WEBVTT - The Science of Addiction 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot com. Hey, welcome the Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.560 My name is Robert Lamb. And hey, it's summer. People 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.319 are on break. Uh, So we thought we'd rerun a 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.680 couple of episodes that we're really proud of that I 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.200 think has a lot of really insightful information about addiction. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:31.160 So without further ado, let's dive into the science of addiction. 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.800 Julie has returned to us from New York City once more. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.000 It's true, you have returned from Laryngitisville. Yes, yes, for 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.080 the most part. Yeah, yeah, you're there. Um. Yes. When 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.519 I was in New York, I attended the World Science Festival, 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.400 which if you guys have never heard about it, you 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.920 should immediately well after this episode check it out because 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.320 they have some online offerings that are wonderful. Like when 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.000 I was there, I checked out this panel on something 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.480 called the craving brain. And that's what we're going to 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.360 talk about today, this idea of what addiction is and 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.640 what it is not. So it's it's about the craving brain, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.080 not craving brains. Not that. Yeah. No zombie content, as 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.119 far as I know, is going to tumble forth from 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.679 our lips today because it's my understanding, if you showed 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.559 up for this, uh, this talk expecting a light hireded 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.280 discussion about zombies, you would have been pretty disappointed. And 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.640 so that's what we're discussing in this episode. Addiction, the 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.360 science of addiction and uh and it's it's really fascinating 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.479 this topic because for me, I had not really looked 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.399 into it. Before I had, I wouldn't say this just 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.279 a surface level understanding of addiction, Like I was pretty 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.760 to some of the science and some of the the 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.240 levels of deeper understanding involved in addiction research. But but 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:55.160 still it's so misunderstood at large in our culture even today. Yeah, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.120 and I feel like we are only now getting a 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.400 baseline understanding of it. And a lot of that has 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.120 to do with the in itself. We talked about this 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.440 all the time, like we still don't know exactly how 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:05.880 the brain works, and we have more of a clue 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:07.560 now than we did a hundred years ago or even 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.040 twenty years ago. Um, But the fact of the matter 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.639 that addiction at large is still going to be something 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.960 that we can't fully cover in depth, and in fact, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:18.360 for us to do that, we would just have to 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.600 become the addiction podcast, so we could really um give 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.400 it its due day to talk about every single aspect. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.760 But what we want to talk about today is just 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.120 sort of like this, this idea of addiction in the 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.720 past and the present and what are some of the 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:40.600 driving conditions. So this idea of addictive substances, Um, you 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.160 go back far enough in history and you get into it. 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.520 I mean, you don't have to go far back in 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.000 history at all, where our culture is full of simplistic 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.200 examples of what's going on, simplistic explanations for what's going on. 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.880 You know, you can say, oh, well, that person is addicted. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.959 Clearly there's a flaw on their character, or that person 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.640 is addicted, there's a there you know, they're completely controlled 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.600 by this demonic substance. Or you can throw it to 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:06.880 environment and say, well, they're just not in a good 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.160 environment to uh you know, and that is what's making 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.200 them weak to this substance. And that's the thing too. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.240 It's often seen, even even among people who have a 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.720 better understanding it of it, it's seen as some sort 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.360 of of of a weakness of character, even though there 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.839 that we have so much science to to argue differently. Yeah, 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.400 there's this real need to blame someone or something when 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.919 it comes to addiction. And so you had mentioned the substance, right, Oh, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.760 it's the substance that is the problem that has deminutic, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.080 demonic possession of the person. Well, if that were the case, 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.440 then everybody who ever put a bottle of whiskey to 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.120 their lips would be addicted to whiskey. Right, So we 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.640 just know that that logic is faulty, and um, yes, 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.760 it's also looked at as a shortcoming in a person's 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.840 moral compass, you know, a lack of willpower. But finally 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.000 we are beginning to understand addiction in terms of a disease, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.960 with genetics and environment really playing into how the human 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.760 brain can change a person's behavior. Indeed, it's that disease 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.080 model of addiction that has really taken hold and become 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.720 our major means of understanding exactly what's going on, even 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.720 even though again that still hasn't quite seeped into every 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.080 uh you know, level of our culture in terms of 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.080 viewing addiction in those round us. Yeah, but I do 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.159 think that the more and more information that is um 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.240 that's really given to the disease brain part, the more 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.720 we can understand it as a disease like diabetes or 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.800 anything else that's sort of chronic. Um. But let's talk 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.080 really about what an addiction is, because when I think 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.239 about it, I think about this irresistible urge to consume 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.640 a substance or engage in a behavior over and over again, 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:44.919 even though I know it's going to cause me some 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.960 sort of problem later on. And it turns out there 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.640 are three dimensions to addiction. Craving kind of binging to 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.000 just in toxic intoxicating yourself, and three the withdrawal or 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.719 the negative effect. So you have to think about addiction 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.080 in that way. It's not just I really like uh 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.960 cremblay and so I eat that ten times a year. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.440 It's that you can't stop eating kremblay even though you 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.880 keep throwing it up. Yeah. Yeah, there's some people, may 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.120 you know, jokingly say oh I'm addicted to this, that 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.640 or the other. But unless it's unless're actually throwing up 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.360 that crember lay again, you're you're you're probably not hitting 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.240 all the other points in the addiction. So some of 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.720 the basics here that you you just alluded to. Um, 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.600 we've discussed many times just in terms of what it 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.159 is to be human. And that's that's one of the 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.320 interesting things about addiction is that is really tied in 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.719 with the human experience. Um. Because you mentioned the short 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.680 term goal versus short term vision versus long term problems. 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.880 You know that that that constant and ability in humans 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.960 to really decide on the on the long term benefit 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.839 over the short come benefit benefit. And then the other 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.760 thing is that this is of course all um tied 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.240 in to the pleasure centers of of the in the 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.560 reward circuit about you know, in which we have neurotransmitters 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.760 of dopamine, and it's tied into the basic genetic mission 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:12.040 of the human creature. Right. Uh, we're getting getting this pleasure, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.080 and the pleasure is a reward for things like eating, drinking, mating, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.720 the very basic things that we have to check check 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.719 off the list in terms to meet that genetic mission. 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.000 But when you layer up on you know, all the 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.920 complexity of cognitive evolution human culture, it gets more complicated. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.359 So suddenly have all these other different activities that can 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.560 end up releasing dopamine. I mean everything from eating and 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.960 drinking and mating to going shopping. Studies of showing you 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.840 get that release sometimes even when you're you're you know, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.599 donating to charity, uh, but also when you're engaging in 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.400 something like illicit drug use, or even even quote unquote 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.000 non illicit drug use, legal drug use, or or even 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:52.880 just a you know, a cup of coffee in the morning. Yeah. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.480 I mean to put it really simply, pleasure is tied 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.919 into our survival. It's the way that our our bodies, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.800 in our minds are wired. And so when you think 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.960 about these different things that we become addicted to, you 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.120 can kind of think about them in terms of supernormal stimuli. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.120 And we talked about this how that has such a 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.720 pull on us, because that's that thing just kind of 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.560 like with lights blinking around it, saying, hey, this is awesome. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.760 You should try me. If you get pleasure from me, 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.760 you should do it again. And in this way, you 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.840 could think of a drug as being a sort of 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.840 like heroine, being super normal stimuli, that sense of contentment 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.480 and pleasure that you would get. Um, your body doesn't 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.280 know whether or not that's a good thing or a 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.640 bad thing. It just knows the feeling. So most drugs 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.320 activate this pleasure circuitry. This uh, this dopamine circuitry that 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:47.000 we're talking about here. So we're talking alcohol, we're talking nicotine, heroin, cocaine, 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.400 uh amphetamines, cannabis. The only things that really don't make 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.240 this list are halluciniens, LSD and mescaline. And as a 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.720 side note, food can be an addiction to. But well, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.040 we can talk about that pretty like any human behavior. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.760 So let's say that you have, you know, a glass 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.680 of wine. There's that reward that occurs in the brain. 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.400 You get a flood of dopamine or I shouldn't say 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.480 a flood because it's not an actual flood, but you 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.320 get a significant amount or increase in the brain that 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.640 feels like a flood, and that strengthens the neural pathways 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.920 the memory of the behavior, making it far easier to 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.679 recall the pleasure and then engage in that behavior again 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.960 and again. Yeah, this is interesting. One of the presenters 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.559 at the World Science Festival mentioned nine eleven. The whole idea, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.600 you know, everyone knows or thinks thinks that thinks they 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.439 know exactly what they were doing when nine eleven occurred, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.360 like that strong memory, that that sort of pillar standing 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.040 up standing out from the landscape of our existing memories. 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.400 And drug memories are like that, nor a de alcohol. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.680 What's the presenter by the way. Um, But on one hand, 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.520 this this this sounds completely obvious, right, because when when 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.280 one is engaging in some some kind of drug, be 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.320 it a cup of coffee, a cigarette, wine, heroine, etcetera, 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.800 we're dealing with a heightened level level of pleasure and therefore, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.440 conceivably that is a more memorable moment. Right. You're feeling 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.160 really good at that moment, and therefore your brain is 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.000 encoding that memory and all the very stimuli around it. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.920 So it's not just I had a cigarette and a 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.120 cigarette was uh enjoyable and was pleasurable. But I had 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.000 a cigarette at a bar. I had a cigarette among 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.719 this group of people, this song was playing. All this 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.320 stuff sort of gets encoded into the memory. Yeah, And 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.079 that's the thing that makes us really complicated in the 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.680 sense because it's very hard to chease out the behavior 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.040 from the genetics, from the memory, from the environment. It's 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.480 almost like all of these have a bit of play 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.120 into addiction. And according to the National Institute of Health, 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.839 you can see that with brain imaging technology that addiction 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:57.240 is disrupting specific brain circuits affected by addiction. And they 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.959 say that this these changes go beyond the brain's rewards 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.439 stem to include regions involved in memory learning, impulse control, 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.160 and we'll talk more about that later. Stress reactivity and 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:13.080 repeated drugg exposure resets these circuits toward compulsive behavior, so 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.400 that a person's control over the desire to seek and 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:20.520 use drugs is compromised, despite whatever consequences arise. So I 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.680 thought that was interesting. Again, it's not just the behavior, 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.360 it's that it's creating these kind of neural pathways, these 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.800 sort of ghosts in the machine of your brain. So 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.360 even if you abstain from from drugs or that thing, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.319 you may still have triggers that would activate those pathways. 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.240 All right, we're back. We're discussing addiction, the science of addiction. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.800 We've just finished talking about addiction. UM, what it is, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.480 how it works, What are some of the basics, uh 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.200 in terms of our understanding of of of addiction from 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.080 a disease model standpoint. And UH, this leads to the 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:10.120 inevitable question who becomes addicted? Because we we've seen this, 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:11.760 We see this all the time in the world around this. 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.480 It's not an equal playing field. Addiction is not an 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:20.880 equally equal opportunity offender. Uh, some people have more of 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.520 a problem with it than others. And how do we 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.240 figure that out? Like what's going on there? We can't 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.520 just say it's you know, God shooting lightning bolts of 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.840 addiction down at people and making uh, you know, packets 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:32.560 of drugs land in front of some and not others. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.040 I mean they're uh, just as addiction itself is a 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.280 is more complex than that. Uh, who becomes an addict 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.839 is also a fairly complex situation. Yeah, And of course 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.280 the older model would be, oh, it's the person who 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.040 has no will power, It's the person who just doesn't 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.240 have any integrity. And we know this is not true. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.480 We know that addiction is not any one sort of 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.480 magic bullet um that arrives in a person's chest. You 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.480 could have a genetic disposition which would cause you to 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.160 have a blunted reaction to dopamine, and that would require 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.360 more and more of the substance to produce the same 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.160 sense of pleasure in someone else. So in other words, 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:13.040 for me, um, I genetically have stuff um that has 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.200 to do with addiction in my family. So it maybe 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.640 maybe that I need uh six beers to your two 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:23.160 beers to have that same level of dopamine activity in 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.920 the brain in that sense of pleasure. So that's one 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.920 way that that a person might be become addicted because 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.640 they have circumstances in place. And then of course we 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:38.800 have um, you know the environment, um, how much stress 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.200 is in that environment, and we also have the way 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.080 that the brain develops. So genetics, let's talk about this 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.400 real quick. Studies of identical twins indicate that as much 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:52.040 as half of an individual's risk of becoming addicted to nicotine, alcohol, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.000 or other drugs depends on his or her genes and 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.760 twin studies on addiction don't reveal the full reaction range 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.959 of genotype, right, but they do indicate that under a 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:07.000 particular and really relevant societal scenarios, genetype plays a substantial 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:11.840 role in your vulnerability. Is pretty impressive because that is 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.920 that is higher than some cancers in terms of how 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.960 much genetics is playing a role. Now, it's also not 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.040 as simple as saying, oh, well, here's the gene for addiction, 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.920 can we zapp that. No, it's it's more complicated than that. 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.080 We are we're not at the point yet where we 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.000 can just say we can look at somebody and do 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.240 some sort of funny little scan or blood test and say, oh, well, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.440 this person is prone to addiction, although one day we 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.720 may be able to but of course that it's just 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.080 it's a hard thing to answer right now because UM, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:41.600 you know, if you if you were to scan a 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.920 child and say you would appear that you may become 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.040 addicted to something or you may have addictive behavior, part 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.880 of that environment is going to factor into that. UM. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.880 So again it's just not that UM, you know, cut 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.520 and dried. So David Lyndon the neuroscience, as an author 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.959 of the Compass of Pleasure UM, has some really good 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.360 information outfare about variants and genes that turned down the 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.040 function of dopamine signaling in the brain. If anybody wants 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.360 to read more about that. UM, but we should probably 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:16.640 talk about environment and its stressors triggering self medicating behavior 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.240 because David Lyndon says that stress hormones are secreted by 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.880 your adrenal glands and that sits on top of your kidneys, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.880 and they pass into your brain and they bind stress 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.560 hormone receptors on neurons in your pleasure circuit, and they 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.520 set in motion a series of biochemical steps that end 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.600 with you, say, having a bowl of ice cream or 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.680 smoking a cigarette, essentially anything that's pleasurable to try to 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.800 negate the stress chemical reaction happening in your body. Right, 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.240 and then we eventually end up encoding the habit right 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.800 where we associate feeling stressful with the release of having 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.280 that cigarette, that ice cream more of course, been in 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.920 Jerry's cigarette ice cream. Yeah, and we can. We'll talk 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.200 a little bit more about habits later on. But then 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.600 you also have other conditions like you might have PTSD, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.080 you might have depression or a d h D, and 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.360 those underlying factors could certainly ramp up this feeling of stress, 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:15.520 anxiety or depression. Um add to this, you have teenagers 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.840 who are beginning to take on some of these substances, 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.720 and their brains are pretty malleable. We know this. We 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.280 know that the preventable cortex, for instance, the seat of judgment, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.560 doesn't even really complete itself until the age of in 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:36.160 some cases much older. So we know already that teenagers 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.000 are at risk in the sense that they don't have 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.160 the sort of executive functions that might stop them from 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:47.560 engaging in risky, risky behavior. But moreover, there's some evidence that, say, 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:53.200 dabbling with nicotine with cigarettes could actually prepare their brains 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.520 to become more receptive to other substances. Yeah, this is 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.720 really interesting research because it deals impart with that idea 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.080 of of something as a gateway substance, as a gateway drug, 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.840 which is a term that has really lost a lot 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.200 of value, I feel, thanks to its overuse in drug 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.840 war campaigning, because because you know, we we all heard 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.960 this growing up. You know, this substance, this experience is 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.240 a gateway to other experiences. It's like you know, stepping 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.440 your your foot into the water and then that undertow 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.920 is gonna grab you and just drag you down through 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.600 worse and or drug experiences into some sort of ultimate doom. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.560 And of course people's realities tend to be uh you know, 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.520 they say, oh, well, you know, don't smoke cigarettes. It's 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.400 a it's a it's a gateway drug. And then what 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.160 when one eventually tries a cigarette and they realize, hey, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.280 my life didn't just end. You know, I don't feel 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.920 the world collapsing around me. I don't feel that undertow 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.320 dragging me down. Therefore this can't be that bad, and 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:54.400 those they must have been just completely full of it 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.840 and trying to scare me with scare tactics into not 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.560 trying these things. So it's you know, reasons like that 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.400 that you end up throwing the idea of a gateway 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.639 drug out out the window. But the science behind this, 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.800 UH really argues in the favor of of cigarettes, particularly 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.520 serving as I almost don't want to stay gateway drive 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.480 because again that the term is so uh so bad. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.280 But but but what is occurring here is that the 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.840 nicotine is essentially opening up the pathways, loosening the pathway 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:30.400 for addictive behavior with other substances. Yeah, according to UH 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.959 neurobiologists a Mere Levine, and he was on the panel 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.080 of cocaine users smoked first in their teenage years, which 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.199 is astounding. So he thought, well, is this is just 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.160 you know, cause correlation here is there's something actually to this, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.399 And so he and his colleagues began to look to 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.280 see if there are any long lasting changes in nicotine 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.879 use um in the formative years in the teenage years, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.560 so whether they do. They applied mice with nicotine, followed 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.160 seven days later by cook cane and compared with mace 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.960 on cocaine who had not previously received nicotine, the animals 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.439 were percent more active and seventy eight percent more likely 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:15.800 to return to areas previously associated with the cocaine. Yeah, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.800 and the reverse did not hold true, that cocaine had 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.640 no effect on nicotine induced behavior in the mice stepped 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.760 in the study. Right. So, um, this all has to 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.560 do with something called the fosph B gene, which is 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.439 related to addiction. And what we see is sort of 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.400 a this is sort of Layman's terms. Are I'm gonna 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.480 get too deep into it. Um, Probably the best way 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.040 to say this is that there's a sort of a 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.439 greater expression of that gene, of that fosp by gene. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.399 If as you say that, the pathways have been loosened 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.159 by nicotine. So when cocaine comes along, Hey, look at this, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.160 we we sort of know the drill. Here's what we're 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.800 talking about. Yeah. Yeah, it loosens up the DNA packaging system. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.840 That's that's involved here, and it's in it and it 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.199 allows greater express action of that fospe gene. Now, the 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.040 added problem here is um, as we've talked about before, 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:10.679 the amygdala in teenagers has a heightened sense of fear 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.440 and a heightened sense of stress when you're a teenager. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:16.560 And the magdala is so interesting to me because it 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.280 processes both physical pain and emotional pain. So if you're 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.880 a teenager and you're brooding, you really may feel like 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.440 life is terrible, life is ending, you're being hurt. Yeah, 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.639 we did that whole episode on the what I was 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:32.960 a teenage teenager? I think, yeah, I was a teenage teenager, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.200 and so it was I think we had mentioned then, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.560 So as an adult, do you hear a teenager talking 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.000 about this and you feel like they're just being histrionic 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.440 when in fact they are actually feeling that level of 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.360 pain and discomfort. Yeah, and there I think we discussed 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:49.960 in that that episode. And one of the things about 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.000 the teenager's brain is that from a you know, an 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.960 evolutionary standpoint, the teenager is primed to leave his or 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.800 her community and find a new community in which to thrive, 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.800 which means that there's an increased dependence on social pressures, 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.480 on fitting in with a social group, because that, in 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.440 an evolutionary sense, means survival and you know, to add 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.040 more fuel to the fire if you happen to be 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.760 that person who's whose genes dictate an amygdala in the 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.919 first place, that's more reactive to stress. Then you are 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.640 going to feel things a little bit stronger than your 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.400 average bear, both as a teenager, teenager and an adult. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:30.000 So that makes dealing with environmental factors UH emotions a 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.520 lot harder. And you can see how people begin to 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.359 turn to things to comfort themselves, right, whether it be 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.440 food or smoking, or drugs or some other leave sex addiction, UM, 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.400 there are so many different ways to to actually try 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.879 to stoke those UM. I guess you can call them 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.520 members of pleasure and content. Now, an important thing to 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.840 keep in mind about about addiction is that it actually 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:58.080 changes the brain UH in many ways, physically changes the 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.439 brain of the addict UH and uh and and so 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.440 we're gonna run through some of the changes that are 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.800 happening here. Yeah, we mentioned that there is a loss 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:12.760 of dopamine receptors in the brains of addicts as D 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.439 two receptors, So again you would see that it takes 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.199 more dopamine to get that same sort of level in 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.840 your brain of pleasure. And we I think we mentioned 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.399 that more in genetics. But when you're taking a substance 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.879 UM repeatedly, of course you're going to have some changes 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.480 in your dopamine receptors. And what's interesting here too, is 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.920 that it's not not just the dopamine receptors as affected 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.840 by the drug, because that's kind of an obvious, almost 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.920 a cliche that we understand with with drug addiction. Oh well, 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:46.639 now you have to use more to try and chase 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.520 that original high, or you're having to drink more to 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.080 to to to to reach the same level that you're 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:56.440 reaching previously. But it also bleeds over to other areas 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.120 of the dopamine experience, and two things such as love 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.280 I appreciate and a food various you know, and other 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.200 other things in life that would give you the same 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:06.919 dopamine effect, you feel less of it. So an addict 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.720 ends up feeling their connection to the rest of the 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.879 world dampened or even deadened. Uh and UH. And the 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.040 easiest way to feel normal again in regards to those 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:19.760 connections is to turn back to that drug that's warped 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.080 the dopamine uh cycle to begin with. Yeah, it's terrible, 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.679