Understanding Addiction Flashcards
(9 cards)
What is glutamate?
glutamate excited the brain’s reward system limiting the ability to learn new things
( excitatory transmitter)
Why is quitting on your own extremely difficult?
The problem lies in the brain’s responsiveness to the drug and on the many ways to overcome being addicted.
What is Drug Addiction?
A chronic and relapsing condition that results in the compulsion to seek out and use illicit drugs or abuse drugs.
How does the Brain Responds to Drug Addiction?
Drugs are chemicals that function on a biochemical level in the brain’s communication system.
Name 2 ways drugs interrupt the brain’s communication system
- The drug stimulates the reward system of the brain with the drug acting as the “reward.”
- The drug mimics neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers in the brain, affecting the way the addict thinks and their behavior.
How do meth and cocaine act in your brain?
They act like neurotransmitters in continually stimulating the receiving cell. A person then receives too much of the neurotransmitter and reacts to it. Eventually the brain relies on the drug for the supply instead of working on its own.
What is dopamine responsible for?
The feeling of pleasure, motivation, emotions, and bodily movement.
How do heroin and marijuana act in your brain?
Nerve cells are activated and abnormal messages are sent throughout the brain’s circuitry.
What happens when dopamine is overstimulated?
The person’s reward system is activated and they experience the drug as being pleasurable.
