Many drugs of abuse have a strong impact on the brain’s dopamine system. This system is naturally involved in providing people with a sense of reward and accomplishment. It’s nature’s way of encouraging us to engage in healthy behaviors. Unfortunately, abusing the system can cause a number of unwanted changes. Because our brain constantly wants to maintain a state of balance, it will start flattening out the reward response if it’s becoming too intense.
This is what happens during an addiction. Even if this addiction is not to drugs, but to a behavior such as sex or gambling, the brain still knows to curb the reward response. All addictions can impair your reward pathway. This article will explain how and why this happens, as well as why it’s important to try and avoid. If you’ve damaged your dopamine system, a drug detox center in San Diego can help.
Nature’s reward pathway: dopamine
We are hardwired to seek out pleasurable activities. In a healthy person living in a healthy society, pleasurable activities would generally include things like eating healthy food, getting exercise, stimulating the brain, having sex, and so on.
These activities are all very different, however, they all cause the brain to release dopamine. This chemical makes us feel motivated, accomplished, happy, and rewarded. It is the gold star that nature provides us for doing things that are healthy.
However, nature also implemented a failsafe intended to prevent us from becoming dependent or addicted to certain things. It does this by regulating the amount of pleasure that we can receive. If we seek out the same behavior time after time, the brain will start to desensitize the pleasure center.
How addiction affects the reward pathway
Ideally, somebody will recognize this desensitization as a signal that they are pursuing too much of an activity. Unfortunately, the brains of people with addictions do not recognize this. Instead, they work harder and harder to seek increasingly intense versions of these pleasurable activities.
This creates the cycle of addiction.
This cycle can be seen in any type of addiction. People with sex addictions tend to crave more intense, aggressive, or taboo sexual behavior. People with drug addictions begin using larger doses or combining different substances. No matter what the case, this is an attempt to outwit the dopamine system and continue receiving the same amount of pleasure. Unfortunately, this isn’t how the brain works.
The brain will continue to desensitize the pleasure center if you keep doing these things. After enough time, you won’t be able to enjoy any other pleasurable activities. Your dopamine system will be so overworked that’s the only thing strong enough to stimulate it will be your addiction. When this happens, you’ll start to experience depression, apathy, and disinterest in hobbies and activities that you once enjoyed. At this point, you will probably want to invest some time in addiction therapy or treatment at a drug detox center in San Diego.
Conclusion
No matter what kind of addiction you’re struggling with, you can be sure that it will affect your dopamine system. Learning about your dopamine system can help you understand why it’s important to regulate habitual behaviors. If your addictions have gotten out of control, don’t hesitate to reach out to an addiction center or drug detox center San Diego.
