Can You Get Over an Addiction?
Channel: BioBalance Healthcast
Date: 2016-09-01

Based on an article “Can You Get Over Addiction?” by Mia Szalavitz the author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction

I have thought for decades that the patients who have become addicted to a particular substance is based on a genetic and developmentally programmed brain environment that is lacking in a certain vital neurotransmitter.  

They crave some drug or substance to make them “whole” again.  For instance, people with ADHD and OCD tend to become “addicted” to marijuana….. not heroin or speed. Marijuana provides the neurotransmitter norepinephrine which is  is lacking in people with ADHD.  Schizophrenics tend to choose drugs that suppress dopamine (which they have too much of) 

Addiction may often be an attempt at self -regulation through self medication.  It could be legal or illegal based on what society thinks is OK to crave or seek these substances.  Remember addiction is a medical issue not a legal one.