The real fight against your own mind
This article took a look at the war between you and your
mind. It started out with a study where the participants were put into PET
scanners so that the scientists/researchers could watch how they responded
during a series of tests. The first part of the experiment had participants
identify objects from a screen. They were to identify all the objects of a
certain color as fast as they could and were rewarded for properly identifying
two colors. Participants finished this quickly.
The following day, participants were brought back and asked
to identify colorful objects. However, this time they were to select objects of
a certain shape with no regard to the color of the object. During this part of
the experiment many participants took a lot longer and even sometimes struggled
as they were distracted by the color of the shape. The scientists found that the system that
works with reward was activated and made it very difficult for most participants
to focus on the shape instead of the color that had previously been rewarded.
The article went on to show how this study is useful in addiction
research. It showed how there are links
between certain objects and the reward (i.e. Drug paraphernalia…etc.). Which
could bring back an urge or bring about a relapse.
I really found this article useful and it helped me
understand, in more depth, how addictions work and why it is so hard to quit
forever. It kind of seemed like Pavlov’s dog conditioning scenario. In my
opinion, it seems as though we are actually conditioning ourselves to receive a
reward when we take part in an addiction which makes it difficult to stop in
the end. I know several people that are
always trying to go on diets and workout plans, but some of these people always
seem to fail staying on the diet. I see how this could be tied to why it’s so
hard for some people to stay on diets or workout plans. Eating whatever you
want equals rewards (junk food) and when an individual decides to go on a diet
it takes away that reward. So, many times people fail a diet or quit because
they see something that triggers their urge (junk food) and they end up giving
in.
So although it seems as though your mind is fighting against
you, it’s possible for you to train your mind to fight for you. One way of
doing this would be to change your reward to something good, and when you hit a
trigger item, continue to reinforce the positive reward.
The deadly and complicated effects that addiction has on the brain and the methods in which addiction can work against the brain is an interesting topic that I believe needs to be studied and addressed more explicitly. Upon reading an article from Harvard Medical School, I learned that addiction shows itself within the brain in several different ways including individuals craving for a highly desired object (drugs, fattening food, alcohol), loss of control over use of addictive behavior, and a continued use of addictive behavior or object notwithstanding adversarial consequences. I also discovered that individuals develop addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, and other risk behaviors when dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens an intense feeling of pleasure can be experienced. When individuals consume drugs, alcohol, and engage in other risky behaviors, the probability of the drug use leading to addiction depends on the speed of the dopamine release, the intensity of the dopamine release, and the steadfastness of the dopamine neurotransmitter release. Additionally, I found that the release of dopamine in the brain prompted by drug use is not the only factor that causes addiction but the neurotransmitter of dopamine is also involved in intermingling with the neurotransmitter of Glutamate as a means of overpowering the brain’s system of learning through rewards. The learning system within the brain is extremely significant in helping to maintain effective functioning because it connects activities needed for human survival with pleasure and reward circuit of the brain which features areas associated with motivation and memory. I discovered that highly addictive drugs and behavioral tendencies incite the reward circuit in the brain and overstimulate the reward circuit so powerfully that it causes nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens as well as the prefrontal cortex to communicate within the brain an intense drive to desperately want the pleasure inducing effects of a narcotic or risk behavior, motivating individuals to seek out the drug or risk behavior which fully creates a cycle of severe addiction. I have experience with addiction affecting the brain because I have an addiction to eating unhealthy fattening food. In order to treat my addiction to fattening high calorie food, I attempt to go on strict diets in order to lose weight and eat healthier. Unfortunately, I always end up relapsing back into my addiction because during the diet I usually reward myself after a long workout where I burn a couple hundred calories with a cookie or a slice of pizza as an incentive for exercising or eating a healthy salad. This demonstrates how my addiction works against my brain in order to successfully achieve the pleasure seeking behavioral response.
ReplyDeleteIn reading this article, I can see how one would have problems struggling with battling their mind. This information makes perfect sense in dealing with addiction from both a neural standpoint and an emotional standpoint. When people go to receive help for their addiction problems, the counselor always says that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Once u can admit that you have an addiction, you are no longer battling your brain and you have opened up to receiving help and it becomes easier to proceed once you acknowledge you have a problem. If you do not admit you have a problem, your mind is going to constantly drag you down because you will always feel like you do not need help so your effort will lack. At a neural level and biological level, once you develop and addiction, your set points in your body change so when you do not have the contents of whatever your addiction is, your body signals to you that you need it. When you do not have it, symptoms vary depending on the addiction but there is always a feeling of discomfort until the body gets what it is craving. The addiction is so exciting because of the chemical release of dopamine when you have it which is related to pleasure and reward so it puts the body at ease and in a euphoric state. To break these habits takes a lot of will power and restraint and those emotional feelings of what you felt when you had those items will always remain in your mind. This is a reason for relapse after staying away from your addiction because you never forget the euphoria you once felt. Relapse is especially high during times of high duress.
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