The Science of Addiction

Neurons are the signals that make up the nervous system. They are responsible for transmitting the body's messages. Neurons communicate with each other in the synaptic gap between the axon endings and dendrites of the next neurons.

In the brain, there is a section called the reward pathway that is responsible for controlling our senses of motivation, reward, and behavior. The reward pathway makes us feel good when we eat, drink, and have sex. It is connected to other parts of the brain, allowing it to have a perception of what you are doing. Dopamine is released to make the body feel pleasure. The pleasure reenforces the action in your memory, making you want to perform it again.

Drugs release dopamine into the brain when ingested, causing the sensation of a "high." In the brains of drug addicts, the dopamine receptors have been damaged, as the brain adapts and disposes of dopamine receptors in the synapse. The absence of receptors will cause an addiction in the drug user, because the use of doping substances is the only way they can feel the dopamine again. The more quickly a drug enters the system, the more likely you are to become addicted to it. Once the brain has begun to adapt to the drug, the brain can become deficient in judgement, learning, and memory. The continued use of the drug also becomes hard-wirde into the synapses. Too great of an ingestion can cause a lethal overdose, and use over a long period of time can have severe effects on the mental function of the abuser.