I know that we get addiction (drugs, alcohol, video games etc) because our brain gives out dopamine when we participate in those behaviours an all. But, for example, I could like something (eg. painting) which would give out dopamine to my brain but still not be addicted to it. My question is then, what causes us from liking something to it turning into an addiction? Like I could like video games and still not be addicted to it. It still gives out dopamine but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be addicted to it. What are the necessary factors for turning something we like to becoming addicted to it? It is maybe, the amount of dopamine it gives, or is it how quickly we feel the dopamine?
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Think of it like people offering to give you money just to visit them. If person 1 gives you $10 per visit, then you’d probably appreciate it. If person 2 gives you $20 per visit, you’d probably appreciate it more.
Now let’s say person 1 requires you to say hello and have a conversation with them before they give you the money, while person 2 only requires you to give them a hi-five. It’s not difficult or bad to have a conversation with person 1, but it’s much easier to just give a hi-five to person 2 and be done. If you’re stressed, tired, or just in a hurry then its much easier to just give person 2 a hi-five and collect twice as much money as person 1 is offering.
In this scenario, the dollars are the dopamine and each person’s requirements are the behaviors. It’s fine to do a fun activity and receive some dopamine as a reward— that’s just naturally how our brains are wired. However, it’s much easier and often less time consuming to get an artificially high amount of dopamine via drug use. Our brains aren’t naturally wired to handle that much dopamine for so little effort. That creates unhealthy dependencies and the side effects of drugs are detrimental to your health, too.
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