Tobacco and nicotine, alcohol, drugs (illegal and prescriptions), coffee and other caffeinated beverages, gambling, the internet and social media, sex, food, video games, work, and shopping are all common addictions seen within the United States today. What is it about these things that make people keep coming back for more, even if continued use or engagement could lead to death? While some of these highly addictive substances share some commonalities, others couldn’t be any more different from one another except that they find themselves on this list of common/highly addictive substances. That’s because it is not about what the addictive substance is made of; instead, three tenets need to be considered when discussing addiction and a person’s susceptibility to becoming ensnared in this vicious cycle.
The first tenet that can be explored contains numerous categories that can each play a role in determining the likelihood of a person’s susceptibility to addiction. This tenet is the person’s environmental factors, especially during their years of development, and includes concepts like family dynamics, social stressors, and cultural norms. Factors within the family dynamics category focus on the different aspects of a person’s home life. They can include things such as the socioeconomic status of the family, dysfunctional familial relationships, and early exposure to potentially addictive substances. Additionally, the social stressors category contains factors revolving around a person’s interactions with others during their formative years of development. It consists of concepts like peer pressure to engage with addictive substances and media representation of the addictive substances. Finally, the cultural norms category focuses on the ideals, views, and practices within the person’s culture when they are growing up and can include changes in societal norms present throughout the person’s developing years as well as the common religious beliefs and practices that might be present and the various views that can be obtained regarding certain addictive substances and their potential uses.
The second tenet to be considered is a person’s genetic predisposition to addictive tendencies. As our understanding of addiction has grown over the years, it has become more evident that there is a genetic component that can be impactful in a person’s susceptibility to becoming addicted to a substance and/or increasing the likelihood of displaying addictive tendencies. Within the last few years, scientists have been able to identify at least 19 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with general addiction risk, which could be passed down through DNA. These 19 SNPs have been linked explicitly with areas of the genome known to control the regulation of dopamine signaling within a person’s brain. They can have a dramatic impact on the way a person perceives a substance and the associations of that substance with their experience(s).
The third and final tenet to be discussed is the brain’s rewards system, which is responsible for taking the factors from the other tenets into consideration as this system is responsible for regulating the release of specific hormones, such as dopamine, that help to determine whether an experience is pleasurable or unpleasurable. When determining what experiences are considered pleasurable or unpleasurable, the brain’s reward system will utilize neural pathways created during previous experiences within a person’s life and draw connections to this current experience. As a person’s brain’s rewards system associates specific experiences as pleasurable, the release of dopamine will become more strongly desired and associated with the specific current experience and/or substance. As this process continues, the brain feels a stronger desire and/or need for the release of dopamine. It will begin to cause desires and compulsions for the person to engage in specific experiences and/or with specific substances.
Just as our understanding of addiction has grown, further research into the components of addiction, as well as the factors that can impact a person’s susceptibility to addiction, are necessary to gain a better understanding and potential methods to address these concerns proactively and reduce the impact addiction can have.
