Have you ever felt your mood lift after vigorous exercise? Felt comforted by eating a favorite food? Worked hard to meet a deadline and then felt exhausted for weeks afterwards, unable to be productive? Become alert after drinking coffee and then experienced a crash when the caffeine wore off? Had a sudden crying spell of intense emotions after participating in a highly emotionally charged event, such as a wedding or graduation?
Well, then you know something about how the brain’s biochemicals function and and how they impact your emotional mood and physical sense of well-being. Illicit drugs and the high they provide take advantage of the brain’s natural neurochemical reward system, which is used in everyday functioning.
This article explains how drugs work by taking advantage of the brain’s neurochemical reward system. It refutes the myth that drugs have magical powers to make people feel good. This article also provides an overview and introduction of neurochemicals in the brain, helping readers to understand the concepts of tolerance and upward/downward regulation.
Neurochemicals. Neurochemicals, also known as neurotransmitters, enable the brain’s nerve cells to communicate with one another through electrical chemical relays. Scientists have identified more than 60 different neurochemicals, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and endorphins. Neurochemicals are critical for healthy brain functioning, and healthy brain functioning is critical for a person to function normally. Therefore, impacts on the levels of neurochemicals in the brain greatly affect a person’s overall sense of well-being.
Neurochemicals are produced by the brain’s nerve cells. People use neurochemicals in everyday activities, such as feeling happy or being alert. Just as a person tires and needs to rest, the brain also needs time to replenish neurochemical levels. Neurochemicals are part of the brain’s natural reward system. When people laugh, eat something delicious, have sex, do something productive, or exercise, their brains release the appropriate neurochemicals to make them feel good. This same reward system is activated when someone uses drugs.
Depletion. When people work too hard, undergo stress, or experience intense emotions or drama, their brains can run low or become depleted of neurochemicals, causing them to feel TERRIBLE. They feel tired, irritated, sluggish, and generally low until their brains and bodies are able to rest and replenish their store of neurochemicals. If the stressors or high drama continues for a long period of time, their brains will not be able to replenish the needed neurochemicals. Individuals with depleted neurochemicals are susceptible to a host of psychological issues, ranging from physical somatic symptoms to depression, anxiety, or other psychological disorders.
How drugs work. Although psychoactive drugs are known as giving users their “high,” or pleasurable sensation, it would be more precise to say that psychoactive drugs use the brain’s natural chemical reward system. The reinforcing properties of addictive drugs, such as ethanol (alcohol), cocaine, amphetamine, opioids, and nicotine, are associated with their ability to increase levels of neurotransmitters in critical brain areas (O’Brien, 2001, p. 622). In fact, all classes of abused drugs reliably increase the extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens areas in the brain and facilitate intracranial electrical self-stimulation, making it easier for the rewarding effect to occur (Hull, 2002). This observation reinforces a prevalent drug dependence theory that addictive drugs stimulate dopamine neurons in the brain’s mesolimbic system (Ray & Ksir, 2004).
No free lunch. Using drugs is analogous to using a credit card. When a person uses drugs, the drugs force the brain to expend more neurochemicals than normal during a certain period of time, just as credit cards provide advanced access to funds that must be repaid in the future. So a person using drugs feels good temporarily because the drug is forcing the brain to dump neurochemicals. Eventually, however, when the high wears off, the person will need to “pay themselves back” in the form of a resting period where the person experiences a neurochemically depleted state. This neurochemical depleted state usually entails low mood, low energy, low productivity, and all-around generalized “crummy-ness.”
Tolerance. Homeostasis refers to a healthy level of functioning for the human body, (e.g., body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure). When homeostasis is disturbed under stressful conditions, a person’s biological systems will make adjustments to return to homeostasis. This tendency to try to return to homeostasis is similar at the neurochemical level in the brain. If a drug’s effects cause too many neurotransmitter molecules to be available, a decrease in receptor sites can be observed. Known as “downward regulation,” this adjustment contributes to developing tolerance towards that drug because it takes more and more of a drug to achieve the same effects. Conversely, when a drug’s effects cause too few neurotransmitter molecules to be available, “upward regulation” occurs; that is, the receptor sites gain heightened sensitivity to that type of neurotransmitter because of previous deprivation.
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Rebound effect. Because of upward and downward regulation, over time, a person’s brain tries to dampen and counter the effects of regular long-term use of a psychoactive drug. This mechanism can be observed in the development of drug tolerance, as well as drug withdrawal. If the drug’s primary action is depressive (e.g., alcohol), the body bounces back during withdrawal with an elevated mood. Conversely, if the drug’s primary action is excitatory (e.g., methamphetamine), the body tends to bounce back during withdrawal with a depressed mood.
The survival brain. The cerebral cortex, the top and sides of the upper part of the brain, is responsible for higher mental processes, such as reasoning and language, and is less active when a person is asleep or under sedating drugs. The “survival” or lower brain (the structures of the limbic system or “emotional brain,” hypothalamus, midbrain, pons, medulla, and lower brain stem) is active at all times and is responsible for behavioral control mechanisms that are important for survival (e.g., emotions, feeding, drinking, temperature regulation, sexual behavior, reflexes, breathing) (Ksir & Oakley, 2004; Preston, O’Neal & Talaga, 2005).
Imprinting is the brain’s learning process where neurons that “fire together, wire together” to form enduring pathways in the brain (Schwartz & Begley, 2002). This process can be likened to how traveling over the same dirt road leaves ruts, making it easier to stay on track during subsequent trips. For example, learning to tie one’s shoes or ride a bike uses this same process. When certain actions are continually repeated, the series of behaviors or thoughts can become automatic. Experiences associated with fear, stress, or emotions — such as traumas and addictions — are typically imprinted in the survival brain.
Although the upper brain’s logic and reasoning can override the survival brain, the survival brain often emerges victorious. The imprints in the survival brain may be awakened at a vulnerable moment and may overwhelm a person’s rational decision-making process. When dealing with addicts, compulsive behaviors, or a fear-based response, individuals need to understand the power of the survival brain to resist logic and reasoning.
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