Freedom From Addiction: A Matter of Will Power - Essay Example

? Freedom From Addiction: A Matter Of Will Power Of The Of The Introduction Substance abuse or addiction to drugs and alcohol is a major problem of the society. According to American Psychiatric Association (1994), the personal, social and professional lives of people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol is destroyed to a great extent as they are not able to function properly in those areas (Shwabe, Dickinson & Wolf, 2001, p.53). To reduce the prevalence of addiction in people, it is necessary to know the reason behind it. The article “Stress, Habits, And Drug Addiction: A Psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective”, written by L. Shwabe, A. Dickinson and O. Wolf, tries to find the physical and psychological reasons behind the development of addictive behavior in human beings. After reading the article, one realizes how important it is to avoid drugs in the first place as according to the article, the effect of the drugs on the brain chemistry is so fast and strong, that people don’t even realize how and when the drugs take control over them and make them addicts. Hence, the best way to reduce addiction is to keep away from drugs and never to fall in the trap of ‘just one time’. Summary The article “Stress, Habits, and Drug Addiction: A Psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective”, is written with an intention of understanding how stress leads to substance abuse and addiction by affecting the brain chemistry in human beings. Psychological stress helps the human beings to face the imminent threat and adapt to the surrounding. However, excessive stress response can lead to pathological disorders as it can enhance addictive behavior in people. The authors argue that stress not only stimulates the motivation in reward system and creates the possibility of addiction, but also develops a risk of relapse by developing a habit of certain actions and cravings that lead to addiction and relapse. Brain imaging has shown that goal directed actions in human beings are controlled by prefrontal cortex and habitual actions are directed by dorsolateral striatum. The choice (and the action) of taking drug for the first time is in control of human beings, but once the action becomes habitual, he loses control over it and becomes an addict. That is, the action becomes involuntary and gets into the category of habitual actions. Hence, addiction is called as maladaptive form of habit process as a voluntary action of taking drugs gets transformed into an addiction. According to the authors, the first important factor of addictive behavior is the function of dopamine. A study by Packard and McGaugh (1996) has revealed that dopamine is instrumental in development of habitual behavior and strengthening the different aspects of habit formation in human beings. This leads to second factor which is the habitual behavior in human beings. Habits can be defined as the behavior pattern in which the actions of human being persist even when the reward or goal value of that action reduces to a great extent. It takes regular and persistence efforts for a particular action to become a habit. However, a study by Miles, Everitt and Dickingson (2003) has revealed that in case of drug use, people become addicted (habitual) to drugs in very short time and the transition from controlled dosage to addiction is unusually rapid and fast. The third factor of addiction is the substance itself as it acts as strong stimuli for cause of relapse in people suffering from addiction. The fourth factor in the development of addiction is a problem or injury to the goal directed system, which is located in the prefrontal cortex. Chronic drug administration leads to the damage of prefrontal cortex. This shows that use of drugs harm the human beings in two ways. Firstly, the drug use leads to damage of prefrontal cortex and secondly, the damage, in turn, strengthens the addiction to drugs. This shows how the brain chemistry influences the addiction in behavior pattern. However, the authors have found that even stress plays a major role in the development of addictive behavior. The authors have reviewed different studies which have revealed the relation of stress with the addictive behavior in human beings and animals. People suffering from addiction turn to drugs to relieve stress as they lack the stress coping strategies (Neal, 2008, p.390). According to Diamond et al. (2007), the stress or stress hormones weakens and impairs the neuroplasticity in the prefrontal cortex as prefrontal cortex is highly sensitive to stress. Interestingly, a study by Peele (1985) found that in the absence of stress, people do not get addicted to drugs like heroin, morphine etc., even after using it for long time (Abadinsky, 2011, p.91). Lyons et al. (2009) found that stress impairs the cognitive control processes that are carried out with the help of prefrontal cortex, and this leads to addiction. Authors have shown how stress enhances the drug addiction by affecting the prefrontal cortex negatively. McKay et al. (1995) and Brewer et al. (1998) found that acute stress is an important predictor of relapse. Hence, according to Bechara (2005), strong will power and cognitive control processes are essential to overcome drug addiction. The authors have concluded by suggesting that the future researches should study if different amount of stress has different effect on addictive behavior. Also, researchers should study if different types of drugs have different effects on the habit mechanism. Critique The article ““Stress, Habits, And Drug Addiction: A psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective”, written by L. Shwabe, A. Dickinson and O. Wolf, is an excellent article that gives a deep insight into the process of development of addiction in human beings. The article makes the reader believe that even though people think that they are strong enough to control their substance use, they are not. The authors have reviewed number of different research studies related to development of addiction and its relationship with psychological stress in human beings. Every insight into the different aspects of brain chemistry, stress related behavior in man and animals, and habitual behavior pattern is supported by researches done by different experts in the field of psychiatry. Several research studies have been discussed in the article which confirms that stress related psychological disorders, physical and mental abused in childhood, chronic stress in adolescent etc., are strong predictors of addiction to drugs in the adulthood. Even though some of the researches discussed are more than decade old, they are still valid, as only those researches are referred in the article which are relevant and are supported by the researches conducted in last 5 to 6 years. This makes the information given in the article strong and reliable. Also, the detail information about the goal directed system and habitual system in brain makes it easy to understand how human beings lose control over themselves when it comes to substance use. Moreover, the article is written in a logical manner and to the point. The authors have done an excellent job by explaining how the physical aspect of brain develops the addictive behavior in man. In describing the process of addiction, the authors have started by explaining the drug effect on the brain chemistry of people and how the brain chemistry in turn, affects the psychological aspects of brain. Then, they have explained how the psychological aspect develops the addictive behavior pattern in human beings. For example, when people who are sensitive to stress experience a feeling of lack of control over stressful situation, then they are likely to turn to substance abuse to feel in control of situation (Goeders, 2007, p.25). The step-by- step explanation helps the reader to understand how strongly the drugs affect the brain and how a person becomes addict in no rime. Moreover, the use of three pictorial figures and the perfect placement of the figures in the article make the scientific aspects of the article easy to understand. The reader is able to grasp the process of addictive behavior very quickly and easily. However, the article also has some flaws. The language used in the article seems to be very difficult for a layman as it is filled with many difficult scientific words. The title of the article is attractive as it is an interesting title and makes the reader feel that the article is related to relation between stress, habit and addiction. However, right from the third paragraph, the article begins with heavy information about brain, chemicals and its functioning. The reader realizes that the article is not just about stress, habit and addiction but is loaded with complex information about the functioning of brain. Moreover, the information about the role of prefrontal cortex seems to be repeated often with the aid of different words but giving the same information and idea. The authors should have taken some efforts to make the article ‘easily’ readable as the information provided in the article is beneficial for every human being who wants to lead a healthy and fulfilling life by keeping away from drugs and alcohol. However, apart from the difficult language, the article does not have any flaw. Conclusion The article “Stress, Habits, And Drug Addiction: A Psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective” is an excellent article as it helps the reader to understand how stress affects the different parts of brain that influence the addictive behavior. It explains in detail how the ‘first time’ of drug or alcohol use is a death trap and why one should keep away from it. Hence, the article has the power to stop people from becoming addict to substance use as it succeeds in convincing them from keeping away from the trap of the ‘first time’. References Abadinsky, H. (2011). Drug Use and Abuse : A Comprehensive Introduction (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Goeders, N.E. (2007). The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Addiction. In M. Al’Absi (Ed.), Stress and Addiction: Biological and Psychological Mechanisms (21-40). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. Neal, R.M. (2008). The Path To Addiction: And Other Troubles We Are Born To Know. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Shwabe, L., Dickinson, A., & Wolf, O. T. (2011). Stress, Habits, And Drug Addiction: A Psychoneuroendocrinological Perspective. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology,19(1), 53-63. Read More