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The Science
Why Talk Chemistry?
Our society still treats chemical dependency as a moral or character problem rather than a bio-behavioral disease affecting the physiology of the brain and the brain chemistry. For years the treatment community has been using the disease concept as a simile, "t is like a disease." "You have to treat it like a disease." We NOW have scientific evidence to prove that it is, in fact, a disease, a disease we call:
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Chemical Brain Syndrome
We have scientific evidence about how the chemistry of the brain changes when mind-changing chemicals are introduced to the body. We also have scientific evidence as to what happens to the chemistry of the brain immediately after the usage stops, and over time. We have data showing the damage to the brain's neurons caused by certain drugs, and the extreme to which the neurons are damaged permanently.
The disease of chemical dependence is resistant , "cunning, baffling and powerful" in treatment terms. The brain does not want to be cured, the brain wants more of the "high" that the drugs provide and will lie to itself to get it.
Vital to treatment is this new knowledge because chemical dependence is a progressive illness that worsens over time both during periods of using and sobriety. It is a chronic ailment, once you have the disease, you have it for the rest of your life. The prognosis of the disease, if left untreated, is fatal. The good news, it is a disease that can be treated.
Here and NOW
This malady of a generation is here and now. The infectivity of this virus has spread its way into a massive portion of our population and culture, afflicting our young people and the adults that raise them. It is important that we talk chemistry about this disease so that parents and individuals make the decision to seek help immediately before the succession of use to abuse and dependency worsens, before more damage to the brain, body and life quality develops. Get help NOW is our guidance for a disease that is here and NOW.
"Drug addiction is a brain disease that can be treated."
MRI photographs of a healthy brain compared to a chemically broken brain.
Photograph and findings reproduced with NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) permissions
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Brain Chemistry Basics |
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This brain is an organ of the body, considered a part of the nervous system and weighs about 3 pounds. Our brains are responsible for the multitude of functions that sustain our lives. Some of those functions relate to movement, the senses, thought, perception, language, reasoning and behavior.
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 Two basic cell formations of the brain are related to the brain and its functions, neurons and glial cells. Neurons are nerve cells and are responsible for the massive electrical and chemical messages that are transferred from neuron to neuron or to another type of cell. |
| Electrical signals inside of the neuron generate chemical changes when stimulated and neurotransmitters are released. There are over 100 different types of neurotransmitters, the chemical language of the brain. The neurotransmitters, serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are produced deep in the brain. Serotonin is related to body temperature as well as sleep, mood, aggression, and pain; Norepinephrine controls fight or flight response and our response mechanisms; Dopamine is the "feel good" chemical found in the limbic system, the one most talked about in relation to drug abuse. |
 A neurotransmitter is a molecule that is released from a neuron to relay information to another cell. Neurotransmitters live in vesicle sacs in what is called the axon terminal and contains thousands of molecules of a neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitter molecules are then released into the synaptic space and then bind to a receptor onto the receiving neuron. |
 Like a key in a lock, a neurotransmitter connects only to a certain receptor. A dopamine neurotransmitter only works with a dopamine receptor. The communication process continues and the information is released. The released neurotransmitter is either destroyed or is returned to be repackaged into new vesicles for future release. |
 Drug use disrupts the transfer of information from one neuron to another in three basic ways; by increasing the amount of neurotransmitter release (alcohol, nicotine, heroin); by activating (morphine and marijuana or blocking the receptors (caffeine); by altering the neurotransmitter transmission (cocaine and amphetamines) causing a rapid rise in dopamine. |
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Chemical Brain Syndrome
Brain Chemistry Basics was meant to give you a very brief overview of the human's most intrinsic architecture, a chemical design for sustaining life contained in an organ of the body called the brain. When we seek to usurp its natural process with chemicals in order to alter the way we feel or to get "high", the results are what we call, Chemical Brain Syndrome, a very real "breaking" of the brain's operations.
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Treatment
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Recovery |
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With soonest intervention, there is hope also in the ability of the brain to repair itself. This takes time and needs to be supported by a recovery program that can help an individual and a family sort through the issues, confront motives and justifications and acquire new knowledge and skills. Living a life free from self-destructive addictions is more than a chemistry lesson, it is also understanding who we are and the respect we choose to have for our bodies. It is about healthy choices, choices that not only affect our own lives but also the lives of others, especially the lives of our families.
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