Introduction to Addictive Behaviors: How Addiction Changes the Brain

Most of us need no introduction to addiction. Not because we’re all at various stages of recovery but because stories of addiction are ubiquitous, both in public discourse and popular. We laud the rock stars who got their life back on track after years of substance abuse; we grieve the promising students who made poor decisions trying to cope with expectations. Almost everyone, at some point, has said they are addicted to chocolate. 

In truth, most of us don’t know how addiction works or how it affects the brain. Most of us know even less about how to conquer addiction. Let’s unpack addiction together. 

What is addiction?

Addiction comes from the Latin ‘addicere’, which means bound to, enslaved by; an evocative and succinct definition. Modern psychological theory (The American Society of Addiction Medicine) defines addiction as a chronic condition, often lifelong, that compels you toward certain substances and certain behaviors, despite their adverse effects on your quality of life. 

We all know about the effects. Many a Hollywood story has celebrated or condemned what happens when addiction takes hold of someone. Lost relationships, lost jobs, lost lives.

Common causes of addiction

If only the issue was that easy to define. The hard (and important) truth is that no laundry list of common causes of addiction exists. The root cause for any individual is always a nebulous mix of factors. Psychological, social, cultural, and situational, to name a few. Think unemployment. Think divorce. Think childhood trauma. 

Everyone who ends up addicted to something finds their own way there. The path can be short; it can extend to the horizon. As a child, you lost a parent to cancer, and have sought to numb the grief ever since. Maybe you were once the life of the party, but now the party is using substances on your own. 

Discovering the cause of someone’s addiction often takes professional support and self-reflection. It is, in part, detective work. Rare is the alcoholic who became so simply because they loved whiskey.   

The role our brain plays in addiction

It all starts with pleasure

Among the infinite number of things our brains register, pleasure is one of the loudest. Everyone, every day, experiences pleasure. An after-dinner chocolate. Your child’s little league team winning. A Sunday afternoon drive. These pleasurable activities trigger the brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter. The dopamine goes to an area beneath the cerebral cortex called the nucleus accumbens. You know this area as the brain’s pleasure center. 

So far, so good. The problems start when you introduce an addictive substance or behavior to the mix. A hard drug such as cocaine triggers a surge of dopamine; it’s little wonder we refer to this effect as feeling high. 

The well is empty   

The brain can only produce so much dopamine at once; a surge in demand disrupts the natural release-and-replenish sequence. This is why someone addicted to cocaine will feel as though the world is ending the morning after. 

Addictive substances and behaviors deceive. The pleasure and reward you get from passing an exam is real and tangible; it demands a not-always-pleasurable amount of discipline and effort to achieve. Addictive substances aren’t concerned with such effort. Instead, they’re a shortcut to more pleasure. It’s this reliability that forms the basis of the addiction. Over time, the brain makes the idea of liking something and wanting something the same.     

Addiction affects more than just pleasure

And it’s not just pleasure that is affected. Dopamine interacts with another neurotransmitter, glutamate, which is in charge of reward-relating learning. It’s critical to memory, motivation, and mood regulation. When dopamine disrupts glutamate’s job, your ability to learn, remember things, and feel motivated to do things, diminishes. 

Moving forward: how to address addiction

The first step with addiction is honesty. And transparency. Ask yourself (or someone you feel is struggling with addiction): How frequently do you use this substance? Is it a priority above all else? Do you lie about your relationship with it, with those important to you?

There’s no easy path to redemption. If you feel as though you’re struggling with addiction, reach out for help. Support professionals, like those qualified through Masters in Mental Health Counseling programs, provide safe, confidential spaces for you to address the matter. 

The first step with addiction is acknowledgment, and, unsurprisingly, it’s the hardest step to take. Once you do so, the journey to better well-being becomes more defined. Like anything in life, it’s trial and error until something works.