Is Addiction a Disease?

There are so many reasons people get addicted to drugs, but the most predominant is the promise of having a high euphoric feeling at the end.

Drugs have a high potential to stimulate brain systems related to motivation and pleasure, making them difficult to compare with other natural delights. Drugs seem to top even the most natural rewarding feelings you might think exist, like breathing in the fresh air, the relaxing feeling after an exercise, or eating your favorite meal. Drugs accompany themselves with a high sense that makes you feel gratified, making natural rewards seem much smaller and dimmer.

Research shows that dopamine is linked with the brain’s addictive nature to drugs. During rewarding events, the brain releases dopamine, signals the experience, and encourages repetition. Dopamine is beneficial for natural rewards such as achieving various critical milestones in one’s career; this encourages repetition.

In the case of drug addiction, dopamine stimulates the brain to continue using the substances, telling you that the experience is beneficial and to keep repeating it every time. Since your brain’s programming remembers things, places, and people linked to the user, you keep finding yourself in the same places and people, even if you want to do otherwise. These reminder factors go ahead to become future triggers.

With repetition comes dependency; within a short time, bursts of dopamine influence your brain to value the drugs more than usual, natural rewards. Your brain adjusts its mechanisms so that the circuits react less sensitively to natural tips. When you are not using the drugs, you likely feel empty and without any sense of purpose.

With dependency comes a greater tolerance to higher doses of the drug- depending entirely on its use to feel okay. Now, dependence and tolerance are signs of a substance use disorder. However, these signs may also develop when addiction is absent.

When your body is tolerant to a drug, your body’s state to react to the presence of the drug diminishes. To compensate, you use higher doses or consume the medicine more often. A growing tolerance to the drug and increased substance use hastens addiction development and the risk of overdose. On the other hand, your body physically depends on the drug or alcohol to function or feel okay. Withdrawal increases without the drug, with symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening.