People turn to drugs and whatever else will give them the dopamine rush, either as a misguided way of connecting or to deaden the pain of being disconnected. But cravings, though reflected in physiology, are rooted in loss and live in thoughts and in the stories we tell ourselves. Wash. Your cover story went a long way toward helping the public understand that addiction is a disease. We in the addiction field have known there is a definite physical component. However, addiction is more complex and cannot be fully understood by just looking at brain chemistry.
Addiction has physical, psychological, social-familial and spiritual aspects.
To treat addiction adequately, one must address all of them. Calif. As a recovering shoplifter, I know the payoff was not just the high but also the immediate gratification. Shoplifting was a way for me to express my anger, to reward myself when life seemingly didn't, and to fill emptiness, and it was a way of giving myself the illusion of control. There's more to addiction than meets the neuron. Although this is what everyone loves to hear, the fundamental problem of getting addicted will not go away.