The Addiction Behind Achieving The Next Dopamine Release.

The feel-good rush of dopamine can sometimes be too irresistible for us to manage.

The idea behind a reward system is tied to the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) in our brains. As it is said in this research article about DA,

However, it has been demonstrated that DA is involved in the hedonic component of reward. Several lines of evidence show that the receipt of rewards evokes an increase in DA activity; however numerous conditions exist for which this does not hold. Several hypotheses have been proposed to draw a different mechanism. For example, it has been suggested that activity changes in DA neurons encode an error in the prediction of the time and amount of immediate and future rewards (the prediction error hypothesis), therefore, the DA activity is hypothesized to indicate that the immediate or future prospect for reward is better than expected.

DA brings about a pleasurable reward high. The article goes further on to explain that:

For the most part, one’s motivation is to return to the rewards experienced in the past, and to the cues that mark the way to such rewards. It is primarily through its role in the selective reinforcement of associations between rewards and otherwise neutral stimuli that DA is important for such motivation. Once stimulus-reward associations have been formed, they can remain potent for some time even after the reward has been devalued by the absence of appropriate drive states such as hunger or thirst, or because the DA system is blocked.

When we do something and get a DA reward (or high) out of it, we tend to want to return back to doing that thing consistently to get that same dopamine rush.

However, the balancing of the frequency of those acts with the dopamine highs will determine how addicted to the act one can be.

Too much of a good thing isn’t necessarily good — one can die from water poisoning because the idea of a balance is always key.

The problem with placing an emphasis on getting the DA reward, then, is that we’d actually need greater rewards in the future just to feel satisfied. And if we were to chase more and more of those rewards… it makes us no different from being an addict.

When is an addiction an addiction?

We don’t need to have addicts around us to know what an addiction is like — mainly because we would have experienced symptoms of addictions to various things before. We would end up devoting an unhealthy amount of time or attention to a certain thing, which we end up feeling like we absolutely cannot do without.

When access to that thing is limited, we can see how badly a withdrawal symptom can hit. Exaggerated as it may be, even on television or the movies, the withdrawal symptoms that drug addicts face can be terribly real.

We see how drug addicts end up shaking and shivering. Pleading for the drug even as they are forced to go cold turkey. All these cold turkey symptoms are also signs of dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome (DAWS), which is defined as:

a severe, stereotyped cluster of physical and psychological symptoms that correlate with dopamine agonist withdrawal in a dose-dependent manner, cause clinically significant distress or social/occupational dysfunction, are refractory to levodopa and other dopaminergic medications, and cannot be accounted for by other clinical factors.

The symptoms of DAWS include anxiety, panic attacks, dysphoria, depression, agitation, irritability, suicidal ideation, fatigue, orthostatic hypotension, nausea, vomiting, diaphoresis, generalized pain, and drug cravings. The severity and prognosis of DAWS is highly variable.

It’s a psychological issue. The dopamine rush that addicts seek is but one of the methods that they use to cope with those withdrawal symptoms.

In Parkinson’s patients, a lack of dopamine neurotransmission has been implicated, and this lack of dopamine stimulation can also contribute to a lack of motivation and symptoms of depression.

It’s complicated.

The absence of one neurotransmitting chemical can be so damaging to us in a multitude of different ways.

When dopamine agonists (drugs that stimulate dopamine activity) are used on Parkinson’s patients, their motor coordination is improved.

However, some of them will face severe withdrawal symptoms from DAWS when dopamine agonist therapy is reduced for them.

And that forms the biochemical basis of addiction right there!

Parkinson’s patients have to experience those withdrawal symptoms, unfortunately, if they do not have timely access to their dopamine doses.

And for us “healthier” people…

We’d also need to be careful about what our lifestyles are engaging in.

Are there things that we absolutely cannot do without?

Are there unhealthy habits that we ought to be cutting down on or even eliminating?

Because these habits can eventually have an impact on our health in the years to come. As it is said about pornography:

Porn scenes, like addictive substances, are hyper-stimulating triggers that lead to unnaturally high levels of dopamine secretion. This can damage the dopamine reward system and leave it unresponsive to natural sources of pleasure. This is why users begin to experience difficulty in achieving arousal with a physical partner.

The issue, then, is that it heavily affects intimacy and arousal with a real physical partner, which can then affect their relationship dynamics. That can have a heavy bearing on society at large. But that’s just the first problem with the unnaturally high dopamine secretion levels.

Because after the dopamine release comes a state of fear:

In stage two — “Withdrawal/Negative Affect” — the dopamine flood has run its course, and there is activation of the extended amygdala, an area associated with pain processing and fear conditioning. The resulting negative emotional state leads to activation of brain stress systems and dysregulation of anti-stress systems. This leads to a decreased sensitivity to rewards and an increase in the reward threshold, which is called tolerance. This further progresses to negative reinforcement as the individual continues to engage in the addictive behaviors to avoid the negative affect associated with withdrawal. This, in turn, encourages the reinstatement and/or reinforcement of the addictive behaviors. Here, the impulsive behavior shifts to compulsive behavior, referred to in the model as chronic taking/seeking.

People try to overcome that fear by seeking higher dopamine release rates, which can lead to more extreme behaviours. It also results in a higher level of psychological stress as the stress/anti-stress mechanisms go haywire.

Neurologically, an addiction is not a healthy place to be in.

Let’s be mindful of that and keep our lives healthy — an addiction to sex, money, or even unhealthy foods would not be useful to our health, whether physically, psychologically or otherwise. It’s all about being able to stay well and run the gauntlet that life throws at us well!

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