How on Earth did I get used to the taste of beer? (What’s Wrong With The Good Life - Part 3)
Can you remember the first time you had a sip of beer? Not very nice. Your first cigarette? Your first glass of whiskey? Cognac? All pretty bad experiences, I bet. But today… You’re hooked on some of these. You like them. No, you love them. They give you a great rush and they relax you, and you don’t want to live without them.
You know they are bad for you, of course (and maybe some more than others).
So why is your brain telling you not to quit? (At least the emotional part of it?) Why does it feel so good?
I’m not going to tell you that I understand addiction. Nobody really does. But we have some good theories. And here is one.
Your brain has a reward system that releases dopamine (a neurotransmitter) when you do something that is good for you (see http://www.addictionscience.net/ASNreport01.htm for a more scientific treatise on this).
Drugs, like alcohol and tobacco, short-circuit the reward system of the brain. They directly push the buttons of the reward system, and so your brain gets a rush of dopamine. And you take a delight in doing whatever it was you were doing at the time you got rewarded — like sipping merlot or smoking a cigarette.
What does this mean for you?
For one thing, it means that if you do want to quit smoking, for example, that you accept and acknowledge that some parts of you are actually hard wired to sabotage your efforts. Your brain obviously wants you to do what it thinks is best for you — and that is to smoke. Now you’re a thinking, reflecting human being and you know it’s not good for you. But sorry, the reward system was there first. It develop long before the logical reasoning of your frontal lobes, which in evolutionary light can be seen as addendums to your brain. The reward system is deeper, lower down, and has a lot of say. It is there to keep you alive and kicking.
So you have to outsmart it.
How?
Next blog post, I’ll tell you how I did it.
Until then, let me know your thoughts, your feelings and your experiences. Use the comments box! I’m listening.
Tags: addiction, brain, neurotransmitters, quit smoking, reward system