How addictions change the brain
Addictive substances release dopamine into the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain associated with motivation and pleasure. In the past, researchers thought dopamine simply registered pleasure in the brain, prompting a person to want more and more of the substance. But more recent research suggests that dopamine interacts with another brain chemical called glutamate. After exposure to a habit-forming drug, these chemicals work in the brain not only to signal pleasure, but to prompt the person to seek out more of the substance as well.
According to one theory, repeated exposure to an addictive substance causes nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain involved in planning and executing tasks — to communicate. This communication links pleasure with action, so the person not only wants the drug, but he or she has the motivation to go and seek it out.
Two other parts of the brain—the hippocampus and the amygdala—store information about environmental cues associated with the desired substance. This way, the person can use those cues to find the substance again. For example, if a person usually drinks alcohol at a bar, his brain will link the pleasure of drinking with the sights, smells, and sounds of a bar. These memories help to create a conditioned response—or craving—whenever he sees, hears, or smells those environmental cues again. It’s the brain’s way of “remembering” that the cue might mean that the addictive substance is nearby.
The chemistry is quite complicated, with each substance having its own
receptors. Dopamine is a natural substance in brain that some neurons
use to signal each other. It is usually elevated after using
substances that cause a "high." Nicotine has a powerful
affinity for acetlycholine receptors in the brain as well. No other
drug seems to work just like it, and that may be part of reason nicotine is
so hard to beat.
it is said the grooves become a part of the brain when we do a habitual thing over and over the grooves get deeper. Its time to make new grooves.,new habits like exercise, meditation, dry brushing, healthy things, walks with our pets. there are tons of thing swe can do. busy yourself untill the gooves no longer tempt us.
