Understanding Craving
Why your "craving" sensation is so hard to kick
When a person is addicted, cravings are very intense. This intense craving
for the drug becomes so powerful, it seems as though the person will stop
at nothing to get the drug. It is as if the drug rules the addict’s life.
This is because drugs affect the “reward pleasure center” of
The “reward pleasure center” of the brain extends from the
mid-brain to the nucleus accumbens. Within this area, drugs disguise
themselves, fooling the brain into thinking they are natural chemicals.
Steven Hyman, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health,
described the action of drugs on this part of the brain in an interview
with Bill Moyers (aired on public television as part of Moyers' series
on addiction titled, Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home):
“The nucleus accumbens seems to have a particular role in telling us what
might be pleasing, what might be good for us...Cocaine and amphetamine
put more dopamine in key synapses over a longer period of time in this
brain reward pathway than normal. And because they are so rewarding,
because they tap right into a circuit that we have in our brains, whose
job it is to say something like, 'Yes, that was good. Let's do it again
and let's remember exactly how we did it,' people will take these drugs
again and again and again.
When a person uses drugs to stimulate the reward pleasure center of the
brain, the drugs become as essential as food, or breathing. To the
non-addict, remaining abstinent from food or from breathing seems
ridiculous-these things are necessary for life. Because drugs affect
the same area, they also seem to become as essential for life to the
addict. With the need to use or drink so intense, the addict feels as
though they must use. 'I must use' overpowers any cognitive or rational
thought of 'I think I shouldn’t use'.”
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