A short YouTube talk by Amber Hollingsworth explaining how brain chemicals reinforce addictive behaviors. She emphasizes that dopamine drives wanting (not necessarily liking), which causes overvaluation of rewards and persistent chasing of initial highs. Addictive episodes also release glutamate, which strengthens memory associations (people, places, cues), helping to hardwire behaviors. The speaker lists five other brain chemicals—endogenous opioids, cannabinoids, GABA, serotonin, and oxytocin—and notes some can buffer addiction when released through healthy activities.
Questions this video answers
Endogenous opioids, cannabinoids, GABA, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Chapters
Now, in the last video, we talked about dopamine being the desire chemical.
What I'd like to point out to.
You here is to always remember that.
Dopamine is a chemical of wanting and.
Desire, not necessarily of liking. It's really kind of a trickster because.
It makes you feel like whatever the.
Thing is that you want is going to be way better than it actually is. Which is why when you've been in addiction for a while, it's like you're constantly disappointed or you're constantly chasing that first high. You've probably heard people talk about that before. It's like you just can't get back there. And the reason is is because of that dopamine dysregulation that we were talking about. Think about it like this. You know when you really, really want something, like maybe like a new pair of shoes or something, and you go and you buy them and you're so excited about them. And then after like a day or two, it's like, meh, not that great. And then you just want something else. That is dopamine at work in your brain, right? It's just.
It tricks you into thinking this is.
Going to be fantastic. It actually overvalues the reward from the thing that you're after.
Now, in addition to the dopamine release.
When you're engaging in addictive behavior, you also get a glutamate release, which is a chemical involved with memory and learning.
So not only do you have the.
I want it chemical being released, but.
You have the memory learning chemical, which makes it really cement in your brain.
Everything involved around that addictive behavior.
The people, the clothing, the music, the sights, the smells, the sounds, all of that gets cemented in and eventually begins to get hardwired into your brain. And then depending on what substance or.
Behavior that you're doing, other addictive chemicals in your brain can be released. There are actually five other chemicals involved with addiction or neurochemicals, that is. That is opioids, Your brain's natural opioids. Cannabinoids, Your brain's natural cannabinoids, gaba, which is kind of a slow you down, mellow you out kind of chemical, and serotonin and oxytocin. Now, those chemicals come from some pretty productive things. We're going to come back to those a little later in another section. Because if you engage in behaviors or things that release those chemicals, those two are actually buffers to addiction.
