What Happens Inside An Addict

Mental health has finally started gaining some attention. People are starting to realize what actually mental health is and its importance. Although it is quite shocking that it took a whole pandemic for people to understand the very concept of mental health and how we cannot function without being healthy overall, it is still a start. After ignoring it for years and treating it as a taboo, it is about time we realize that we cannot move forward in development until our mental health is attended to.

In the same way, there is another concept that people consider being shameful of; addiction. Before we get into details, let us refer to a common meaning of addiction since a lot of people have their subjective definitions. Addiction is a psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a chemical, drug, activity, or substance, even though it is causing psychological and physical harm.

People have a preconceived notion that people who are addicted to a substance are “unpleasant” and troublesome. Addiction is not always in our hands. It is believed that overcoming addiction is a matter of willpower. You can stop using drugs if you really want. Here’s the fact: it is a disease that, after prolonged exposure to a particular substance, alters the brain in ways that result in craving for the substance. There are various types of substances that a person can get addicted to. The most commonly known substances are tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and many more.

To understand addiction, we need to get a picture of what actually happens inside the brain of an addict. The intake of the substances activates the brain reward system. The early stage of using substances typically activate the system and produce feelings of pleasure, the feeling one gets when they are “high”. This feeling results from the electrical activation of the parts of the brain that make up what is known as the brain reward system.

As humans, we are wired to engage in pleasurable activities. However, more often than not, our brain fails to interpret that a rewarding or pleasurable feeling is not always healthy. In this case, addiction does give pleasurable feelings but, as we all know, it is not healthy. Using drugs can be constructed as rewarding in the short-term but can be destructive in the long-term.

Since using substances is being reinforced by the pleasurable feeling, one would want to use it more and more. The more a behavior is reinforced, the more they tend to repeat the behavior, which results in creating a loop.

Physiologically, after a certain amount of time, physical changes occur in the brain, altering the reward pathway permanently. The amount of time depends on what type of substance one is using and how much a person takes at once.

We previously talked about how “electrical activation” in the brain resulted in the pleasurable feeling. This electrical activation is unlocked by a neurotransmitter called “dopamine”, also known as the feel-good neurotransmitter. Dopamine is an important chemical messenger involved in reward, motivation, memory, attention, and even regulating body movements. Research has shown that the drugs most commonly abused by humans (including opiates, alcohol, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine) create a neurochemical reaction that significantly increases the amount of dopamine that is released by neurons in the brain’s reward center.

Addiction is a biological loop that is hard to break. Even though one does not actively want to engage in abusing substances, he/she is bound to do it because of physiological demands. That is why people tend to continue using alcohol and other drugs chronically even after experiencing serious medical, social, legal, or financial consequences.

Once they do try to tamper with the loop and break out of that unhealthy cycle, what they have to go through for the following weeks is a nightmare. Cutting down on the amount and frequency of substance use comes with a price. This process is known as withdrawal. Drug withdrawal may include a combination of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms — some of which can prove dangerous if left unmanaged.

The symptoms include:

• Shakiness
• Increased heart rate
• Increase in body temperature/sweating
• High blood pressure
• Anxiety, panic attacks, restlessness, irritability
• Chills and sweats
• Sleeplessness
• Fever
• Runny nose
• Nausea and vomiting
• Muscle aches/cramps
• Depression: Social isolation, lack of enjoyment, fatigue, poor appetite
• Cognitive: Poor concentration, poor memory

These are the most common symptoms one can observe in a person going through withdrawal. However, as we have established the fact that all drugs are different, the symptoms experienced also varies from person to person, based on what drug they have used.

Some drugs produce significant emotional withdrawal (cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy). Some drugs produce little emotional withdrawal and more of physical withdrawal (alcohol, opiates, and tranquilizers). Every person’s physical withdrawal pattern is also different. One might experience little physical withdrawal. However, that does not mean that they are not addicted, instead, they might undergo more of emotional withdrawal.

Addiction not only takes a toll on one’s mental health but also their physical health. It becomes hard for the person to cope up with their familial life, social, life, occupational life, etc. Addiction seems simple but is very complex. A person has to go through a lot of internal battles in which he/she is addicted to a substance, video games, sex, porn, etc. However, keeping in mind that these battles can be fought, we must help those people in becoming and building a better life for themselves.

“Recovery delivers everything addiction promises.”- Unknown

Santhoshi Bhadri Member since June 14, 2020

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