Defining Addiction
Addiction is often a shadow that hangs around society’s every corner, but is barely spoken of. With the ever-changing technology, addiction has grown to include not just substance, but also addiction to various forms of media. The overarching concept, however, and definition of addiction remains constant. Addiction is when a person does not have control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to them, according to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
This definition encompasses the essence of the action itself, and it can be addiction to a substance or an activity or a habit.
“It is important to understand addiction because it is widespread in our country. It affects many youth and ruins the lives of tens of thousands,” explained Salma Abdelbaki, a psychologist and psychotherapist specializing in addiction at Good Hope Psychiatry Clinic.
Expanding people’s knowledge on addiction can help prevent addiction, but also help those going through it and spotting early warning signs.
When it comes specifically to substance addiction, however, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) categorizes addiction as a “relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences.” The use of the term “adverse” emphasizes the priority that is attached to fulfilling a craving during addiction.
Abdelbaki explained that dependency on a substance is when the person cannot feel normal without that substance and carries out the behavior despite obvious harmful consequences.
There are four main reasons why people consume drugs, according to NIDA; to feel good, to feel better, to do better, and curiosity and social pressure.
Abdelbaki explained that in Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, a five-layered pyramid that models human needs, for the individual to progress across the pyramid, the lower levels must first be satisfied.
“To non-users, the most important thing humans need is safety, food, shelter, etc. When someone starts consuming drugs and falls into the cycle of addiction, it completely hijacks the brain system and thinking patterns, and the drug becomes the priority,” said Abdelbaki.
People with addictions disrupt this hierarchy by taking part in dangerous behaviors to fulfill their basic needs for survival as their desires shift, which translates into a change in behavior.
Addiction then begins to carry behavioral symptoms like loss of control and lack of tolerance, as well as physical symptoms of withdrawal such as irritability, and many others.
Kareem Badawi, the head addiction counselor at The Behman Hospital, explained that addictive behavior keeps producing short-term pleasure, but causes long-term pain and sadness.
“Addicts often continue to use a substance or engage in behavior even when they know the negative effects,” said Badawi.
Back to the roots
Long before these shifts in behavior and the underlying addiction causing it, some people are more prone to addiction than others due to a vast range of possibilities, including genes, environment, trauma, existing emotional disorders, substances, etc.
Addiction is often hereditary, meaning it can be passed down genetically and behaviorally through the generations, but it can also be enabled or triggered by surroundings.
“For example, people with a family history of alcoholism or drug addiction are most likely to develop the disease as well as people with a family history of any kind of addiction,” said Badawi.
Badawi explained that the environment an addict is brought into could be a determinant of their ability to form an addictive behavior towards either a substance or drug.
An environmental factor that can drive an individual into the addictive cycle is child abuse. According to an article published by the American Addiction Centers, adults who experienced negligence or abuse during their childhood often resort to the consumption of drugs or alcohol as a form of self-medicated coping.
This form of substance abuse can also increase the likelihood that these adults will carry forward the abuse that they endured onto their children and that this abuse is reproduced through the intergenerational increase in the consumption of alcohol and drugs, according to a study published in 2019 in the Journal of Development and Psychopathology.
Neurologically, addictive patterns and behaviors are translated through shifts in mechanisms within the brain. The mesolimbic system, also known as the reward system, serves as a neurological structure that releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation.
Ahmed Abdellatif, associate professor of biomedical and neurosciences at AUC, explained the reward system’s dynamics facilitates the release of these neurotransmitters.
“People who become addicted and become dependent on certain medications, start to crave the feeling of happiness. They start using medication X, and then they feel that there is a release of dopamine in the brain. So their brain makes an association between receiving this drug and the feeling of happiness and satisfaction,” said Abdellatif.
However, brain activity is consequently reduced and becomes dysfunctional due to the disruption of the natural connection between the brain and the reward system.
“When a person becomes addicted, they crave the drug and there are some biological changes that happen at the connections between their nerve cells. These connections start to require higher concentrations of that drug,” said Abdellatif.
According to Yale Medicine, addiction begins to form as a result of the brain changing, and with the addictive drug or substance being used at unsustainable amounts, the brain’s reward pathway is triggered and overflooded 10 times more than any natural reward.
