Exactly what is the chemistry behind them? Why ds your body become dependant on certain drugs, but not others.

Primarily neurotransmitter habituation.

It will differ for everyone

and genetics may partially be a contributing factor.

I don't believe their is a clear-cut answer other then it will vary from person to person.

Some are more prone and easily addicted then others.

It all deals with the mentality ... and the brain is far from understood.

.peace.

i want to understand it damnit.

Lets use opiates as an example.

When you are high on opes, you are releasing endorpins, your bodys natural pain killer. This produces euphoria.

You like euphoria, so you do it more and have trouble stopping
Thats basically psychological addiction.

Physical addiction is your body getting used to the increased amount of endorphins and adjusting accordingly. This is why tolerance goes with addiction usually. When you stop taking in a drug, your body goes "wtf" and craves that drug, because it associates it with the chemical balance set by frequent use of the drug.

That might be terribly misinformed by the way, I just came up with that off the top of my head.

Primarily neurotransmitter habituation.

^That, basically.

:(

If it feels nice,and you feel like shit, why the hell not...?
Is the mentality your brain will feed you.


If you wish to quit, you have to want to.

Cocaine gets you by flooding your reward channels. When you takes a substance that rewards you, you become operantly conditioned to take more of that substance. Read up on some skinner.

Lets use opiates as an example.

When you are high on opes, you are releasing endorpins, your bodys natural pain killer. This produces euphoria.

You like euphoria, so you do it more and have trouble stopping
Thats basically psychological addiction.

Physical addiction is your body getting used to the increased amount of endorphins and adjusting accordingly. This is why tolerance goes with addiction usually. When you stop taking in a drug, your body goes "wtf" and craves that drug, because it associates it with the chemical balance set by frequent use of the drug.


That's what I've understood from various readings too.

Opiates/oids mimic endorphins by fitting in the mu-opioid receptor so well but they only mimic. The problem is that these foreign opiate mimic endigenous endorphins so well that the brain stops making them it self because it has an easy replacement. When the subject suddenly ceases use of foreign opiates the brain lets you know you don't have anymore natural endorphins by going into a withdrawal syndrome.
Also- many drugs act on the reward system, nicotine and oiates are an example.

X drug affects X neurotransmitter levels in such a way that with regular use your body thinks it doesn't need to keep producing those neurotransmitters because it is fooled into thinking the levels are adequate. This slows the production of those neurotransmitters to a crawl, thus you have to take the drug just to regulate your neurotransmitter levels back to normal. You have to take even more to get a buzz.

Nobody really knows. Anyone who tries to explain to you "exactly" how addictions work is either making something up, leaving something out, or voicing an opinion. There is a lot of ongoing debate on the subject, and I'm sure you'll learn far more about all sides of it from google than you will from here.

They dont have to, thanks to NMDA receptor complex antagonists. :)



~Inorganic Pat on Back~

I tell you have I got "addicted" to weed and whiskey.

I met a girl, loved her, and got my heart broken. Well, Everytime I would think about her fucking orlando bloom, I would pour me a shot and light up a spliff. Well, I started thinking about her more and more, so I would drink and smoke more and more to feel happy. Pretty soon, unless I was intoxicated I would always feel depressed. Its a hard road my friend.

One thing that makes addiction much easier avoided, you must really love sobriety pretty much just as much as being high, accepting the fun times of both states of mind.

addiction works by being a stupid fuck with too much fucking money

What the fuck? "Nobody really knows"? You are clearly just talking out of your ass. scientists have a very clear idea of how neurotransmitters and addiction work, it's really not that fucking complicated. This is shit that I have learned in medical classes, psychology classes, and have heard from people who specialize in pharmacokinetics, so don't give opinions on things you know nothing about. The version I gave was obviously very simplified but nothing has been left out and it was a good summarization of the chemistry of addiction.

http://howstuffworks.com/addiction.htm (http://health.howstuffworks.com/addiction.htm)