Think of your mind as a hub of activity; you believe you have control over your thoughts/mind. An addiction pervades your mind without your knowledge and re-wires it with criminal precision. An addiction is not based on a person’s weakness; it is a legitimate disease of the mind that alters the way you think and feel about yourself/others/your life. Addiction to drugs or alcohol commandeers your brain’s many important systems that eventually give you the “high” you’re seeking despite the damage you’re causing to your life.
This article will examine what happens to your mind when you enter an addicted state. It will discuss the effects of substance on brain areas that are crucial for regulating reward, handling stress, and making decisions. Understanding how these systems are changed will help you comprehend why it is so difficult to stop using substances and will provide you with knowledge as to why you can recover. The intent is to provide you with a better understanding of the scientific basis of addiction, thereby providing you with the tools you need to successfully address your substance issue and/or helping others that may have similar issues.
Eroding Control: Changes in the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
Your pre-frontal cortex lies directly behind your forehead and acts like a boss for your brain by planning ahead and giving “stop” signals to your body for impulsive behaviours. Therefore, any kind of addiction can result in the weakening of the pre-frontal cortex leading to making poor decisions.
When someone uses drugs for an extended period of time, the blood flow and neural connections to that area of your brain have both been drained. Smokers know how smoking harms their body; however, the addiction is often too powerful to resist. The answer to this is that your pre-frontal cortex has been weakened by the effects of the drug.
Stress introduces additional risk factors when you become addicted to using drugs. Your pre-frontal cortex has to weight the risk versus benefit of each potential action; however, drugs slow down the processing speeds of this part of the brain. Therefore, you chose to do something that may give you instant gratification rather than do something responsible.
For individuals needing structured recovery environments, specialized support such as a residential treatment facility can provide stability, medical supervision, and behavioral support while the brain begins healing.
In one researcher’s PET scan study, the study showed that when someone was addicted and made a decision between two alternative choices, the pre-frontal cortex didn’t activate as much as it did before they ever started using a drug. It is as if the CEO of that company took a nap. When this occurs, the person tends to make risky decisions such as driving while using drugs or missing work because they used drugs.
A real-life example would be if you told yourself you wouldn’t use drugs again after you’ve just promised yourself the day before. However, you experience a stressful situation one day and have no choice except to use drugs to cope with that situation; the reason that this occurs is that the pre-frontal cortex has lost its ability to help you resist using drugs and you end up using them. One way to help restore or re-establish the normal function of the pre-frontal cortex is to develop a toolbox full of stress relief techniques.
Decision-Making Under Stress
Stress amps up addiction risks. The PFC weighs pros and cons, but drugs make it sluggish. You pick the quick fix over the smart path.
In one scan study, addicts’ PFC lit up less when facing choices. It’s like the CEO took a nap. This leads to risky bets, like driving high or skipping work.
Real life example: You promise to quit, but a tough day hits. The weakened PFC can’t fight the pull. Building stress tools strengthens it back.
Impaired Inhibitory Control (Stopping the Behavior)
Your incentive system is loud, telling you to go. Meanwhile, the PFC (prefrontal cortex) is silent, telling you to wait. When drugs are used, it increases the loudness of your incentive system and lowers the volume for your PFC. Cravings overwhelm thinking.
Brain scans of people who have urges clearly show this disconnect. When someone is experiencing an urge, the incentive centers are lit up like an 85-watt light bulb, while there would only be a 10-watt light coming from the PFC, resulting in “having one more” leads to “having many more.”
Journaling your urges will help rewire this connection. As you continue to do this, the stop signal will get progressively louder.
Stress, Anxiety, and Self-Medication
The pleasure of addiction can shift into an experience of survival. The extended amydgala (the area that handles stress) can overreact to stress in the absence of drugs. In addition, you’re trying to avoid “crashing” rather than “getting high.”
This is linked to your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which generates a stress response by releasing cortisol, creating anxiety. Withdrawal symptoms are continuous fear in this cycle of stress.
Individualized approaches — including personalized therapy — can address both substance use patterns and underlying emotional challenges, supporting long-term recovery.
Many people turn to illicit drugs to quiet the fear of withdrawal. Though this may provide temporary relief, it only serves to reinforce the cycle of addiction and will make it more challenging to stop.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective means of learning how to cope with stress without using chemical substances.
The Cycle of Escalation: From Use to Compulsion
Originally, drinking seems like a way to relax after a hard day. Then you discover the brain has been altered, making it hard to break free from alcohol after developing the addiction. All of the things we have covered about addiction have led to creating this addictive loop. If you combine reward hijacking and loss of control, you will have an addictive cycle that is very hard to break.
Conclusion: Understanding the Disease to Foster Healing
The addiction causes changes in your brain. Your brain releases large amounts of dopamine and takes over the reward system from your brain, causes changes to the chemical balance of your brain with chemicals, will change the way your brain works with the help of Glutamate and GABA and will affect your prefrontal cortex, inhibiting your ability to make rational choices.
The science dispels the stigma surrounding Substance Use Disorders (SUD) showing it is a brain disease not a lack of ability to keep from using. The focus of SUD treatments is to repair the brain with the use of medication to restore a person’s brain chemistry to normal; through therapeutic methods to teach the person different coping mechanisms for dealing with stress; and through a healthier lifestyle, to build the person’s mental health.
If you have been affected by addiction, seek assistance immediately from a physician or a recovery support group; you can restore your brain to full functionality. Take that first step to repair your mind. You can do this.
