![]() Like riding a bike, the brain remembers.”īut are drugs that powerful? If the brain can get a feel-good boost from healthy activities like exercise, why isn’t that good enough? The NIDA has an excellent analogy: “For the brain, the difference between normal rewards and drug rewards can be likened to the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone. For example, people who have been drug free for a decade can experience cravings when returning to an old neighborhood or house where they used drugs. ![]() ![]() This learned ‘reflex’ can last a long time, even in people who haven’t used drugs in many years. Cues in a person’s daily routine or environment that have become linked with drug use because of changes to the reward circuit can trigger uncontrollable cravings whenever the person is exposed to these cues, even if the drug itself is not available. While certain drugs act in certain ways to promote a flood of various feel-good chemicals throughout the brain, the release of dopamine is what promotes drug-seeking behavior - and understanding this goes a long way toward answering the question, “Why can’t an addict stop using?”Īccording to the NIDA, “large surges of dopamine ‘teach’ the brain to seek drugs at the expense of other, healthier goals and activities. When someone has a substance use disorder, they usually build up a tolerance to the substance, meaning they need larger amounts to feel the effects.” Why Can’t an Addict Stop Using: The Long-Term Effects Intoxication symptoms are different for each substance. Intoxication is the intense pleasure, euphoria, calm, increased perception and sense, and other feelings that are caused by the substance. On top of that, according to the American Psychiatric Association, “these changes can last long after the immediate effects of the substance wears off, or in other words, after the period of intoxication. “When the frontal cortex isn’t working properly, people can’t make the decision to stop taking the drug - even if they realize the price of taking that drug may be extremely high, and they might lose custody of their children or end up in jail. Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “Brain imaging studies of people addicted to drugs or alcohol show decreased activity in this frontal cortex,” says Dr. This area, known as the prefrontal cortex, is the very region that should help you recognize the harms of using addictive substances.” “To add to that, repeated use of drugs can damage the essential decision-making center at the front of the brain. At this stage, people often use drugs or alcohol to keep from feeling bad rather than for their pleasurable effects. Addiction can also send your emotional danger-sensing circuits into overdrive, making you feel anxious and stressed when you’re not using the drugs or alcohol. Drugs or alcohol can hijack the pleasure/reward circuits in your brain and hook you into wanting more and more. At the same time, the brain’s “fight or flight” response is connected to the part of the brain that makes decisions that help a person determine whether a risky choice is dangerous or not.īut, as the NIH continues, “when you’re becoming addicted to a substance, that normal hardwiring of helpful brain processes can begin to work against you. A rigorous workout, a good meal, sex - they all promote the release of chemicals in the brain that make individuals “feel good,” and as a result, the brain is motivated to repeat those behaviors, according to the NIH. ![]() Different drugs work through different neurological mechanisms, but according to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the end result is the same: The brain is hijacked by drugs.Ī healthy brain receives reward from activities that release various neurotransmitters associated with pleasure. To answer the question “why can’t an addict stop using?,” one must first understand the biological nature of addiction. So what are they? Why can’t an addict stop using? When does the initial choice to consume mind- and mood-altering chemicals cross the line into dependence and addiction? Let’s take a look. Reality, however, is much more complex, and the inability of individuals with substance use disorder - the clinical terminology for addiction - to just put down the drugs and walk away is dependent on a number of variables. ![]() If you follow social media and engage with any news outlets, then stories of addiction inevitably bring out a singular question from a great many people unfamiliar with the disease: Why can’t an addict stop using?įrom the outside looking in, it seems like a black-and-white solution: Just quit. ![]()
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