Learning to Live Life, LLC

Learning to Live Life, LLC

Counseling 4 Change

Addiction

Be Aware – The Road to Addiction

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How Addiction Begins

Experimentation 

This is a stage that many people find themselves in early on as teens or young adults. It could include underage drinking, abusing over-the-counter drugs, stealing prescription pills from relatives or experimenting with illicit drugs. For many, usage stops there. For others, it’s the beginning of a long struggle.

According to research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), 90 percent of all adults with substance use disorders began using before age 18.

Regular Use Becomes Addiction – Leads to Addiction

At this stage, the user has begun a pattern of use and abuse, which may lead to some risky behavior like binge drinking and driving under the influence (DUI). This is the beginning of a user becoming preoccupied with drugs and/or alcohol.

Transition to Addiction Is Associated with a Persistent Impairment in Synaptic Plasticity
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/328/5986/1709

The Disease of Addiction

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This disease called Addiction is like any other disease.  It’s chronic and organic. The chronic part of this disease is that it’s fatal.  The organic part of this disease targets the brain,  which is an organ. As with all diseases, it is accompanied by structural changes in organs and the tissue.

We know that with continued use, the disease gets worse.  This disease known as Addiction is fatal, no doubt. There is, however, high-risk factors which will most certainly guarantee a path towards overdosing leading to death.  

  Reward Processing by the Opioid System in the Brain

Given the discovery of the opioid system, we recognize that it stems from the use of opium in ancient history. Opium, extracted from poppy seeds (Papaver somniferum), has powerful pain-relieving properties and produces euphoria.

JULIE LE MERRER, JÉRÔME A. J. BECKER, KATIA BEFORT, and BRIGITTE L. KIEFFER https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4482114/

The Effects of Drugs of Abuse on the Brain

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Most drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system, whether directly or indirectly. These substances flood the reward system with dopamine that regulates movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure.

Dopamine is naturally activated during exercise, when a person smells good food, during sexual activities and other pleasurable events.

How Drugs and Alcohol Interact with Dopamine

When dopamine is artificially overstimulated through drug and alcohol use, it produces euphoric effects. These strongly reinforce the behavior of abuse and make the user more inclined to use again.

dopamine affect on the brain