine and Methylphenidate: These are the psychostimulants’ prescribed drug forms. These two are specifically prescribed for sleeping disorders and restlessness.
- Methamphetamine and Cocaine: This psychostimulants are, first of all, illegal. They create euphoria, feelings of power, and self-confidence. In particular for methamphetamine, it is quite destructive to the brain itself: it generates harmful substances called free radicals that destroy dopamine neurons.
As these psychostimulants enter brain, they affect the flood of the dopamine which in return affects reward system. Over time, these psychostimulants damage body’s ability to release normal amounts of dopamine causing a range of health problems.
As it can be seen, most of these drugs are not medically used. They are used for pleasure and excitement. Thus, rushing to get a treatment is the best option if there is an addiction case. In case of the treatment, mostly cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational incentives are effective for helping to get addicted people away from both drugs and the situations that they have used drugs.
Designer Drugs and Club Drugs:
These type of drugs are the mostly extended type of drugs. Example names of the designer drugs are “bath salts” and “spice”. Example names of club drugs are “MDMA, Ecstasy, Molly” These type of drugs create serious and permanent damage in many brain regions. Let's take ecstasy as an example to go deeper.
Ecstasy is a widely used recreational drug with similarities to amphetamine. As ecstasy is swallowed, it works within 30-45 minutes and its effects last for several hours. The long-term usage of this drugs affecting brain in memory, though and pleasure ways.
Bibliography:
“BrainFacts.” BrainFacts.org, www.brainfacts.org/.
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