WEBVTT - The Science of Addiction 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:12.440 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from HowStuffWorks dot com. Hey, 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.239 wasn't this stuff to blow your mind? My name is 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.520 Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie has returned to 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.520 us from New York City once a more. It's true, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.159 and you have returned from Laryngitisville. Yes, yes for the 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.319 most part. Yeah, yeah, you're there. Yes. When I was 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.720 in New York, I attended the World Science Festival, which 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:31.720 if you guys have never heard about it, you should 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:36.040 immediately well after this episode check it out because they 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.440 have some online offerings that are wonderful. But when I 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.200 was there, I checked out this panel on something called 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.639 the craving brain. And that's what we're going to talk 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.519 about today, this idea of what addiction is and what 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.640 it is not. Ah, So it's about the craving brain, 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.880 not craving brains. Not that. Okay. Yeah, No zombie content, 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:56.880 as far as I know, is going to tumble forth 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.320 from our lips today because it's my understanding of you 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.560 showed up for this this talk expecting a light hearted 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.240 discussion about zombies. You would have been pretty disappointed. And 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.640 so that's what we're discussing in this episode addiction the 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:13.160 science of addiction, and it's really fascinating this topic because 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.200 for me, I had not really looked into it. Before 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.400 I had, I wouldn't say there's just a surface level 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.080 understanding of addiction, like I was prevy to some of 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.720 the science and some of the levels of deeper understanding 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:32.600 involved in addiction research. But still it's so misunderstood at 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.559 large in our culture even today. Yeah, and I feel 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.720 like we are only now getting a baseline understanding of it, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:39.840 and a lot of that has to do with the 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:41.960 brain itself. We talk about this all the time. We 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.080 still don't know exactly how the brain works, and we 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:46.520 have more of a clue now than we did one 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.400 hundred years ago or even twenty years ago. But the 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.720 fact of the matter that addiction written large is still 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.240 going to be something that we can't fully cover in depth, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:57.960 and in fact, for us to do that, we would 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.000 just have to become the addiction podcasts, so we could 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.559 really give it its due day to talk about every 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.920 single aspect. But what we want to talk about today 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.760 is just sort of like this, this idea of addiction 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.480 in the past in the present, and what are some 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:19.320 of the driving conditions. Yeah, so this idea of addictive substances, 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.799 you go back far enough in history and you get 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:24.280 into it. I mean, you don't have to go far 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.280 back in history at all, where our culture is full 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.520 of simplistic examples of what's going on, simplistic explanations for 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.920 what's going on. Yeah, you know, you can say, oh, 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.359 well that person is addicted, clearly there's a flaw in 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.520 their character. Or that person is addicted, there's there you know, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.840 they're completely controlled by this demonic substance. Or you can 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.440 throw it to environment and say, well, they're just not 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.600 in a good environment to you know, and that is 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:51.800 what's making them weak to this substance. And that's the 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.079 thing too, it's often seen, even among people who have 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.440 a better understanding it of it, it's seen as some 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.239 sort of of a weakness of character. Even know there 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.800 that we have so much science to argue differently, Yeah, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.400 there's this real need to blame someone or something when 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.919 it comes to addiction. And so you had mentioned the substance, right, Oh, 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.400 it's the substance that it is the problem that has 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.040 demonic possession of the person. Well, if that were the case, 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.440 then everybody who ever put a bottle of whiskey to 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.120 their lips would be addicted to whiskey. Right, So we 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.520 just know that logic is faulty, and yes, it's also 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.560 looked at as a shortcoming in a person's moral compass, 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.160 you know, a lack of willpower. But finally we are 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.040 beginning to understand addiction in terms of a disease, with 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:40.400 genetics and environment really playing into how the human brain 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.080 can change a person's behavior. Indeed, it's that disease model 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.200 of addiction that has really taken hold and become our 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:52.120 major means of understanding exactly what's going on, even though 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.520 again that still hasn't quite seeped into every you know, 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.320 level of our culture in terms of viewing addiction in 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.760 those round us. Yeah, but I do think that the 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.080 more and more information that is that's really given to 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.360 the disease brain part, the more we can understand it 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.720 as a disease like diabetes or anything else that's sort 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:14.240 of chronic. But let's talk really about what an addiction is, 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.120 because when I think about it, I think about this 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.880 irresistible urge to consume a substance or engage in a 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.040 behavior over and over again, even though I know it's 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.840 going to cause me some sort of problem later on. 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.080 And it turns out there are three dimensions to addiction. 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:37.000 Craving kind of binging to just intoxic intoxicating yourself, and 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.760 three the withdrawal or the negative effect. So you have 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:42.880 to think about addiction in that way. It's not just 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.320 I really like cremberlay and so I eat that ten 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.960 times a year. It's that you can't stop eating cremberlay 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.720 even though you keep throwing it up. Yeah. Yeah, there's 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.640 some people may you know, jokingly say oh, I'm addicted 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.839 to this, that or the other. But unless it's unless 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.360 you're actually throwing up that crimber lay again, you're you're 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.320 probably not hitting all the points in the addiction. So 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.400 some of the basics here that you just alluded to, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.520 we've discussed many times just in terms of what it 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.080 is to be human, and that's that's one of the 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.120 interesting things about addiction is that it is really tied 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.680 in with the human experience. Because you mentioned the short 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.680 term goal versus short term vision versus long term problems. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.080 You know that that that consonant inability in humans to 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.120 really decide on the on the long term benefit over 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.200 the short benefit benefit. And then the other thing is 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.440 that this is of course all tied in to the 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.279 pleasure centers of the brain, the reward circuit about you know, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.400 in which we have neurotransmitters of dopamine, and it's tied 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.880 into the basic genetic mission of the human creature. Right, 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.240 we're getting guitting this pleasure, and the pleasure is a 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.840 reward for things like eating, drinking, mating, the very basic 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.320 things that we have to check check off the list 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.640 into to meet that genetic mission. But when you layer 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.360 up on you know, all the complexity of cognitive evolution, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.440 human culture, it gets more complicated. So suddenly we have 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.960 all these other different activities that can end up releasing dopamine. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.440 I mean everything from eating and drinking and mating to 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.240 going shopping. Studies have shown you get that release sometimes 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.719 even when you're you're you know, donating to charity, but 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.040 also when you're engaging in something like illicited drug use 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.640 or even even quote unquote non illicit drug use, legal 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:31.760 drug use, or even just a you know, a cup 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:33.240 of coffee in the morning. Yeah, I mean to put 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:38.240 it really simply, pleasure is tied into our survival. It's 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.480 the way that our bodies and our minds are wired. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.240 And so when you think about these different things that 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.000 we become addicted to, you can kind of think about 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.080 them in terms of super normal stimuli. And we talked 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.880 about this how that has such a pull on us, 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.599 because that's that thing just kind of like with lights 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.880 blinking around it, saying, hey, this is awesome. You should 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.080 try me. If you get pleasure from me, you should 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.159 do it again. And in this way, you could think 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:05.880 of a drug as being a sort of like heroin, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.479 being super normal stimuli. That sense of contentment and pleasure 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.920 that you would get. Your body doesn't know whether or 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:14.800 not that's a good thing or a bad thing. It 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:20.679 just knows the feeling. So most drugs activate this pleasure circuitry, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.800 this dopamine circuitry that we're talking about here. So we're 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:30.080 talking alcohol, we're talking nicotine, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, cannabis. The 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.080 only things that really don't make this list are hallucinens 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.560 LSD and mescaline. And as a side note, food can 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:38.640 be an addiction to, but well, we can talk about 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.880 that pretty much any human behavior. Yeah, so let's say 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.040 that you have you know, a glass of wine. There's 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.000 that reward that occurs in the brain. You get a 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.960 flood of dopamine or I shouldn't say a flood, because 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.640 it's not an actual flood, but you get a significant 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.560 amount or increase in the brain that feels like it flood, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.320 and that strengthens the neural pathways the memory of the behavior, 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.400 making it far easier to recall the pleasure and then 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.440 engage in that behavior again and again. Yeah, this is interesting. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.960 One of the presenters at the World Science Festival mentioned 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.119 nine to eleven. The whole idea. You know, everyone knows 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.400 or thinks they know exactly what they were doing when 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.200 nine to eleven occurred, like that strong memory, that that 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.720 sort of pillar standing up standing out from the landscape 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.840 of our existing memories, and drug memories are like that. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.040 Nor a d valcohol was the presenter, by the way, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.840 But on one hand, this sounds completely obvious, right, because 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.240 when one is engaging in some kind of drug, be 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.240 it a cup of coffee, a cigarette, wine, heroin, et cetera, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.800 we're dealing with a heightened level level of pleasure, and therefore, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.360 conceivably that is a more memorable moment, right, you're feeling 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.160 really good at that moment, and therefore your brain is 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.960 encoding that memory and all the very stimuli around it. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:58.880 So it's not just I had a cigarette and the 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:03.160 cigarette was enjoyable and was pleasurable, but I had a 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.320 cigarette at a bar, I had a cigarette among this 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.000 group of people, this song was playing. All this stuff 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.560 sort of gets encoded into the memory. Yeah, and that's 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.320 the thing that makes us really complicated in the sense 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:16.960 because it's very hard to tease out the behavior from 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.360 the genetics, from the memory, from the environment. It's almost 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.360 like all of these have a bit of play into addiction. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.839 And according to the National Institute of Health, you can 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:32.600 see that with brain imaging technology that addiction is disrupting 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.680 specific brain circuits effected by addiction, and they say that 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.640 these changes go beyond the brain's reward system to include 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.920 regions involved in memory learning, impulse control, and we'll talk 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:49.479 more about that later. Stress reactivity and repeated drug exposure 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.760 resets these circuits toward compulsive behavior, so that a person's 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.319 control over the desire to seek and use drugs is compromised, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.839 despite whatever consequences arise. So I thought that was interesting. Again, 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.559 it's not just the behavior, it's that it's creating these 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.360 kind of neural pathways, these sort of ghosts in the 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:13.160 machine of your brain. So even if you abstain from 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.760 drugs or that thing, you may still have triggers that 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:27.000 would activate those pathways. All right, we're back. We are 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.199 discussing addiction, the science of addiction. We've just finished talking 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.240 about addiction, what it is, how it works, what are 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.599 some of the basics in terms of our understanding of 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:44.240 addiction from a disease model standpoint. And this leads to 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.400 the inevitable question who becomes addicted? Because we've seen this, 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.080 We see this all the time in the world around us. 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.719 It's not an equal playing field. Addiction is not an 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:59.160 equally equal opportunity of fender. Some people have more of 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.800 a problem with it than others. And how do we 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:03.480 figure that out? Like what's going on there? We can't 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.760 just say it's you know, God shooting lightning bolts of 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.160 addiction down at people and making you know, packets of 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:11.040 drugs land in front of some and not others. I mean, 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.679 they're just as Addiction itself is more complex than that. 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.560 Who becomes an addict is also a fairly complex situation. Yeah, 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.679 and of course the older model would be, oh, it's 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.720 the person who has no willpower, it's the person who 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.920 just doesn't have any integrity. And we know this is 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.280 not true. We know that addiction is not any one 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:35.360 sort of magic bullet that arrives in a person's chest. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.640 You could have a genetic disposition which would cause you 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.080 to have a blunted reaction to dopamine, and that would 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.320 require more and more of the substance to produce the 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.520 same sense of pleasure in someone else. So in other words, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.480 for me, I genetically have stuff that has to do 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.120 with addiction in my family. So it may maybe that 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.080 I need six beers to your two beers to have 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.839 that same level of dope mean activity in the brain 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.000 in that sense of pleasure. So that's one way that 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.680 a person might be become addicted, because they have the 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:14.200 circumstances in place. And then of course we have you 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.080 know the environment, how much stress is in that environment, 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.599 and we also have the way that the brain develops. 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.520 So genetics, let's talk about this real quick. Studies of 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.840 identical twins indicate that as much as half of an 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.719 individual's risk of becoming addicted to nicotine, alcohol, or other 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.000 drugs depends on his or her genes and twins. Studies 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.360 on addiction don't reveal the full reaction range of genotype, right, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.800 but they do indicate that under a particular and really 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:47.480 relevant societal scenarios, genotype plays a substantial role in your vulnerability. Yeah, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.400 fifty percent is pretty impressive because that is that is 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.079 higher than some cancers in terms of how much genetics 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.840 is playing a role. Now, it's also not as simple 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.959 as saying, oh, well, here's the gene for a day, 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.200 can we zapt that. No, it's it's more complicated than that. 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:05.640 We're not at the point yet where we can just 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.640 say we can look at somebody and do some sort 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.480 of funny little scan or blood test and say, oh, well, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.000 this person's prone to addiction, although one day we may 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.520 be able to. But of course, it's just it's a 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.120 hard thing to answer right now, because you know, if 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.079 you were to scan a child and say you, it 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.400 would appear that you may become addicted to something or 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.240 you may have addictive behavior. Part of that environment is 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.440 going to factor into that. Right. So again, it's just 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:37.640 not that you know, cut and dried, so David Linden, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.559 the neuroscientists and author of the Compass of Pleasure, has 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.640 some really good information out there about variants and genes 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.240 that turn down the function of dopamine signaling in the 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.959 brain if anybody wants to read more about that. But 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.120 we should probably talk about environments and its stressors triggering 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.520 self medicating behavior, because David Lindon says that stress hormones 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.320 are secreted by your adrenal glands that sits on top 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.000 of your kidneys, and they pass into your brain and 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:08.000 they bind stress hormone receptors on neurons in your pleasure circuit, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.400 and they set in motion a series of biochemical steps 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.920 that end with you, say, having a bowl of ice 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:18.560 cream or smoking a cigarette, essentially anything that's pleasurable to 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:23.080 try to negate the stress chemical reaction happening in your body. Right, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.560 and then we eventually end up encoding the habit right 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.120 where we associate feeling stressful with the release of having 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.560 that cigarette, that ice cream, or of course been in 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.480 Jerry's cigarette ice cream. Yeah, and we'll talk a little 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.920 bit more about habit later on. But then you also 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.840 have other conditions like you might have PTSD, you might 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.440 have depression or ADHD, and those underlying factors could certainly 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:50.760 ramp up this feeling of stress, anxiety, or depression. Add 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:56.320 to this, you have teenagers who are beginning to take 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.320 on some of these substances, and their brains are pretty male. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.840 We know this. We know that the proofnabal cortex, for instance, 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.920 the seat of judgment, doesn't even really complete itself until 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.960 the age of twenty five, in some cases much older. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.440 So we know already that teenagers are at risk in 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.440 the sense that they don't have the sort of executive 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.320 functions that might stop them from engaging in risky behavior. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.680 But moreover, there's some evidence that, say, dabbling with nicotine 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:33.120 with cigarettes could actually prepare their brains to become more 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:37.160 receptive to other substances. Yeah, this is really interesting research 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:41.200 because it deals in part with that idea of something 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.000 as a gateway substance, as a gateway drug, which is 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.680 a term that has really lost a lot of value, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.280 I feel, thanks to its overuse in drug war campaigning, 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.640 because because you know, we all heard this growing up. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.840 You know, the substance, this experience is a gateway to 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.200 other experiences. It's like you know, stepping your foot into 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.680 the water, and then that undertow is going to grab 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.920 you and just drag you down through worse and worse 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.360 drug experiences into some sort of ultimate doom. And of 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.480 course people's realities tend to be you know, they say, oh, well, 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.280 you know, don't smoke cigarettes. It's a it's a it's 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.800 a gateway drug. And then when one eventually tries a 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.840 cigarette and they realize, hey, my life didn't just end. 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.840 You know, I don't feel the world collapsing around me. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.520 I don't feel that undertow dragging me down. Therefore this 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.800 can't be that bad. And those he must have been 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:33.440 just completely full of it and trying to scare me 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.760 with scare tactics into not trying these things. So it's 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.840 you know, reasons like that that you often end up 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.040 throwing the idea of a gateway drug out out the window. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:46.760 But the science behind this really argues in the favor 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:52.040 of cigarettes, particularly serving as I almost don't want to 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.720 say gateway drug because again the term is so so bad, 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.480 but it But what is occurring here is that the 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.720 nicket is essentially opening up the pathways, loosening the pathway 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:09.680 for addictive behavior with other substances. Yeah, according to neurobiologists 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.960 Amir Levine, and he was on the panel, ninety seven 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.480 percent of cocaine users smoked first in their teenage years, 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.520 which is astounding. So he thought, well, is this is just, 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.359 you know, cause correlation here is there's something actually to this, 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.720 And so he and his colleagues began to look to 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.520 see if there are any long lasting changes in nicotine 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.359 use in the formative years, in the teenage years, so 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.160 whether they do. They applied mice with nicotine, followed seven 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.120 days later by cocaine, and compared with mice on cocaine 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.840 who had not previously received nicotine, the animals were ninety 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.680 eight percent more active and seventy eight percent more likely 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:54.120 to return to areas previously associated with the cocaine. Yeah, 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.080 and the reverse did not hold true. The cocaine had 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.879 no effect on nicotine induced behavior and the mind tested 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.199 in the study. Right, So this all has to do 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.280 with something called the foss Be gene, which is related 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.760 to addiction. And what we see is sort of a 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.520 this is sort of Blameman's terms, or I'm not going 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.760 to get too deep into it. Probably the best way 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:17.280 to say this is that there's a sort of a 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.119 greater expression of that gene, of that foss B gene if, 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.560 as you say that, the pathways have been loosened by nicotine. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.560 So when cocaine comes along, Hey look at this, we 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.720 sort of know the drill here is what we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.400 it loosens up the DNA packaging system. That's that's involved here, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.560 and it's in it, and it allows greater expression of 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.679 that foss Be gene. Now, the added problem here is, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:47.320 as we've talked about before, the amygdala in teenagers has 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.359 a heightened sense of fear and a heightened sense of 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.320 stress when you're a teenager. And amygdala is so interesting 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.720 to me because it processes both physical pain and emotional pain. 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.000 So if you're a teenager and you're brooding, you really 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.240 may feel like life is terrible, life is ending, you're 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.080 being hurt. Yeah, we did that whole episode on the 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.280 what I was a teenage teenager? I think, Yeah, I 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:12.640 was a teenage teenager, and so it was I think 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.040 we had mentioned then. So as an adult, you hear 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.359 a teenager talking about this and you feel like they're 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.040 just being history onic, when in fact they are actually 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.760 feeling that level of pain and discomfort. Yeah, and there 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.800 I think we discussed in that episode. One of the 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.119 things about the teenager's brain is that, from you know, 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:34.040 an evolutionary standpoint, the teenager is primed to leave his 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.520 or her community and find a new community in which 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.080 to thrive, which means that there's an increased dependence on 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.600 social pressures, on fitting in with a social group, because that, 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.359 in an evolutionary sense, means survival. And you know, to 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.240 add more fuel to the fire, if you happen to 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:53.040 be that person whose genes dictate an amygdala in the 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.240 first place that's more reactive to stress, then you are 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.880 going to feel things a little bit stronger than your 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.000 average bear, both as a teenager and an adult. So 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:08.879 that makes dealing with environmental factors emotions a lot harder. 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.280 And you can see how people begin to turn to 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.639 things to comfort themselves, right, whether it be food or smoking, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.920 or drugs or some other you need, sex addiction, there 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.800 are so many different ways to actually try to stoke 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.479 those I guess if you call them members of pleasure 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.280 and content. Now, an important thing to keep in mind 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.440 about about addiction is that it actually changes the brain 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.800 in many ways. Physically changes the brain of the addict, 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.000 and so we're going to run through some of the 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.840 changes that are happening here. Yeah, we mentioned that there 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.760 is a loss of dopamine receptors in the brains of 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:54.000 addicts as D two receptors, So again you would see 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.200 that it takes more dopamine to get that same sort 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.600 of level in your brain of pleasure. And I think 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.879 we mentioned that more in genetics. But when you're taking 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:08.680 a substance repeatedly, of course you're going to have some 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.600 changes in your dopamine receptors. And what's interesting here too 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.680 is that it's not not just the dopamine receptors as 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.360 affected by the drug, because that's kind of an obvious, 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.840 almost a cliche that we understand with with drug addiction. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.440 Oh well, now you have to use more to try 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.120 and chase that original high, where you're having to drink 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.159 more to to to to reach the same level that 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:34.240 you're reaching previously. But it also bleeds over to other 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.400 areas of the dopamine experience into things such as love, 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.560 appreciation of food, various you know, other things in life 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:43.640 that would give you the same dopamine effect, you feel 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.920 less of it. So an addict ends up feeling their 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.800 connection to the rest of the world dampened or even deadened. Uh. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.439 And and the easiest way to feel normal again in 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.159 regards to those connections is to turn back to that 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.760 drug that's warped the dopamine cycle to begin with. Yeah, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.640 it's terrible, right, because at first you're just chasing pleasure, 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:08.280 and then that the effects of that substance have taken 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:10.680 such a toll that you're just trying to chase a 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.240 sort of equilibrium. Yeah, that's an important thing to keep 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.840 in mind. And also something that they hit on in 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.359 the presentation of the World Science Festival is that there's 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.560 it's easy to fall into this outsider mode of thinking 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:25.520 that owen attic just likes to feel good and that's 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:27.840 why they keep taking the substance in order to feel 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.920 good and to get high and to escape. Whereas to 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.399 your point, it eventually becomes not about feeling good and 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.640 about recreation, it's about treating self medicating their own illness. 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.800 Really well, anybody who has experienced the hair of the 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:45.600 dog the next day, right, you know, let people think 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:47.600