The Addiction Solution

Drug addiction is a major disease that our society is dealing with today with the relatively easy access to drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. It is definitely true that people can overcome these diseases, but it is definitely a struggle. From my personal life, I've seen addiction in the works. My mother is a current alcohol addict/dependent and has tried multiple times to quite but just can't seem to go through with it. Have there been any studies that have treated alcohol with the administration of the certain neurotransmitter deficiencies and their affects? I know from my mom's case, the addiction is definitely a combination of genes and the stress, but it would be interesting to see her chemical deficiencies in the brain. Her loss of job caused immense stress and her dad had dependency issues too. I just hope I am not genetically predisposed to a greater likelihood of the same problem and hopefully some day in our lifetime a more effective treatment program is out there.

The point you're making is that drug users have a chronic disease, and they need a particular drug(s) to fix their chemical imbalance caused by a stimulus and regain homeostasis. You compare it to diabetics and their need for insulin. Some forms of diabetes, however, can be cured. Do you think this will be the case with these addictions?

Yes, I believe this is the case for there are many people in this world who have overcome their addictions. The main point here being that an addiction, like diabetes, relates to specific neurotransmitter imbalances that will signal a wanting until its specific need is filled. I'm not saying diabetes is an addiction just that both diseases work at trying to fulfill the demand for their missing neurotransmitters. To treat them both particular drugs are needed to stabilize the imbalances.

Alcoholism results primarily from a low level of serotonin in the brain. To raise these concentrations medications such as SSRIs or SNRIs are given to stabilize the deficiency. If you're worried about having the same problem note that just because your genetically predisposed doesn't mean you're automatically prone to be an alcoholic. It means you need to be more careful. Being aware and simply living a healthy lifestyle can defy your genetic fingerprint.

This post gave me an idea. From what you found, would you say that it is possible to tell if someone will become an addict before they ever try a drug just by measuring which chemical inbalanee they have in their brain? While I agree that addiction, specifically alcoholism, is a disease, I think it is a little more complicated than something like diabetes. I have seen a very severe alcoholic in my life simply go "cold turkey" on their disease. While this is fairly rare, and almost miraculous, there have been no cases that I am aware of where a person simply willed their body to begin regulating their insulin again. I agree wholeheartedly you CAN treat addictions like diseases, but I think they are something slightly more complicated.

To an extent there is a way to measure the possibility of someone becoming an addict but by no means can they be diagnosed that they will have an addiction. We all have slight imbalances, but those that are more substantial are at a higher risk. Brain chemistry is only part of the story, though. Stress is the trigger. People who encounter more stress in respect to how their body and brain deal with it is what results in addiction.

I can see your point, but because addiction is a mental state, do you think that it would be possible to use various applications of conditioning to cure them? If they have a drug addiction isn't there also a risk to becoming addicted to the drug that cures them like with stimulus generalization?

Substituting safer drugs that eliminate cravings and the fluctuations in the neurotransmitters helps the addict function better. This lets them develop healthy behaviors that allows them to approach dealing with the addiction differently. Once these behaviors become their habits the drug is usually withdrawn.

That's an interesting point. Fighting fire with fire is always risky. Substituting one drug for another is the same case. Many people are afraid of taking pain medication because there is a risk of becoming addicted to it. The hope is that a drug for solving addiction to drugs would not be addictive.