YouTube explainer by Amber Hollingsworth about whether addiction is genetic. The video argues genetics contribute partly to addiction risk (not a single "addiction gene" but many genes — speaker mentions "80 something"), frames mechanisms via a "go" (reward/dopamine) vs "stop" (frontal lobe/impulse control) brain model, links addiction mechanisms to ADHD and dopamine dysregulation, introduces Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) as a genetic/biochemical framework, and describes genetic testing options (GARS clinical test and commercial Genomind kit available by mail) as tools that may inform targeted interventions and reduce relapse risk.
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So is addiction really genetic? The answer to that is sorta kind of a little bit. Allow me to explain further. For those of you who are new here, welcome to Put the shovel down. I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and this YouTube channel is all about helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction so that you can get yourself five steps ahead of it, get back to living the life that you want to live. Now, most of us have heard the idea that addiction is genetic, and that's kind of true, right? There is a lot of research that shows that addiction tends to run in families. But just because there's a correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. Now, research class was one of my least favorite classes in graduate school, but I do remember that one part. So basically what that says is, just because two things seem to be connected, it doesn't mean one thing is causing the other thing. You see, the truth of it is there is some sort of genetic link out there for addiction. But it's not like there's this one gene that's identified. And if you have that gene, that's the addiction gene, and you have addiction, that's not really the way that it works. In fact, there's like 80 something genes known to be linked to addiction in one way or another. I want you to think about it more like. Like you either have or don't have certain genes that affect certain things that might make you slightly more prone or less prone to addiction. Now, remember, whether or not you have any of these genes or not doesn't necessarily mean that you will be addicted. It just increases or decreases the chances that you can become addicted. For example, an easy way to think about this is that we all have these two parts of our brain, and the easy way to think about it is the go part and the stop part. The go part is the more reptilian part of your brain. It's the more old part of your brain that says go. That's like the gasoline part of your brain. And then you have this stop part of your brain, which is more like the critical thinking, the frontal lobe, the newer, more advanced part of your brain that allows you to hit the brakes when you need to hit the brakes, because it allows you to think through. Think of it like that's the impulse control part of your brain. Now, in some people who are more prone to addiction, naturally they. The go part and the stop part can be altered just a little bit. Now, some of this stuff is like the exact same stuff that happens when you're talking about attention Deficit disorder, the go part and the stop part not being exactly lined up. I once heard an ADD doctor say, when you have adhd, it's like you have a Ferrari engine and Chevy brakes, which is pretty much the same thing as when you have addiction. In fact, addiction and adhd, all problems with dopamine, it's all problems with this stop and go part of your brain. It's kind of like two sides of a coin. Now, I bet you've met people before that you thought, man, they are all go. They are go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And they hardly ever stop. And I bet you've met people that seem to be more like they're all stop. Like, they're all cautious. They hardly ever take risks. They're very, very analytical. They want to really think before they make decisions. They got a little bit more stop going on in their brain. Now, as you could imagine, if your go is a lot stronger than your stop, you might be more prone to addiction. Are you following what I'm talking about here? So this is what I mean. When this whole idea of genetics, genetics determines those kinds of things, that's not the only thing that determines those kinds of things. But it's one of the things. And you might be thinking, well, people that have a lot more stop, they're less prone to addiction. Well, maybe sorta, kinda under certain circumstances. The thing of it is, is that people that have a lot more stop, they tend to feel a little bit more anxious inside and worried and life's a little bit more difficult for them. So sometimes those people choose to use substances to override the excessive stop part of their brain. It's the way that they're turning the volume down on the stop part, right? Because it's constantly bothering them or they think too much or something like that. So some people choose to turn the brakes down because too much thinking is uncomfortable. Now, there's this whole group of researchers out there that look at something called Reward Deficiency Syndrome, rds. In fact, a lot of people really want to stop calling addiction addiction. They want to call it Reward Deficiency syndrome. You see, there are many things that could genetically predispose someone towards addiction, not just the whole stop and go thing. For example, there are certain chemicals that are like precursors for dopamine. If you don't have a sufficient amount of dopamine precursor, it's going to affect your body's dopamine systems. Now, the cool thing about the reward deficiency syndrome research is because we know which chemicals tend to impact the reward system in the brain. If you can look at the genetics of it and figure out maybe where someone might be naturally deficient or not have enough of a certain chemical or have too much of a chemical, sometimes it's as easy as finding the right kinds of supplements to help the brain produce or slow down production of the chemicals that may be making them more prone to addiction. In fact, the current RDS research is showing that when you specifically find out genetically what's going on with that person and target it, the rates of relapse change. Pretty dramatic. Now, you might be wondering, how in the world do you find out what your genetic predisposition is or isn't towards addiction? And hey, even other mental health stuff. Yeah, you can actually get tested for this stuff. Now, the main test that is used for this is called the Gars G A R s And you have to go to a doctor, get this test. It's pretty easy though, right? They just take some saliva, they test your DNA and it comes back and it gives you these results. But you know what? Another really interesting thing I found out recently is that on Amazon, you can actually order your own testing kit. I know you get anything on Amazon, right? It's the coolest thing ever, right? So there's a kit out there called Genomind, which looks at your genetics, your chemistry and all that kind of stuff for not just addiction, but mental health issues in general. They send you the kit, tell you how to collect the sample, you mail it in, they test it, and they send you those results in a way that's understandable. And not only that, you get like a 30 minute consultation with one of their experts in case you have questions or concerns or you need some help interpreting the data. Pretty cool, right? Now it's official. You can officially get anything on Amazon. I'll make sure to put the link to that in the description below. Now, even though genetics is definitely a piece of this whole addiction puzzle, it's not the whole puzzle. There are many things that contribute to whether or not someone develops an addiction. Which is why I want you to watch this video next because it's another really important piece to that puzzle.
