Transcript Understanding Addiction - Solace Emotional Health

Understanding Addiction
Drugs/Alcohol/Pornography/Gambling/Eating Disorders
The 2-Part Brain
Moral/Reasoning
Survival
Emotions
Thoughts
Limbic System
Instincts, Memory & Emotion
Basic Instincts:
Air, Food, Water, Procreation
Prime Directive: Survival
Avoiding Pain
Seeking Pleasure
No shame - No guilt – No morals – No values
Limbic System
Instincts, Memory, & Emotion
Some suggest that 90-95%
of our behavior is automatic
and comes from the
subconscious Limbic regions
of our brain.
Frontal Cortex
Thoughts, Meaning, & Morals
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Higher Functions: Reasoning & Meaning
Rational & Logical
Morals/Values: Right & Wrong
Caring about relationships
Guilt/Remorse
Consequences
How Addiction Develops
In our brain, we have 1 quadrillion connections . . .
#1 Addiction Neurochemical :
Dopamine (DA)
• All drugs of abuse and potential compulsive
behaviors release Dopamine
• Dopamine is at the heart of all reinforcing
experiences
• DA is the neurochemical of salience (it signals
survival importance)
• DA signals reward prediction error
• Tells the brain this is “better than expected”
#2 Addiction Neurochemical :
Glutamate (Glu)
• The most abundant neurochemical in the brain
• Critical in memory formation & consolidation
• All drugs of abuse and many addicting behaviors
effect Glutamate which preserves drug memories
and creates drug cues
• And … glutamate is the neurochemical of
“motivation” (it initiates drug seeking)
The Flash
Flood Effect
of Dopamine & Glutamate
Flash Flood Effect on Brain
• Frontal Lobe Hijacked (lose moral reasoning)
• Stimulation>Survival (feel like we will die w/o it)
• Raises Thermostat (depression & despair)
• Damages Neuropathways (creates brain disease)
•Relationships (distorted)
• Event is Deeply Imbedded (remembered forever)
Frontal Lobe Functions Get Hijacked
(disrupting moral and consequential reasoning)
Reasoning & Meaning
Rational & Logical
Morals/Values
Right & Wrong
Caring about
relationships
Guilt/Remorse
Consequences
Stimulation > Survival
Primary Function
of the Limbic System:
1. Survival
Avoiding Pain
Seeking Pleasure
Stimulation > Survival
Primary Function
of the Limbic System:
1. Drug/Porn Stimulation
2. Survival
Avoiding Pain
Seeking Pleasure
Raises the Pleasure Thermostat
Pleasure
Thermostat
Raises the Pleasure Thermostat
New
Pleasure
Thermostat
“Once is too much, and a thousand times is never enough.”
Why?
Damages Neuropathways
Creating A Brain Disease
The Medical
Disease Model
(a CAUSAL model)
Distorts the
Function of Relationships
• Human beings are objectified (viewed as
mere objects)
• Love is replaced by lust
• Meaningful relationships are over-run by cyber
fantasies
• Promotes isolation
• Leaves basic human relational needs unfulfilled
Event is Deeply Imbedded
in the Memory
“Pornographic or erotic stories and pictures are worse than
filthy or polluted food. The body has defenses to rid itself of
unwholesome food. With a few fatal exceptions, bad food
will only make you sick but do not permanent harm. In
contrast, a person who feasts upon filthy stories or
pornographic or erotic pictures and literature , records them
in this marvelous retrieval system we call a brain. The brain
won’t vomit back filth. Once recorded, it will always remain
subject to recall, flashing its perverted images across your
mind and drawing you away from the wholesome things in
life” (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Liahona, May 2005).
Goal: Change Behavior and Nature
The change in your behavior will largely be determined
by a commitment to small and simple actions that are
repeated each day for an extended period of time.
A change in our nature (through Christ) happens each
time we feel the Spirit: “The only change that really
matters is a change of heart. Every other change alters
us cosmetically, but not fundamentally. It changes the
way we appear, but not who we are. In the end, if we
don’t make that change, it will not matter what other
changes we have chosen” (C. Terry Warner, Bonds, 00.2).