Your Brain and Addiction
Facilitated by Rev. Patrice Joy, MA,
Holy Fire Reiki II Master Instructor
From Suzanne Hanna, PhD. The Transparent Brain During Addictions:
What Neuroscience Says about Attachment and Treatment
healingfeelings333@gmail.com
In the past it was considered fact that a person’s brain stops changing by the time they are six years old. Up until the 1960’s, researchers believed the theory that changes in the brain could only take place during infancy and childhood. It was also believed that the brain’s physical structure was permanent by early adulthood. Developments in scientific research indicate that the brain matures from the back to the front and doesn’t even finish the maturation process until the age of twenty-four. Brain plasticity, also known as neuroplasticity or cortical remapping, is a term that refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. Modern research has demonstrated that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones in order to adapt to new experiences, learn new information and create new memories.
Positive interaction is imperative in the developmental stage of the brain’s growth. Supportive verbal communication is extremely important for optimal brain growth and function. This relates to your inner dialog or self-talk and to conversations with other people. The more you talk to a baby, the more their brain develops. Addictive behavior starts in childhood and peaks in the teen years. The onset of abuse or drug use impedes maturity because the brain is forming connective circuits. Social engagement is relevant to child development and even to survival. Author, mental health specialist, Suzanne Hanna, PhD, explains that relationships make a critical difference in the course and treatment of addiction.
Young people need someone who understands them and guides them to find fulfilment. This forms healthy parent/child/ and youth/adult adjustments which build the foundation of self-esteem and constructive relationships. Being understood by someone special is a core need in brain health. Research in neurobiology is proving that the brain is altered by the level of loving relationships and bonding a person receives. This is especially true in the formative years.
The brain hormone dopamine is a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger that helps in the transmission of signals in the brain to make you feel euphoria. Dopamine production is motivated by the desire for pleasure and becomes triggered by intense satisfaction. The effects of drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine, nicotine and morphine are rewards which trigger dopamine release. Brain scans reveal there are striking similarities in the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine in people who have attachment needs fulfilled by bonding and those who have these needs fulfilled by alcohol, nicotine, drugs and substance abuse. Yet when the production of dopamine is overstimulated in chronic addiction, the receptors burn out and a tolerance develops that requires more and more of the stimulus to achieve the same level of joy.
Overeating, oral fixation, abusive relationships, drama fixations, pornographic and sexual addictions are forms of need gratification that have elevated into excess due to this tolerance factor to maintain fulfilment. Dangerous activities which produce an adrenaline high can become another form of addiction. These do not address the core cause of pain which is experiencing “unmet love needs,” and become an escape from the true means to self-discovery and personal contentment. These bonding needs can be met in productive ways by loving time spent with yourself and others. The quality of appreciation reinforces inner peace in loving relations. This is a much healthier way to maintain balanced dopamine production and improve quality of life and longevity.
The experience of falling “in love” or having an orgasm triggers the same brain chemicals of euphoria as drugs. Thoughts of expectation can even trigger the production of this chemical process during anticipation of a drug dose or fulfilling pleasurable experience. For example: you can start the flow of this brain hormone by imagining an upcoming experience and by telling yourself, “I will be happy when I get this drug or get with him/her.” Your thoughts and feelings start the same brain chemical production and begin forming the reality of the actual event you are imagining in detail. Those you choose to bring into your life at home, at work or socially are triggers to healthy or unhealthy hormonal output. Scientific studies show there is less cellular density in those with positive thoughts, attitudes and enjoyable social involvement.
Social interactions are critical to maintaining appropriate levels of the neurotransmitters. Your social network must be trustworthy for optimal brain development. Fulfillment of basic love needs such as being validated, respected and belonging are part of the bonding process that triggers pleasurable neurotransmitters. Feelings of safety and consistent support are a fundamental part of this process. A person needs to feel someone cares about them and “has their back” so to speak. Being a part of community and connected to a cultural group is another factor in triggering this process of need fulfillment. Cultural heritage and associated rituals are healthy ways of bonding. Restoration Therapy helps individuals set up new units of replacements that are “like family” with peers and other safe intergenerational relations.
Dr. Hanna explains that there are multi-layers of attachment regarding an individual’s social standing which affect the person. These include how closely you are connected to your parents, to your siblings, to society and to your own identity and body, as well as to a higher source of Divinity. Here is a self-questionnaire that gives a level of healthy attachment considerations:
Do you feel a sense of safety, trust and positive feedback in your relationships?
Do you feel attached to your sense of self and what you value in your own identity?
Do you have a good self-concept?
Are you proud of your accomplishments, and goal fulfilment?
Are there emotions I have repressed and where in my body do I feel them
If these aspects of your life experience are out of balance, the pleasure hormones will be low and the tendency to seek the pleasure triggers elsewhere will be greater.
Your sense of wellbeing is directly related to another neurotransmitter called serotonin. This affects your mood, memory, processing ability, sleep and cognitive functions. Here are constructive ways to enhance the serotonin level to improve your brain’s shape and its activity by using emotional control: Be more attentive with what you are doing that is self-supportive. Use relaxation and meditation to anchor positive experiences by focusing on them while gently inhaling and exhaling. Build on your success by reminding yourself you are improving in small steps. Don’t expect quantum leaps of progress; if these happen, then rejoice and happily acknowledge them, but no longer equate success with the limitation of having to grow in leaps and bounds.
The first step in connecting and bonding with others is to form an attachment with yourself. Getting in contact with your body sensations is part of connecting with yourself. When you are feeling good, introspect this series of questions
Are my shoulders and face muscles relaxed?
Where in my body do I feel pleasure?
Does my heart feel full and overflowing?
Do I feel calm or exhilarated?
What other times have I felt this way?
Embrace and introspect the vibration of these positive feelings.
It is now known that there are ways to alter brain shape and activity by our emotional states. What you think and feel are building blocks of the quality and length of your life. The people you choose to share your life can determine the quality of your mental, emotional and even physical health. This becomes your emotional network of attachments. Remember attachment equates to bonding. Social involvement and bonds create DNA changes. The person’s emotional network and social environment are addictive and formative. Dr. Hanna recommends the website http://www.asapscience.com to see how various addictions are formed. Being addicted to harmful things or people is the ultimate phase of self-destruction. To counter this pattern and substitute helpful rewards, seek relationships at home and work that encourage your sense of self-respect, personal identity and belonging. If you feel isolated or alone, emotional pain can result.
OxyContin is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain which creates a sense of amnesia from pain. It numbs the pain of loneliness and the sense of isolation as well as physical pain from illness and injury. A woman’s brain puts out more of this particular hormone during child birth to suppress the pain of delivery. This is the brain hormone that creates amnesia from intense trauma. OxyContin helps a person forget what hurts too much to remember. Positive bonding experiences can also trigger this neurotransmitter. Research studies show interactive family gatherings and sharing of congenial mealtimes stimulate the hormone OxyContin. Keeping up the level of interesting activity and social interactions also show improved brain scans and higher OxyContin levels in elderly and injured individuals.
The level of the hormone OxyContin also relates to the level of trust and empathy in a person’s interactions. This increases the capacity to have compassion for yourself and for others. It allows you to have more empathy and understanding for those suffering during world events in other nations. The brains production of OxyContin also fosters tolerance of people of differing beliefs. If you have empathy for yourself, you become more satisfied with your life, and your brain puts out more OxyContin, serotonin and dopamine. Connection to yourself and attachment to others stimulates pleasure neurotransmitters. Personal contentment is an important part of your ability to experience a deeper meaning from your interactions.
Here are some self-questioning considerations that are relevant to forming a higher quality of life. This type of self-examination provides a format for planning your life course to find more fulfilment. Do you have secure attachments to a higher power?
Do you equate with the part of yourself that is connected to a deeper spiritual meaning of life?
Have you lived up to the values and actions you feel are important in your life purpose?
Have you explored the world from a spiritual perspective in addition to religious training?
Author Jon Kabat Zin teaches the benefits of Mindfulness as one of the ways to find pleasurable rewards. He explains this process is one of careful attentiveness to what is going on in the moment with yourself and your environment. He also stresses the importance of staying centered so that you will respond internally, rather than react to others. This process has been proven to increase dopamine in brain scans.
Fulfillment Rewards can be substituted to trigger dopamine in Trauma Training. These include: a sense of pride of accomplishment, self-love, work well done and creativity in art, music and dancing. Gardening and walks in nature are also constructive pleasure triggers. Hugs, massage and appropriate touches are loving ways to set up reward triggers to replace the use of destructive drugs and other harmful substances. “Shooting up” shows the same level of dopamine on a brain scan as a hug produces. There are many ways of substituting rewards that trigger the pleasure neurotransmitters. Gently touching a person’s shoulder or a hand shake can trigger these pleasure producing hormones. Brain scans have shown that falling in love with another person produces the same euphoria as falling in love with a drug.
Dr. Hana summarizes the treatment of addictions by emphasizing the importance of healthy attachments and expresses, “We are wired to survive. Take wonderment in life by establishing a place of belonging where you are welcomed and unconditionally loved. Find motivation that is based on being a part of strong social systems which support strength of the good in and for every person”. Safety becomes possible and your brain neurotransmitters are optimized. This is the ultimate attachment that leads to the path out of addiction.