A short YouTube talk by Gary Brecka explaining that dopamine deficiency drives dopamine-seeking behaviors and underlies addiction. Brecka argues that genetic or biological deficits in dopamine make addiction persistent and liable to shift between substances and behaviors (drug → alcohol → work, etc.).
What happens if you have a dopamine deficiency? You begin to engage in dopamine seeking behavior. We had a saying in the mortality space. If I actually saw this gene mutation, and I saw that you were in drug and alcohol treatment center, if I knew that you were unaware of that genetic mutation, I would give you, in our model, a zero chance of conquering that addiction. In fact, if you know anything about addiction, you've ever been an addict, or you've ever known a true addict, you know that addiction has a tendency to shift. It. It never really goes away. Drug addicts become alcoholics, alcoholics become workaholics, workaholics become work alcoholics. So this dopamine deficiency, which drives us to engage in dopamine seeking behavior, is what drives addiction. We used to say that the absence of dopamine is the presence of addiction.
