Why do people become addicted to alcohol, but not broccoli?  Why can one person drink a glass or two of wine and feel satisfied while another cannot stop drinking until he is totally inebriated?  What’s the secret that makes snorting cocaine more addictive than studying chemistry?  The key here is chemistry—in particular a powerful brain chemical that all of us possess—Dopamine.
Dopamine is a natural brain chemical that gives us intense feelings of pleasure and well being, bursts of energy, the ability to move our body parts smoothly and gracefully, and the capability to concentrate.
 
We have one organ that craves dopamine and will try whatever it can to get more!  This organ just happens to be the most important one—our brain.  It’s amazing how much influence this little chemical, too tiny to even be seen with the naked eye, has over our brain, as well as our own thoughts and feelings.

Dopamine plays a role in the “euphoria” sensation.  Euphoria describes a feeling of happiness, confidence or well-being.  Feeling euphoric can be the reward associated with a drug, but so can other feelings such as calmness and numbness.

Dopamine is not the cause of addiction, but a powerful agent in developing dependency once a person’s brain has adopted an addictive substance or behavior pattern.  It is often said, “If you don’t take the first drink, you’ll never be an alcoholic.”  Addiction begins with a choice to experiment with something possessing addictive properties.  What exactly are these “addictive properties” that make certain substances powerful enough to be habit forming and take over a person’s life? 

Properties of an Addictive Substance or Behavior

1.  Produces a quick feeling of reward
The key word here is quick.  That’s what separates broccoli from beer.  Eating broccoli doesn’t create a rewarding feeling afterwards.  Sure, you may think good thoughts because you know that you’re eating a food that is very healthy, but that’s not a feeling of reward.
This feeling of reward as mentioned above could be euphoria, calmness, or numbness.  It’s easy to understand why someone would crave to feel euphoric, but why calm or numb?  To someone who is anxious, fearful, irritated, agitated, or even aggressive, the ability to feel calm and relaxed is rewarding.  Feeling numb can be rewarding for someone experiencing great emotional pain, sadness, despair, grief, or even emptiness.  Feeling numb is not happiness, but for these people it’s a step up from their current emotional state.

2.  Creates a fast change in brain chemistry
Six natural chemicals (neurotransmitters) in our brain are associated with addictions.  However, there certainly may be others that we have yet to discover.  Addictive substances or behaviors can change the amount of one or more of these neurotransmitters by triggering your brain to release more or by temporary blocking that chemical’s release.  Some drugs can actually mimic neurotransmitters, giving them the ability to fool the brain by manipulating receptors.  Cocaine can mimic dopamine, making your brain believe that there is an ample amount of dopamine present, when in fact the levels may be very low.

3. Develops Tolerance
The continued use of an addictive substance or behavior requires more of it to achieve the same desired feeling.  A teenage boy who started drinking beer for the first time ever today would most likely feel drunk before he could finish off a six-pack.  However, if he continues drinking beer several times a week it won’t be long before he’ll need to drink a 12-pack to feel drunk.    Tolerance leads to the addicted person needing more and more of their source of addiction to feel the usual results.  This can be very dangerous with some drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, which raise heart rate and blood pressure.  The more someone has to use the more at risk they are for a heart attack or stroke.  This can cost a lot of money with expensive drugs like heroin.  It can also force an addict to spend more time and energy fulfilling their needs.  Especially with prescription medications when it advances to the point where an addict has to visit multiple doctors and different pharmacies.  We have definitely seen patients whose whole life revolves around obtaining their daily fill of pills.

Tolerance also develops with behaviors.  Pornography addicts often start out watching soft core porn then need hard core porn to continue “capturing that feeling.”  What begins as passive behavior—watching pornography--escalates into active behavior—going to strip clubs, hooking up.

4. Withdrawal Symptoms Develop
The teenage boy who started with a 6 pack of beer and is now up to a 12-pack-a-day finds himself in a quandary.  He not only needs more alcohol to feel good, but if he goes a day without drinking he starts feeling very bad!  Addictive substances and behaviors can have seriously unpleasant effects on the brain and body when they’re taken away.  The withdrawal of some drugs, like alcohol and sedatives can lead to death.  It’s these withdrawal symptoms that often keep people trapped in an addiction.

Why Don’t Addicts Just Stop?

This is hands down the number one question we hear from family members of addicts.  Fear, is the main reason.  Fear of the withdrawal symptoms (which do need to be feared) and of facing life’s stresses without their familiar habit to fall back on if needed.  Telling someone to just stop is akin to telling an obese person he needs to lose a hundred pounds and that the best way to do that is to just stop eating until all that weight is gone.  He might make it for a day or two, but then he’ll be so overcome by hunger pangs that he won’t care if he loses any weight as long as he can just eat!  Some addicts do just stop on their own, but for most this is not possible.