Addiction is a brain disease that impacts millions of lives each year. Drugs are addictive substances that alter your brain chemistry and essentially hijack your brain. This is why addiction recovery is so much more than just having enough willpower to quit. Addiction recovery involves understanding that addiction has impacted your brain and taking the necessary steps to safely detox and maintain life-long recovery. In this article, you’ll learn more about how addiction affects brain chemistry, and so much more.
At Pathways Recovery, we are a top-rated drug rehab that helps clients overcome addiction to achieve long-lasting sobriety. Each and every recovery journey is different. We offer a wide range of addiction treatment options and gender-specific care. You should never feel too ashamed to ask for help in leading a healthier, happier life. Contact us today to learn how we can support your road to recovery.
4 Ways Addiction Impacts Brain Chemistry
Addiction is a complex brain disease that can present life-threatening consequences to an individual’s physical health and mental well-being. To better understand addiction and addiction recovery, it’s essential to understand how your brain is involved. Below are several ways that explain how addiction affects brain chemistry.
- Addictive Substances Cause a Spike in Dopamine
First, addictive substances cause an unnatural spike in dopamine levels in your brain. Your brain naturally produces dopamine when it accomplishes a pleasurable experience such as exercising or eating food. However, when you consume drugs, your brain experiences a spike of dopamine.
Over time, as you abuse drugs repeatedly, your brain naturally produces less dopamine because it begins to expect the spikes of dopamine it receives from abusing an addictive substance. Your brain becomes addicted to drugs as it becomes reliant on receiving these spikes of dopamine.
- Continued Substance Abuse Damages Decision-Making
Next, substance abuse in general damages the decision-making area of your brain, which explains why many people who struggle with addiction seemingly make impulsive or risky decisions. Your brain naturally sends messages and makes decisions to keep you safe. However, when you abuse drugs, your brain is more willing to engage in riskier activities, and inevitably abuse more and more drugs to achieve the desired effect your brain has grown used to experiencing.
- What Once Was a Choice to Abuse Drugs Becomes an Expectation
As briefly explained above, your brain can become dependent on drugs and alcohol to achieve a certain effect the more you abuse them. Therefore, what may have started out as a choice to abuse drugs becomes an expectation that your brain feels it needs to achieve a certain desired effect. This change from choice to need of drugs leads quickly to drug dependency and addiction.
- Addiction Recovery Is a Life-Long Journey
Finally, addiction recovery is life-long because your brain must adapt and rewire itself to become used to no longer consuming drugs or alcohol. Recovering addicts will always face triggers and urges to abuse drugs. For instance, a recovering alcoholic who goes to a bar will likely experience triggers to drink because their brain has associated the place with drinking. This is why it’s important to not only understand your triggers as you progress through recovery but also be patient with yourself as you progress along your recovery journey.
Ready to Break Free From Addiction?
Now you know more about how addiction affects brain chemistry and why addiction can be so difficult to overcome. Addiction recovery is more than having enough willpower. Addiction recovery involves safely and effectively detoxing and essentially learning to rewire your brain to no longer rely on drugs to experience a spike in dopamine. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, it’s essential you seek professional treatment to safely recover.
At Pathways Recovery, we help clients heal their mind, body, and spirit so they can break free of addiction and lead healthier lives. Addiction is a debilitating brain disease; however, you don’t have to fight your addiction all on your own. Our team of addiction specialists is here to help you every step of the way along your road to recovery at our inpatient rehab center. Ready to start your recovery journey? Contact us today!
