Drug Addiction and the Science Behind It

Drug addiction can be an especially scary thing to confront, in your own life or in the life of a friend or family member. Why? Drug addicts find themselves not under their own control, but under the manipulation of an addictive substance. The addiction can effectively transform them into different people, causing them to put use of the drug above their other life obligations like work, family, or activities they used to find enjoyment in.

The Basics of Addiction

Drug addiction is a disease of the brain. The chronic use of drugs actually changes the user’s brain chemistry, causing them to act differently, ignoring negative consequences of the drug use to their own bodies and lives. Addiction can impair a person’s ability to make good decisions in their life and cause them to focus on procuring the drug above any other activity.

While a person may have chosen voluntarily to take drugs in the first place, after addiction has altered their brain chemistry, the act shouldn’t be thought of as “voluntary” anymore. Just as the addiction makes them reprioritize their life, it makes it extremely difficult to voluntarily quit taking the drug.

Who Becomes Addicted

Some people may try a drug for the first time and experience no strong urge to use again. Others will become hooked right away. There are several factors that can contribute to a person’s risk for drug addiction.

  • Physiology: Scientists conjecture that about 50 percent of a person’s vulnerability to drug addiction comes from their own personal biology. Gender, ethnic background, genetics, and other mental conditions can all play a role in addiction.
  • Social Environment: The social context in which a person takes drugs is also important. A person’s living environment, friends, past history of abuse, parental involvement, and the legacy of drugs in a person’s life can all influence drug abuse.
  • Development: People in certain developmental stages of their life, like adolescents, find themselves particularly prone to drug addiction. The earlier in life drug use begins, the more likely a person is to become addicted; physical brain states, as well as the social factors of youth, combine to make adolescents particularly vulnerable to drug abuse.

How Drugs Affect the Brain

Understanding exactly how drugs can change a person’s brain chemistry is important in understanding the seriousness of addiction. A drug can work to alter the brain in one of two ways: 1. Overstimulating the brain’s natural reward centers; or 2. Taking the place of a natural chemical messenger in the brain.

Heroin, for example, imitates neurotransmitters to send abnormal messages to particular areas of the brain. Cocaine and methamphetamine cause brain cells to release unnaturally large amounts of chemicals that are normally present in the brain. In both instances, the brain is effectively being reprogrammed by an unnatural substance.

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