When we look into the world of addictive substances, the most common phrase is "I quit when I want", and very often we mistakenly think that addiction is a vice, a bad habit, a problem of weaker personalities. Instead, it is a pathology that must be identified and treated and is often related to the environmental context.
These substances have a very high capacity for habituation and dependence, the younger the age of those who take them. Most people with an addiction began in adolescence, a period in which the development of the frontal areas responsible for controlling behavior matures and is completed (around the age of 25). These substances, whether drugs, alcohol, smoking or others, all lead to an increase in the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is known as "the pleasure molecule" and has the property of reinforcing the memory of the pleasant sensation by pushing and behaving in such a way as to obtain it again and again, thus creating addiction over time and suppressing the frontal areas (even more if not yet fully trained) thus making them incapable of assessing risks and inhibiting behaviour.
Addiction therapy often involves replacing the molecule involved in the process with one similar to it, in order to stimulate the same pathways activated by the substance of abuse but with less damage. This must be associated with adequate psychological therapy.
Valentina Carlile - Osteopath expert in Osteopathy applied to voice and speech disorders since 2002. For information and reservations visit the page Contacts
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