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Understanding Addiction Behaviors

Gain a better understanding of how drug use generates antisocial behavior, changes in the limbic system, patterns of behavior in early recovery, and therapeutic strategies used in treatment programs.

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Understanding Addiction Behaviors

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  1. Making Sense of Addiction BehaviorsLarry Tyler, M.Ed., LADC, CCS Making Sense of Addiction BehaviorsLarry Tyler, M.Ed., LADC, CCS

  2. As a result of attending this lecture, participants will… • Have a better understanding of how drug use generates antisocial behavior • Learn how changes in the limbic system create drug cravings, tolerance and relapse • Recognize common patterns of behavior in early recovery • Understand the therapeutic strategies that are used in treatment programs

  3. “Why Do Drug Addicts Do What They Do?” • Why do they start using drugs again after they’ve gotten through their withdrawal? • Don’t they care about their children? • If they claim to hate themselves, then why are they so selfish? • Why do they deny things that are obviously true? • Why is their behavior even worse when they get sober?

  4. What makes us tick: • The brain attempts to keep the body in balance • (homeostasis) • The brain is elastic and resilient…but only to a point • The brain reacts quickly…but counter-reacts slowly • afterward

  5. Traumatic Event: High Arousal (sympathetic nervous system) Is followed by Low Arousal (parasympathetic nervous system) We react quickly…and calm down slowly

  6. Limbic System Prefrontal Cortex • What makes us tick: • The limbic system “flags” outside stimuli, labels • emotions and stores memories • The brain releases neurotransmitters (epinephrine, • dopamine, endorphins, etc.) to flag events • The prefrontal cortex produces conscious thoughts; • planning, contemplating, deciding • The limbic system recognizes outside stimuli before the • prefrontal cortex does

  7. What is happiness?

  8. What we call pleasure, and rightly so, is the absence of all pain -Cicero

  9. Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other. -Schopenhauer

  10. What is happiness? The brain’s basic function: Homeostasis Dopamine is our reward for enjoyable experiences Pleasure is meant to be brief We all try to extend pleasure

  11. THE HEDONIC SET POINT (The level at which we are aware of pleasure)

  12. What is happiness? • The hedonic set point is the threshold at which the brain • recognizes pleasure and reacts to it • Dopamine: The “reward neurotransmitter” (“That feels • good, better than I expected…I’ll do it again.”) • Dopamine depletion: A subnormal release of dopamine • (This feels horrible…How can I stop this from happening • to me?”)

  13. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Normal Level of Dopamine Release

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  17. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X

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  21. What Goes Up…

  22. What Goes Up… Must Come Down

  23. What Goes Up… Must Come Down It’s The Law!!

  24. Why won’t the brain just let us be happy all the time???

  25. The Brain Flags Pleasurable Experiences So We Will Remember Them And Return To Them… But It Doesn’t Intend Pleasure To Be Permanent

  26. The Brain Cannot Tolerate Chaos • Homeostasis requires balance, order, consistency • When the brain can’t makes sense of something, it • confabulates • It struggles to make the illogical logical • Every time we recall an event, we bring forth the • memory, and return it to the hippocampus altered • Our values are important to us. When we breach our • values, we struggle to justify our behavior WHAT DOES THIS THIS SAY?

  27. How does the limbic system handle the • “invasion” of drugs into our body? • Tolerance • Craving • Withdrawal • Relapse • (All triggered by the limbic system)

  28. How does the limbic system handle the • “invasion” of drugs into our body? • Tolerance • Craving • Withdrawal • Relapse • (All triggered by the limbic system) • What do drugs teach us? • Greed • Instant gratification • Subservience (You’ll be punished if caught) • Hopelessness

  29. What do drugs teach us? • Greed • Instant Gratification • Subservience (You’ll be punished if caught) • Hopelessness • Treatment is deliberately designed to counter • the lessons taught by drugs by emphasizing • Positive social interaction • Delayed gratification • Thoughtfulness and constructive planning • Hope

  30. Replacing Dopamine as a teacher • Counteracting these antisocial traits and behaviors: • Manipulation • Lying • Irresponsibility • Lack of empathy • Burying/concealing shame • Blaming

  31. Treatment attempts to reverse everything the brain learned in addiction: Reactivate the prefrontal cortex Learn/re-learn coping skills Become a social animal Develop self respect

  32. Early Recovery Post-acute Withdrawal Syndrome Revolt of the Limbic System Physical Withdrawal is Acute… Psychological Effects are Prolonged

  33. The Challenges of Recovery • Everything you know and do has to change • The speed of positive results is going to slow waydown • The road back to everything that is “familiar and comfortable” (i.e., relapse) is quick and easy.

  34. As a result of attending this lecture, participants will… • Have a better understanding of how drug use generates antisocial behavior • Learn how changes in the limbic system create drug cravings, tolerance and relapse • Recognize common patterns of behavior in early recovery • Understand the therapeutic strategies that are used in treatment programs

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