The stigma around drug addiction can make it impossible for a lot of people to seek help. It can turn into a herculean task to recover from their drug use disorder even though the addiction can negatively affect their loved ones and their own lifestyle.
It’s easy for those of us who’ve never had to struggle with addiction to judge those who are battling it every day says United Recovery Project California. However, it is important to learn about the chemistry behind drug addiction and just exactly why it’s so difficult to stop taking something that’s clearly poisoning you.
Addiction Is an Illness
The most common misconception about addiction is that it’s a choice rather than an illness, or that people can quit their addiction whenever they want with just some willpower alone. Most people don’t even know that addiction is a disease just like cancer or diabetes.
In fact, theAmerican Society of Addiction Medicine has formulated a definition of addiction as: “a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences.”
The Chemistry of Addiction
Now that we’ve established addiction as a medical disease, how does addiction actually happen? Well, the answer to that is a bit complex and requires some understanding of biochemistry.
Most addictive substances, such as alcohol, opioids, and cocaine, cause a euphoric rush of dopamine (commonly known as the happy hormone) in the basal ganglia of the brain.
This region is in charge of regulating rewards and our ability to learn depending on those rewards. These circuits adjust as drug usage grows. They reduce their sensitivity to dopamine, which reduces a substance’s potential to create the “high” with its use, therefore, building a tolerance to said substance.
As a result, users frequently increase the quantity of the drug they consume in order to achieve the euphoria that they are accustomed to. When these circuits are disturbed by drug use, existence starts to feel less and less pleasurable for the addict, therefore, they grow dependent on the drug.
Repeated substance uses wires the brain to associate the drug high with other things in the person’s life. Our brain acts on a fundamental principle of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure.
The extended amygdala is responsible for releasing stress neurotransmitters that motivate us to escape pain, while the basal ganglia are responsible for releasing dopamine neurotransmitters that motivate us to seek pleasure.
In substance use disorder, there is an imbalance between these two drives if the user isn’t taking any substances, their body goes through an excruciating amount of physical and emotional pain. This pain is called “withdrawal”.
Can GABA Change the Cycle of Addiction?
GABA(B) receptor agonists seem to enhance abstinence and decrease substance abuse of drugs like nicotine, cocaine, and alcohol according to a substantial amount of pre-clinical andclinical evidence.
Most neuroscience students are taught that GABA is the “primary neurotransmitter for inhibition in the brain.” Although this is accurate (exceptions are observed on a routine basis), it may not adequately reflect the wide range of functions that GABA may play.
When it concerns the addictive characteristics of medicines, the same holds true about GABA. GABAergic synapses within the ventral pallidum (VP), that transmit GABAergic impulses back to NAc, are directly modulated by dopamine (DA) neurons within the accumbens (NAc).
As a result, it’s simple to assume that affecting DA conduction inside NAc is an unavoidable side consequence of substance use. This, in turn, has an impact on the GABAergic activity across our brain’s reward system.
This suggests that GABA indeed plays a role in modulating any drug’s addictive reaction. It’s also thought that GABAa receptors have been involved in cocaine’s capacity to promote behaviors linked with drug-related environmental stimuli (lever pushing) and conditioning activity (training the brain). As a result, GABA receptors might be a promising, if not an inevitable, target for addiction treatment.
The Excruciating Ordeal of Withdrawal
If you decide to abruptly stop taking drugs, your body doesn’t just say, “It’s all good”, and just let you off the hook. Instead, it goes haywire and starts to wreak hell on itself.
Withdrawal is often a violent process, including symptoms like sweating, tearing eyes, runny nose, hot and cold flashes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, tension and aches, tremors, increased heart rate and blood pressure, poor concentration and memory, insomnia, restlessness, irritability, agitation, anxiety, depression, hallucinations, delirium, and seizures. These symptoms can last from days to weeks, depending on the drug.
What’s even more surprising is the fact that some types of drug withdrawals can just be as life-threatening as the actual drugs themselves because of their negative effects on the body. That’s why in many cases, addicts need to either be hospitalized, or have to go to a rehab center in order to get help safely.
Why Do People Choose to Take Drugs?
If the withdrawal is such a scary and daunting process then you might be wondering why people start taking drugs in the first place. Firstly, you need to know that not all drug addicts are created equal. Some people are just more prone to addiction.
People with mental health issues often self-medicate in order to escape their illness which, in turn, exacerbates their illness even more. Children of addicts are 45 percent to 79 percent more likely than the general population to misuse drugs or alcohol, according to research. Researchers identified a specific protein called PSD-95 that plays a role in drug addiction.
People with lower levels of PSD-95 are more likely to get addicted to drugs than those with higher levels. People with certain kinds of personality traits, such as “negative emotionality” are also more likely to develop an addiction.
Summary
In conclusion, the chemistry behind drug addiction tells us that it’s not just a bad habit that you can kick off like nail-biting or late-night snacking. It’s much worse.
- Addiction acts like a complex multifaceted disease that can have far-reaching effects on an individual’s life.
- Drug pals, certain surroundings, and other reminders can be triggers that neurologically offset those in recovery who are trying to quit.
- Targeting the GABA receptors can be the inevitable and promising solution that attacks the drug addiction problem at its root.
- Withdrawal symptoms can take longer than anticipated and must be made easy on those seeking to recover from their substance use disorders.
- Research shows some people are more susceptible to falling for addictions, however, all hope is not lost as CBT exists to guide these people out of their destructive behaviors.
Addiction is a devastating disease that’s often invisible and those battling it should be given the same empathy and respect as those battling diseases like cancer.