What creates addiction?
Simple. Though broad, I want to do this. I can touch up on the physiology, psychology and the spiritual side, which I have found is major in all of the successful recovery programs that I have researched. There will be more than enough information to cover and I will be able to talk about more things than just a specific point.
Now, onto some interesting research I have found recently.
“Fanatical runners and cyclists are exercise “junkies” who experience the same withdrawal symptoms as heroin addicts when they try to stop, medical findings suggest.”
“Exercise, like drugs of abuse, leads to the release of neurotransmitters such as endorphins and dopamine, which are involved with a sense of reward.”
These too statements taken from the article says alot to me. It doesn’t matter the addiction; excercise, sex, love, nicotine, gambling, heroin…it is doing something to escape or replace a craving for something else. Everything that someone finds pleasure in is going to lead to the release of endorphins and dopamine and other neurotransmitters, which is a pleasuring sense of reward. When someone quits or stops using or doing what they are addicted to, they are going to have withdrawals which is the mind and body rebelling.
More research…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10563031
“Patients were unable to distinguish between methadone and placebo treatments.”
In this study, scientists were trying to see the acute-on-chronic effects of methadone on drug craving, mood and cognitive and psychomotor functioning in patients on long-term methadone substitution treatment (Bolton). Although they were not aiming to do a test on placebo, it interests me that patients were not able to tells the difference between methadone and placebo treatments. This further convinces me that the mind over rides the body. If an addict believes they are taking another drug when in truth they are not, and this convinces the body that it truly is the drug, does that not show that they mind is all powerful?
http://www.wrf.org/alternative-therapies/power-of-mind-placebo.php
“In the 1950’s angina pectoris, recurrent pain in the chest and left arm due to decreased blood flow to the heart, was commonly treated with surgery. Rather than doing the customary surgery, which involved tying off the mammary artery, some resourceful doctors cut patients open and then simply sewed them back up again. The patients who received a sham surgery reported as much relief as the patients who had the full surgery.”
Another example. The patient believed that they were getting a full fledged surgery, but they were just led to believe that they were getting one. The power of the belief that they were getting a surgery to fix their heart actually healed them.
Great stuff! Bascially we all are just trading one addiction for another – the key is how do we pick the less harmful or less selfdestructive things vs the killers? Or how do we get people to make the conscience choice between the two – there is an answer out there – but can you find it? I hope so because it would help a lot of people. Was speaking with some rehab folks this weekend and they said that the best cure for an addict was to work breaking addicts….dont know but there seems to be a lot of ex-addicts helping addicts..
yeah ive seen that alot too. the person i was getting alot of research on physiology is an ex addict who helps alot with aa and na.
thanks for the comment and insight