ABSTRACT
Addiction is a process which draws on the brain systems involved in reward and motivation. These systems evolved to send us after things perceived as vital to survival, answering our physical and emotional needs. If we are motivated enough, if it gives us something we feel that we need, we might repeat a particular behaviour again and again. The more repetition, the more brain pathways help us by making behaviours into habits that are more automatic and less in need of conscious control. This is helpful in many situations, but with addiction it becomes a problem. Habit can become compulsion, and our brain’s self-control mechanisms disengage, sending us after the object of addiction again and again. At its most extreme, years of drug and alcohol addiction and the poor self-care that go alongside them can lead to lasting damage to the brain. Although behaviours all start out as a choice, in the case of addiction this choice becomes narrower and narrower until it is harder to resist it. That said, even those who are deeply addicted to drugs can make rational choices when given viable alternatives. Chasing the object of addiction may be the more rational option if you don’t want to be present in your life.
