I can always quit: How is addiction formed
Addiction can affect anyone whatever his social status or wealth - many celebrities openly talked about their problem, such as Ben Affleck or Carrie Fisher. Drug and alcohol abuse and unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking first come to mind when we talk about addiction, although it can take very different forms: someone is obsessed with sex, like David Duchovny, and someone with shopping, social networks or coffee. We understand how dependence is formed, how it differs from addiction and what to do if the situation has gone too far.
Why addiction is a disease
It is impossible to calculate how many people are addicted to something, because even by this very term can mean different states. In the International Classification of Diseases (in the current tenth version, i.e. ICD-10), dependency syndrome is described as a group of phenomena that occur during repeated use of a substance and include a strong desire to take a drug, lack of self-control, use despite harmful consequences, higher priority to other actions and obligations, increased tolerance to substances. Simply put, a person sees in front of him only one goal and cannot think of anything else until he reaches his goal, and this goal is a drug.
It turns out that dependence is a state when a person begins to physically need a particular substance. What is often called "psychological addiction" is better formulated as "addiction" or "addiction" - these states are included in the group of disorders of habits and desires and include, for example, kleptomania or the need for gambling. It also happens that a person, for example, drinks alcohol in excess amounts, although he does not have a real dependence - then the situation is called abuse or harmful use. About shopping, computer games or constant use of a smartphone in the ICD does not say - as long as these addictions are not included in the lists of addictions or addictions.
How does addiction differ from addiction?
So, “real” addiction — from alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine — is associated with physical withdrawal syndrome. When there is no access to the substance, the person becomes ill, and the dose of this substance eases suffering. If you are addicted to sex, the Internet or food, the withdrawal syndrome is only psychological, and in theory this should be easier. But, of course, it is all the same whether they are on the medical list, dependent on shopping or the Internet, especially since it can be expanded - for example, the pathological craving for gambling has already been recognized as a disease.
Addiction or addiction decides for a person what to do, and consciousness only obeys — or is turned off altogether. Therefore, there are stories like "I do not remember how I got here" and "I wanted to check my mail, but I woke up after two hours on Facebook." Addiction differs from any ritual or habit in that it dictates the rules, subordinates and deprives choice. Some because of this, lose their health, other money, and still others in general, including life. What are we ready to exchange freedom for? Only for pleasure. Although dependence can be eliminated, even if it has gone far, it is extremely difficult without support. Independently fighting with your own nervous system is not an easy task.
How pleasure builds addiction
The feeling of pleasure is provided by a neurotransmitter (biologically active substance) called dopamine. He is responsible for the anticipation of pleasure, a sweet sense of expectation, which is sometimes stronger than the event itself. Of course, millions of processes occur in the body at the same time, but if it is very simplified, the formation of habits and patterns occurs as follows: when we wait for pleasure and get it, dopamine produces a lot and there is a so-called positive reinforcement - the feeling that we did everything right. If we are disappointed, there is little dopamine, and a "negative reinforcement" is formed, which reminds you how not to do it. Templates and labels appear in the head, and the more often we act in the same way, the faster we get used to it.
A typical situation: you have to decide what to do - finish the project, go to sleep or hang out in social networks. The project and sleep is more important, but the dopamine source will not open from them: they will pay all the same only next month, lack of sleep will respond to a headache only in the morning, but the Internet with its dopamine is very close. The “release” of dopamine is managed by a section of the nervous system called the midbrain. You can imagine how this "farm manager" looks into the accounting book, where the "dream" and "work" are marked in red, and the "Internet" in green. And the middle brain declares: dopamine is not supposed to sleep and work, come with the Internet - then I will give it to you.
The striped body, another important part of the brain - is the "connected". It sends a signal to the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which works as a “controller,” that there is a chance to get dopamine. The bark makes a wonderful image of pleasure and approves: you have to get on the Internet, otherwise you will have to suffer. If this chain is repeated frequently, then sooner or later the “messenger” stops asking, but simply acts according to a working scheme. The brain paves the path along which nerve impulses run, and the wider and more reliable it is, the easier it is to act according to one scheme.
Exactly that is why training, regular exercises and repetitions are effective: the more we work on the same, the easier it is to achieve results. And here dependence is no different from any other process - each time it is easier to resist the temptation. And every time it’s harder not to comply with the inner voice that promises pleasure: the brain just goes along the trodden path, trying to get dopamine in the fastest way.
Looking for pleasure or escape from problems
At the same time, the addiction is not so simple: for most people, the dose of dopamine, which is released in response to the stimulus, is not enough to turn off the prefrontal cortex and turn a person into a zombie. There is a predisposition for dependence - and someone just got lucky if resistance to any addictions was inherited from ancestors. In addition, addiction will not give rise to, for example, a stable psyche of a person who simply knows how to control aspirations well. Finally, there are people who noticed in time that substances or actions take up a lot of space in life, and were able to stop or ask for help.
Of course, external factors contribute to the development of addiction - situations in which a person finds himself or his way of life. It is easiest to illustrate this with experiments: in one of them, rats in cages were given unrestricted access to the drug, and animals brought themselves to convulsions and death by constantly taking new doses. In another for animals, first built special cages with toys, slides, entertainment and other rats. In such conditions, the rats used drugs, but they had enough classes and interests in order not to bring themselves to an overdose.
People are not rats, but life is more complicated than experiments, but certain logic is obvious: if a cell is empty and there is no need to wait for pleasure, then the source of light dopamine will attract itself like a magnet. One of the main mechanisms for which dependence or addiction is formed is an attempt to stifle anguish, disappointment or dullness with the help of something simple and bright, “seize stress” or “drink down troubles”. A correlation between depression and Internet addiction has already been identified; post-traumatic disorder and food addiction are similarly related. Scientists have not yet decided what is more important for the formation of dependence: the desire to get to pleasure or an attempt to hide from problems. But it is clear that these processes are related.
And yet, in most cases, addiction does not develop, even if a person drinks from time to time or may hang at the computer for the night. We can be proud of our strength of will or self-discipline, but in fact we still don’t know how to treat addiction - as a disease that has genes in us and suddenly manifests itself, or as an attempt to solve psychological problems. It is clear only that addiction is not a one hundred percent choice of a person. Few people want to change time and energy, not to mention health, for substances or destructive actions. In this game, we are delayed by our own brains, and it is not always possible to stop on time.
What to do with it
When addiction is caused by substances that change processes in the brain and cause withdrawal syndrome, then treatment will require medicines that, under the supervision of a physician, help to overcome addiction at the physical level. You need a specialist who will show you how to rebuild the brain: re-arrange reference points and stick labels on events, record new action patterns and figure out why you are missing dopamine without additional incentives. For this there is psychotherapy.
If you notice that a habit or ritual takes up more and more space in your life, you can try simply replacing them with others: instead of Facebook, go out for a walk at lunchtime, and pour water into beautiful wine glasses. True, the help of a specialist may still be needed, otherwise there is a risk that instead of one dependence another one will develop or a new habit will just cause harm - everyone knows cases when quitting smoking gained unwanted weight simply because they strangled stress.
Photo: shutswis - stock.adobe.com, scottchan - stock.adobe.com, Pavel Chernobrivets - stock.adobe.com
