At the outset of a chemical penetrating the brain, it affects impulse control and increases the appetite for dangerous substances, designating it as a reward. These types of chemicals include alcohol, opioids, and nicotine. These and other substances can lead to longstanding addiction issues leading to death.
Biological Factors of Addiction
Several things influence how the brain reacts to addiction, including what kind of drugs are ingested, how often they are taken, and how far along a person has become in their addiction to the chemical substance.
When the chemical has taken root in the brain and begun its effects, a person is showing physical side effects of the drug, including throughout the nervous system. The result can be unusual behavior that everyone around them begins to notice.
With repeated chemical use, the brain releases dopamine each time, causing the person to have a sense of euphoria.
How Does an Addiction Form?
It becomes the individual’s sole mission to repeat that feeling of euphoria repeatedly through the use of the same chemical, thus becoming addicted to it. This becomes the individual’s sole desire in life—to ingest enough drugs to release endorphins in the brain and to feel the same level of euphoria again and again. Consequently, a cycle of drug use begins to form very rapidly over a short period of time.
The Brain’s Reaction to Withdrawal
The brain then signals the body to continue the cycle, or the person will experience extreme physical and emotional side effects without the chemical substance in their body. When a person makes a choice to stop ingesting it on a regular basis, the brain’s chemicals begin to fluctuate, causing any number of withdrawal symptoms, including body aches, fever, vomiting, violent shakes, and even strokes and heart attacks. This is the brain’s way of trying to establish a new equilibrium in the body.
Suppose the brain can establish a healthy equilibrium over a period of weeks. In that case, the individual will lose their physical and emotional need for chemical dependency and reestablish normal levels of endorphin-release in the brain with healthy activities instead of chemicals stimulating the brain.