addiction

Drug addiction and drug abuse have been thought as a character preference. Parents, friends, adults and the community think that drug addiction is a moral and also think that they should be able to just stop. Research has been shown that there are abounding other reasons as to why people become addicted to drugs which is majorly caused by the chemical imbalance in the brain. Although at first they do have a choice to make if they would want to try a drug that is known to be addictive. Due to this there are plentiful environmental stresses that relate to becoming an addict. Approximately five billion people in Canada have used illegal drugs. There are several reasons to why people start using drugs which the majority of them end up getting addicted then abusing them. Due to brain chemistry, research has been found that dopamine is the major cause of drug addiction rather than it being a moral choice of always using the drug, although there are countless leading causes that cause a person to begin using that are based on a persons environment and their surroundings.

Dr.Nora Volkow is in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and she says that “The way a brain becomes addicted to a drug is related to how a drug increases levels of the natuarally-occuring neurotransmitter dopamine.” Hirschman, D.(2010). Where the neurotransmitter dopamine is located is where the brain has the ability to reinforce the reward. Dopamine is what causes us to do the activities in our life, such as eating or procreation, but the chemicals in the drugs raise the dopamine level, which cause the person to keep on using to be able to get a reward from taking the drugs now that the dopamine has arisen since their first substance intake. Addictive drug...

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...n the brain which is close to the amygdala has to do with memory. Since it deals with memory the brain recalls the memory of the activity that is reinforced by the dopamine. The amygdala has to do with the stimuli, so the brain has a certain response because the brain becomes conditioned to that stimuli. There is also a learning process that is involved in getting addicted. Research has shown that dopamine plays a role in the learning process and not just the pleasure experience alone. Dopamine has to do with more neurotransmitters such as glutamate, the glutamate becomes incharge of the brain’s reward-related learning. Compulsion then takes over because the memory has a desired need and the need to recreate the behaviour. Since the brain is conditioned it is harder for a person to stay clean because relapse is certain to happen even after a number of years sober.