How Drug Abuse Affects the Brain

For those that go down the route of becoming addicted to drugs, the abuse will bring about a ton of physical, psychological and emotional changes that will be difficult to reverse. Now, while these changes will often spread out and attack different parts of the body, the main area is most definitely the brain.

The brain should be looked at like the central hub of a mothership – it’s what controls everything you do on a daily basis. It’s an incredibly important organ which is responsible for hundreds of functions throughout the body. So, when you overload it with harmful drugs consistently, you’ll practically alter the way that it operates and prevent it from performing as it should do.

In most cases, the impact will last forever as it won’t be possible to rewire the brain back to the state it was in before. That’s why you often hear medical specialists confirm that the recovery process is life-long management and treatment, rather than a miraculous cure. But, how does drug abuse affect the brain in the first place?

Well, harmful drugs work in the same way that things like delicious foods do – they target the pleasure area of the brain, which is responsible for making you want the wonderful thing repeatedly, but drugs do it on a much more intense level. When you consume an illegal substance, it will evoke the limbic (reward) portion of the brain to release dopamine, which is what makes you feel ecstatic.

But, because drugs bombard the brain’s reward system so aggressively and so much dopamine is released, it makes the user want more, and more, and more. If the user gives in to those cravings, that’s when an addiction is formed. It’s a strange one, because drugs manipulate the reward system into thinking the action deserves a reward, when really it is extremely harmful.

Moreover, if we use the example of delicious foods again, then the reward releases a healthy dose of dopamine, which is why we’re able to experience the same feeling each and every time. However, with a drug addiction, the dopamine level often decreases gradually. That means the user needs higher amounts of the drug to experience the same sensation – you’ve probably heard of this by the term ‘tolerance’.

In a nutshell… drug abuse causes the brain’s reward system to adjust itself, which causes an addiction to that particularly substance. Then, as the user becomes tolerant the brain requires more of that substance to maintain those levels of dopamine that it is releasing. As the user consumes excessive amounts of the drug, their cognitive functions and overall health will drastically deteriorate.

Ultimately, drug abuse forces change in the way the brain operates, and the brain effectively loses a sense of control to that particular substance. If a user ever pushes through the strenuous task of becoming abstinent, then they’ll always need to manage their situation and seek ongoing support. That’s because their brain will always remember and crave those heightened levels of dopamine.