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Asked by toxicwarrior001 to Hannah, Jenny, Oli, Steven on 15 Nov 2016.
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Oliver Charity answered on 15 Nov 2016:
Hi toxic warrior,
People can be addicted to drugs for many reasons. There is a chemical aspect, such as stimulation of dopamine neurons in the brain, which are part of the reward pathway. If you feel something is rewarding, then you are likely to do it again. Other drugs calm our nervs, like nicotine and heroin, and when absent from the body the nerves crave them, making you feel sick and like you want more.
The actual reasons are probably different: many American soldiers went to Vietnam to fight in a war, and they had regular acess to heroin. Everyone was scared that they would have herion addicts roaming the streets when they got back, but nearly all of them didnt need to take the drugs anymore. Someone noticed this and studied it in rats. If the rats had lots to do and plenty of friends around, they took a lot less of a drug from a water bottle than rats which were on their own, and never overdosed, unlike the lonely rats.
So maybe the real reason people get addicted to drugs is that they feel isolated and alone, and part of recovery is to take these people out of that bad setting and put them in a happy, friendly one. I think both aspects probably play a role.
Oli
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Jenny Batson answered on 15 Nov 2016:
Hi toxic warrior
At first people taking drugs can get a strong feeling of pleasure due to dopamine release in the brain but if you take drugs often then the brain can respond to too much dopamine by reducing the dopamine receptors on cells, not producing as much dopamine in response to a drug or by death of brain cells. This means even if you take the same amount of drug you don’t feel the reward and now the person needs more dopamine just to feel normal. This is how people get addicted, because they don’t feel good unless they take more and more drugs. Interestingly we know this but we don’t know why some people get addicted quicker than others and its probably because their genetic makeup is different
Jenny -
Hannah Bolt answered on 16 Nov 2016:
Hi toxicwarrior001,
There are a few reasons why someone might become addicted to a drug, for example a mixture of mental, physical or emotional reasons.
Some drugs like nicotine (in cigarettes) cause physical changes to our brain chemistry and can make us feel relaxed, or happy by producing chemical messengers (like the dopamine Oli mentioned). Over time, if a person keeps taking a drug these pathways become used to it, so you have to take more of a drug to get the same effect. Eventually, the body stops reacting to the drug but you have to take more of it to prevent withdrawal symptoms.
Hannah
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Steven Street answered on 18 Nov 2016:
Hi toxic warrior!
I’m not too sure what else I can add to this, there are some excellent responses!
But as the others said, it’s part of the reward system in the brain, and the more you do it the more you want to do it!
Even things like a hangover after drinking alcohol is actually withdrawal symptoms for alcohol addiction! That’s why ‘hair of the dog’ works, your just readdicting yourself!
Steve
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