Understanding Addiction

Drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive

drug seeking, continued use despite harmful consequences, and long-
lasting changes in the brain.

1 How Addiction Affects the Brain

The drive to seek pleasure and reward is very strong. It’s needed for survival. A hungry person’s
brain feels pleasure when food is eaten. A person who faces a threat feels a sense of relief when
they reach safety. A person who has done well on a big project feels pride and satisfaction. The
neurotransmitter or brain chemical called dopamine causes people to feel safe or happy.
Nearly all addictive drugs affect the brain’s system of pleasure and reward. Most illegal drugs
cause dopamine levels to go up. This makes the person feel good in response to the drug. If a
person keeps using the drug, the brain gets used to these higher levels of dopamine.
Over time, the brain lowers the amount of dopamine it makes on its own. As the body’s natural
dopamine levels drop, the person may become restless, feel depressed or anxious, or have other
tough emotions. Things the person used to enjoy, such as having a good meal or being with friends,
no longer produce enough dopamine to cause feelings of pleasure. The drug becomes the only thing
that raises dopamine levels enough for the person to feel good. This creates very strong cravings
for the drug that are very hard to resist.
Brain studies of people who are addicted to a drug also show changes in the parts of the brain
involved in judgment, making decisions, learning, memory and the ability to control behavior.
Experts believe that these changes affect the way the brain works, and these effects may be very
strong in teens.
Teen’s brains are still developing. In fact, the brain doesn’t mature fully until around age 25. The
parts of the brain that process emotions, excitement and short-term rewards are fully formed before
the part that controls impulses has finished developing. Teens may experience more intense
feelings of pleasure when they use drugs, but also more intense negative emotions, such as stress,
anxiety or depression, when drug use is stopped. Because their brains are still growing and
changing, teens and young adults are more vulnerable to the effects of drugs, and are more likely
to become addicted faster than older adults.

Questions
1. What is dopamine and how do drugs affect it?
Drugs give you increased levels of dopamine, a substance/drug in your body that corresponds to physical
pleasure and relaxed stress.
2. Why does drug use affect the teen brain differently than adults?
The treen brain is still in development meaning its neural pathways aren’t hardened and can
be more easily hijacked by addictive substances such as drugs.
(continued)

High School • Tobacco, Alcohol & Other Drug Prevention • Lesson © ETR
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 Understanding Addiction (continued)
2 How Addiction Develops
You can’t tell if a person will get addicted to a drug. One person may become addicted, while
friends who’ve used the same drug may not. Some people become addicted after using a drug
for weeks or months. Others may become addicted right away.
These factors increase the chances of addiction:
• Biology: Certain genes can increase a person’s risk. It’s could also be that brain or body
chemistry may make some people more likely to become addicted. Sometimes babies are
born addicted if they were exposed to a drug in the womb.
• Age: The younger a person starts using a drug, the greater the risk for addiction. Because
teens’ brains are still developing, they may be more likely to become addicted. The reward
pathway in a teen’s brain is extra sensitive to the effects of drugs, and teens may experience
more intense withdrawal and cravings if they stop using a drug. Brain changes caused by
repeated drug use are more likely to occur and cause permanent damage to a younger,
still-developing brain.
• Environment: Having easy access to tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, or seeing their use in
the school, neighborhood or community can increase the risk that a person will use and
become addicted.
• Social values: A person’s family members or friends may misuse or abuse drugs.
This increases the risk that they will try drugs and begin abusing them too. People
who feel rejected by or hostile toward others also may be more likely to try drugs.
• Mental health: People who are depressed or anxious or have other mental health problems
are at greater risk. So are people who have a hard time controlling their impulses or who
have a strong need for thrills or instant pleasure.
• Type of drug used: Some drugs cause addiction faster than others.

Questions
1. How can you tell if a person will get addicted to drugs?
If they are using drugs that get to their brains really quickly and/or if they had any mental trauma
throughout childhood they are more likely to be using it; they will become dependent and unable to
function without it.
2. Why are younger people more likely to get addicted?
Their survival hierarchy is far easier to be hijacked and they are overall more susceptible due
to the brain’s neural pathways not being hardened.

(continued)

High School • Tobacco, Alcohol & Other Drug Prevention • Lesson © ETR
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 Understanding Addiction (continued)
3 Stages of Addiction
A person goes through stages in becoming addicted to a drug:
1. First use: The person starts using the drug. People may use a drug for the first time
for many reasons. They may be curious or face peer pressure. They may want to fit in, act
grown up, rebel, relax or get high.
2. Continued use: The person keeps using the drug to feel a certain way. The drug
might make a person feel good, relax, forget about problems, or do things they wouldn’t
otherwise do. But after the high is over, the brain doesn’t go back to normal right away. Brain
changes from repeated drug use can last from a few days to many weeks or months.
3. Tolerance: It takes more of the drug to get high. Over time, the brain adjusts to the drug.
Then it takes more and more of the drug to cause the same effects. This is called tolerance.
It is one of the warning signs of addiction.
4. Dependence: The person gets sick without the drug. Sooner or later, the brain gets so
used to the drug that it can’t work without it. The person needs the drug to feel “normal.”
When they stop using the drug, the person goes through withdrawal. Symptoms of
withdrawal may include feeling anxious, nervous, restless or depressed. There may also be
physical symptoms. These include shaking, diarrhea, throwing up and muscle pains. The
withdrawal symptoms go away when the person uses the drug again. This is a sign of
addiction.
5. Addiction: The person can’t stop using the drug, even when the drug use causes serious
problems. An addicted person will do just about anything to get the drug. They may have
health problems, spend all of their money on the drug, or lose friends or family because of
the drug use. But the person refuses to admit that the drug is the cause of these problems.
This denial is another warning sign of addiction. Denial can keep a person from seeking help
and getting treated for the addiction.

Questions
1. What is tolerance and how does it contribute to addiction?
After a while the brain gets used to the drug making it so that the brain gets used to the amount
of the drug it is getting and therefore doesn’t give the person the same high; it contributes to
addiction because the person wants more of the same drug to get the same high, increasing
their consumption of it.

2. What are some other warning signs that a person is becoming addicted?
They are experiencing increased amount of pain without the drug and they are unable to control
themselves and unable to continue their normal life without the drug.
are (continued)

High School • Tobacco, Alcohol & Other Drug Prevention • Lesson © ETR
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 Understanding Addiction (continued)
4 Consequences of Addiction
People cross the line into addiction when they’re no longer using a drug to have fun or get
high, but have become dependent on it. A person who is addicted no longer has a choice. They
feel a strong need to get and use the drug, even though the drug use is causing serious life
problems.
Consequences of drug addiction may include:
• Physical problems. These include pain in the belly, trouble having bowel movements
and muscle cramps and weakness. Lung problems, kidney and liver disease, changes in
appetite and higher body temperature may occur. Some physical consequences may be life
threatening, such as the heart stopping, seizures and stroke.
• Emotional problems. These include anxiety, depression, paranoia and becoming angry or
violent.
• Social problems. These include arguments and upsets with family or friends, trouble
relating to others and problems at school or work. The person may withdraw from friends
and family, and lose interest in former activities.
• Financial problems. The person might spend all of their money on the drug. They might
sell things they own or steal to get money for the drug. Poor decisions about money often
result from drug use.
• Legal problems. These include being arrested for having an illegal drug or for driving under
the influence of alcohol or another drug. A person might be caught stealing or taking part in
other crimes as a way to get money to buy the drug.

Questions
1. Which negative consequences do you think would most affect a teen’s future? Why?
Some negative consequences might include getting addicted to the point where your social hierarchy is
completely overriden. This would mean you would essentially not care about your career or family which is
bad because that’s what matters in life.
2. Which negative consequences of addiction do you think would most convince teens not
to start using drugs? Why?
I think that the negative consequences to grades would affect teens a lot. And even if that doesn’t work, as teens with
already bad grades start using drugs as a demographic, the consequences to devaluing family and relationships might
convince them to stop and think.

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