All drugs of abuse affect the area of the brain that is comprised of the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex. These are sometimes referred to as the "reward system" and "pleasure center of the brain." However, the terms "reward system" and "pleasure center of the brain" are a misnomer when it comes to addiction. Individuals who are addicted are not trying to get "high." They are trying to relieve intense cravings, and, at best, trying to feel "normal."
It is the cravings that are at the heart of the addiction. From a neurochemical standpoint, there are trigger induced cravings and stress induced cravings. Cravings are not unique to individuals with a substance use disorder. After finishing dinner at a restaurant a person may be full, but after the server brings around the dessert tray, they order a dessert (a trigger induced craving). Additionally, many people will eat "comfort foods" at times of stress (stress induced cravings). The neurochemistry of the craving is the same for someone with a substance use disorder; however the cravings are much more intense. It is this intense craving that drives the addiction.
Patients should be aware of the environmental changes that need to be made to help reduce cravings. The field of addiction has used sayings to help patients with their recovery. Patients are told to change people, places and things (trigger induced cravings), and to avoid being hungry, angry, lonely, and tired (stress induced cravings). While these have been used in treatment/recovery for decades, science is now able to show that they have a neurochemical component.
Addiction is truly a brain disease and not simply a behavior that someone can stop automatically. It is neurochemically driven, and not due to "moral weakness" or lack of "will power." Unfortunately, it is one of the few chronic diseases where normally caring health care providers treat patients poorly because of misguided notions like "it's their own fault, they should just stop using drugs." As one nursing professor once stated "no one ever got better by being treated unprofessionally." As the addiction research continues to be disseminated to medical providers, the tide will hopefully change with their treatment of these patients. Addiction is not a disease of drug use. It is a disease of cravings.
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If this site has been documented as being sound information, this supports my theory of alcoholism and abuse. If alcohol is an addiction; then it is a disease of cravings. On the average an alcoholic "needs" a drink; thus he/she is "craving" a drink; thereby being alcoholism is not a disease but a craving, thereby eliminating all excuses for their "bad or inappropriate behavior" Blackouts need to be a thing of the past---an alcoholic does remember; they simply "black out the memory" or as a professional would say they block it out; it is simply repressed. It is not even denial; they hide behind the medical evaluation of the disease and blackouts.
Research shows that blackouts are caused when a person has consumed so much alcohol that their brain cannot make new memories. The issue is not whether they do or do not remember or whether the memory is "simply repressed". The alcohol prevented their brain from creating the memory in the first place.
Addiction is a neurologically based disease. For many years recovery specialists have compared alcoholism or addictions to a physical disease: like diabetes. In reality addictions are more closely related to a neurological disorder like Tourette's Syndrome* than they are to diabetes. for more: http://www.drug-addiction.com
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