Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease which causes obsessive drug seeking and use even though they’re aware of the damage it causes to their family and themselves. The drug seeking becomes compulsive mainly by the effect the prolonged drug use has on behavior and the brain. Drugs have a huge effect on the human brain. They alter they way you think and act. The chemicals in drugs enter your communication system in the brain and change or disrupt the way your brain can send, receive and process information. Some drugs will do this by imitating chemical messengers or over stimulating your brains reward system. Many drugs resemble the neurotransmitters and cause the brain to send different signals. Other drugs release abnormal amounts of dopamine into your system which controls pleasure, movement and other things. Dopamine and neurotransmitters released with drugs are where addiction starts in the brain. The brain is over loaded with dopamine and adapts to this by releasing less dopamine or lessening the amount of dopamine receptors. This reduces the persons ability too feel this pleasure and the effect of dopamine, it makes it more difficult for this person to enjoy the drug or even events in their lifetime that usually stimulate their reward system. People keep using more and more of the substance to try and reach the same high. Each time it takes more and more of the drug to produce the same effect, this is called tolerance. There is no single cause to addiction. Many people believe it is a lack of will power, although addiction usually starts with casual drug use it is not a lack of will power. There are many factors that go into addiction putting some people at higher risks of addiction than others. One of these factors is biology. People may be born with a gene that puts them more at risk. Gender, ethnicity, and the presence of other mental disorders will all play a role. Family history of addiction is very important. Addiction tends to run