Hillsborough Community College Psychology Discussion

I am currently in a situation and unable to sit and focus on writing these replies. They are due in a few hours and i would appreciate anyone who could help me turn them in on time!!

The initial post prompt:

“Addiction” The neurological basis for addiction is detailed in your textbook. Addiction, or “Use Disorders” as they are referred to in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM 5), have destroyed lives, families, and communities. The American Medical Association has defined addiction as a chronic, relapsing, brain disease.

• Explain why addiction is considered a “brain disease”.
• Addiction literally changes the brain. Dopamine, is the primary neurotransmitter involved in addictions. What is the role of dopamine in rewards? What happens to the dopamine levels of an individual who is diagnosed with an addiction and is now attempting to get sober? How does this affect their hopes for sobriety?
• Now, based on your research and reading of addiction and the brain, do you think it is a good idea to treat addictions with medication? Why? Why not?

My initial post:

Addiction is a chronic disorder in which is characterized as a compulsive drug seeking, that is continued although the person is aware of the harmful consequences in personal life and long lasting chemical changes within the brain. I believe every one has suffered from addiction at some time in their life weather it was chronic with drugs or alcohol or a toxic relationship or simple even caffeine. Addiction is considered a brain disease due to the neurology of the brain and not the consequences of behavioral problems and poor choices.

When a person becomes addicted, the chemical make up of the brain changes. The biggest chemical change that is responsible for most consequences is dopamine. The brain responds by producing less dopamine or eliminating dopamine receptors. Dopamine is the brain’s reward system that allows you to feel pleasure, motivation or satisfaction. Addiction also alters your impulse control and judgements which is located in the frontal cortex. This affects what you believe is right or wrong.

Now, because addicts have lost dopamine receptors, when an addict is attempting to get sober your brains chemical make up cannot recognize dopamine. This leads to feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Now addicts feel as if they could never feel anything again and can easily return back to their addiction that does.

I believe that it is a good idea to treat addiction with medication because they are FDA approved and clinically proven to help prevent overdoses and symptoms in which leads to increasing odds of long term recovery. Addiction causes unbearable withdraws that causes addicts to return to their addiction. During this withdraw, the tolerance of their addicting has declined. By returning to their addiction, overdose is very common. By medically treating addiction, it reduces the affects of withdraw and overdose.

Two students that i need to make a 300 word response to each

Michael Russ In Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism, like other addictions are identified as a malady that affects the spirit, the physical health, and the mind (2014). In the reference to the mind, it does not stop at the concept of the emotional state, but also demonstrates the physical state of those entrenched in substance use disorders. The concept of spiritual malady demonstrates more the psychological aspect, as well as the religiosity of the individual. In the neurological aspect, the initial misuse of substances creates a euphoric high by triggering an enlarged dopamine response. In addition to the biosocial indicators, the neurological circuitry of an addict is interrupted (Volkow & Boyle, 2018). The circuitry interruptions are not limited to executive control and emotional balance, but to the reward and motivational interceptors, as well (Volkow & Boyle, 2018). Reward is not the sole cause of substance use disorders, but rather the introduction (Garrett & Hough, 2022). In the early stages of addiction, the euphoric high obtained is the reward center driving use, but as dependence on the foreign substance grows, the euphoria dwindles, due to the restructuring of the brain’s neuroplasticity (Garrett & Hough, 2022). The alteration of dopamine response and the reward alter to the extent that increasing levels of the foreign substance are needed to provide the same or similar reward response. The use of agonist and antagonist treatments, like Suboxone, Methadone, or Antabuse, have the potential of creating differing responses. Antabuse, an antagonist used to treat dependence on alcohol, can create volatile effects if alcohol is consumed, up to and including sudden cardiac arrest. Medicines like, Suboxone and Methadone control addiction, with prevalence often focused on opioids, serve as an agonist to replace the substance. Predominance often creates a reliance on an alternative substance to control addiction. Detoxifying an individual from a substance with an agonist often limits some withdrawal symptoms, but it does not begin to alter the plasticity of the neurotransmitters in the brain. Alternative substance reliance creates a pseudo-sobriety, that can often taper into relapse. In the addict, substances like Naloxone are used to interrupt or terminate the potential euphoric high, that is sought, by averting morbidity from overdose (Garrett & Hough, 2022). Where these substances serve a purpose, a life reliant on the agonist is simply replacing one addiction with another. Sobriety implicates a life free from reliance on substances, but there are altered mental, emotional, and neurological effects, which may remain present. Scar tissue may become prevalent in quadrants of the brain, due to the deposits from the foreign chemical, as well as the prolonged restructuring of the neurotransmitters within the brain’s circuitry. There are increased health risks with addiction that could be isolated to a urological condition all the way to increased risks of cardiovascular diseases or HIV. Personally, I disagree with the use of medications to alter to a preferred addiction, but the prevalence of long-term health impacts, increasing potential of death from overdose, and risks that may be imposed on others does not outweigh the benefits that some find in the use of agonists and antagonists. The final belief is that deep and effective spiritual and emotional change can lead to long term sobriety, but medications alone are a short-term solution between relapses, so the internal controversy is placed in judging the effectiveness of a person’s sobriety. The beatitudes of the 12-step programs create the environment of love and tolerance being a principal guide, which fills voids for many seeking long-term sobriety (Wilson, 2014).