The Role Dopamine Plays in Addiction

Hey, everybody. Today we actually begin our series of the neurobiology of addiction. And we're going to start with my favorite of all, dopamine. Now, this particular series is probably the heaviest scientific kind of material that I teach. And so for that reason, I've really tried to section it out into small, digestible chunks. So in this particular module, we're just going to take a look at the chemical dopamine. So to start with, you need to understand what it is. It's called a neurochemical, which is just fancy for brain chemical. You have lots of them. Most of them have names that are about like this long and that you could hardly even say and definitely not spell. Dopamine is a little easier to say, a little easier to spell. So we'll start with that one. It really is highly connected in addiction. And let me explain to you why. You know, I've been teaching this for a long time and used to, we would talk about it being a pleasure chemical because we know that our brain releases it in response to generally what we would consider pleasurable activities as finding food, sex, meeting a goal, getting a compliment, you know, the good stuff. And so we would talk about dopamine being released when people got drugs and alcohol. I used to would teach that it's basically almost like hot wiring a car. It's a way to. Drugs and alcohol basically give you, like a way to start the car without actually having the key. But it's a little bit more complex than that. And most of the new research talks about it being a desire chemical. The difference being when the chemical is actually released. For the longest time, we used to think that it was released in the brain when the person obtained or used those drugs or alcohol, had sex, had food. But it's actually not in the having, it's in the getting or the process. And that's why we call it a desire chemical. The way they figured that out is they actually had little mice and they were able to measure dopamine release in the brain of mice. And they did the old sort of classic experiments trying to figure out how much dopamine is released and when and all that kind of stuff by putting the mice in the box with the liver and giving them a drug like cocaine. Most of us have heard of these experiments before, but I think it's really interesting to know that when they. When they actually did this, what they found was, is not that the mouse or rat, it's kind of ugly words like to call it a mouse, actually gets the dopamine release, not when it gets the cocaine or when it's using the cocaine or digesting it, but actually at the site of the lever that is very interesting and it's very important when it comes to understanding addiction. And because basically when dopamine is released, it creates this intense drive. It's a wanted chemical, It's a have to have it desire, just need it chemical. And so we have it for important biological reasons. It's supposed to make us go after things that keep us alive and that are good for our survival. But now we have such an excess. Most of us, the cultures that we live in, have such an excess of things that are good for survival. And not only that, but. But we also have drugs and alcohol, which is sort of a cheat way to get your brain to release this chemical, this desire chemical. I am actually I'm going to pull up here my giant sticky notes. That's what I call them. I love them. They're just the coolest things ever. And I've got some brain cells drawn on here for you so you can kind of follow along with what I'm talking about. Now some of you are about to get to see my old school teaching techniques. These are brain cells and they're known as neurons. Don't get intimidated. I'm not heavy in the use of science language. And if I use something, I will try to stop and explain to you what the word means. And I'm telling you, I break this down about as simple as you can put it. If you read it in a journal or an addiction journal or you go to one of these seminars. It is so complex, your brain really just wants to charley horse. We don't need all. We just need to understand what the heck is going on in that brain. So you have about a million kajillion zillion brain cells. And even though you have so many, you would think that they're all squished up together, but they're really not. They're kind of out floating in some space or some liquid that they might call cerebral spinal fluid or brain fluid. And these are neurons. Now, I know they look like scribbles on this post it that I put up here. I like to teach people just as a way of remembering what a neuron actually looks like is I like to say it looks like your hand or the parts of a neuron you might could think of it like your hand. You've got this middle part in here. It's called a cell body. You've got these hairy little things, looks like little hairs Coming off of there, and they're called dendrites. And then you have a really long, squiggly looking one that looks like a tail, it's longer the other ones, and that's called an axon. And I just want you to have a general understanding about the way this process works in the brain. Don't get scared. Those of you that hated science class, I know you're probably having a flashback right now, but this won't be so bad, I promise. So inside of each one of these brain cells, you have a bunch of different chemicals stored up in there. They're called neurochemicals. And neuro, remember, just means brain. So that just basically means brain chemicals. Actually, they're called neurotransmitters. Like I said, we don't need all that fancy language. Now, each one of those chemicals has a slightly different makeup. And by makeup, what I really mean is chemical compound. Now, biology is hard, but chemistry is way harder than that. So we're not going into that. So for your purposes, I just want you to think of each one of those chemicals has a little bit of a different shape or molecular structure. So the way I teach it to people is to pretend like it's those little. The way this works is like those little toddler toys. Everybody's seen these before, and it's like a box or a circle or something, and it has all the little plastic shapes, and the box or the circle has all the cutouts that are cut to be just the exact size of the shapes, so that you have to put the heart and the heart and the square and the square and the star and the star. Otherwise we won't fit. So those are the shapes that we're going to use for our neurochemicals. So let's pretend. I really love dopamine. Personally love this chemical. Gets us into a lot of trouble. Gets me personally into a lot of trouble. Draw it with a star. I think I'll use blue. So right here inside of this brain cell, we're gonna draw some dopamines. Now, there's a bunch of other chemicals inside of that brain cell. But right now we're just gonna focus on dopamine. Now, when you use drugs or alcohol, it actually, like I said, it tricks your brain into releasing this desire chemical. And the mechanical process basically works like you already have it stored up in your brain cells. It then travels down this axon, or big long tail, if you want to call it. It's the tail of the nerve cell, and then it gets released and it floats out here in the space. For those of you that are a little bit nerdy about this brain science stuff, I'll tell you that that space is called a synapse. So it's easy to remember. S for space and S for synapse. Now, so let me give you an example about the way that this works. And to give you an example, I'm going to pick on myself. Okay, little self disclosure here. My personal drug of choice is. Are you guessing? Are y' all looking at me in your profiling? I know you're trying to figure it out. Alcohol, cocaine, heroin. She looks pretty messed up. It's got to be something serious. Others of you are really looking at me closely, and you have already figured out that my drug of choice is chocolate chip cookies. Now, I have no idea where in the world you are going to be when you're watching this video, but around here, I'm from South Carolina, and in most malls that I've been to in certain lots of states, there is a cookie store in the mall here. It's called the Great American Cookie Company. And inside of this cookie store or kiosk or whatever you want to call it, they have this special cookie that really only a good cookie addict could take. Because, like, if you're like a normal person, that's not a real life cookie addict, you will probably overdose, like, fall out on the floor in the mall and have to get, like, insulin, life support or something. So don't try this at home. This is Amber. I'm professional here. I know what I'm. I have a high tolerance for this. I don't do this at home, but. So here's Amber at the mall. Okay? Number one, shopping is probably my second drug of choice. And that also releases dopamine. That acquiring a good is another thing that releases dopamine, which is why shopping can be addictive. Hoarding can be addictive. So. So I'm already kind of got my dopamine all jazzed up. I'm triggered up already. Just walk into the mall and maybe have, like a bag or two in my hand. In our mall, there's actually there used to be only one cookie place, but now, because they're really good drug dealers and they know what they're doing, they have, like a kiosk on the first floor and they have one on the second floor because they're good, you have access. But any real cookie addict knows, go to the one that's in the food court, because that's where the ovens actually are. And that's where the good stuff is. So if I'm at the mall and I'm walking down the mall, right about the time in our mall, they have a store called Express. Right about the mall, right about the time you get to crossing in front of Express, you can start to smell those cookies. So you're breathing in, you're like, oh my gosh, you smell them bacon, and they smell so good. And so I'm like, oh, man, that smells good. So if you keep walking, you're gonn get right down there to the Great American Cookie Company and they have a cookie in there. This is the one. I'm telling you, don't do this if you're an amateur. This cookie is called a double doozy. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You know you're one of my people when you know what this is. This thing is crazy. It's chocolate chip cookie, like 3 inches of icing Chocolate chip cookie. Now, I'm not talking about that new modern icing, that's really just whipped cream. I'm talking about birthday cake, like Crisco with sugar icing. 3 inches in between two cookies. I know you're already thinking, oh my gosh, I might die just thinking about that. So this thing is called a double Daisy. So here's an O brand at the mall. Remember, I've already got like some dopamines floating around up here because I'm shopping and then I smell those cookies and then I get a cookie. When do you think my brain releases more dopamine? That's right. You were listening. It actually releases it when I smell the cookies. Did you know that smell is the sense most strongly associated with memory? That's because of the location in the brain, like your smell sense and your memory. They're neighbors in your brain side by side. So smell and memory are very connected together. So you smell those cookies and you're like, oh my gosh, you remember how delicious they are. Then my brain remembers at the smell, not at the having. It's the wanting, not the getting. And my brain releases more of these little dopamine molecules. And here's what my brain looks like on chocolate chip cookie. And here's what my face looks like on chocolate chip cookie. Super happy, right? What's better? Until about a minute and a half after that cookie's gone, and then I kind of feel bad and crumby and I'm like, why'd I eat that cookie? But hey, we'll talk about that in some later lessons. Let's Talk about the good part. And that's when my brain releases all this dopamine. And immediately when dopamine is released in your brain, you start. It activates your thinking brain and it activates that thinking brain to try to figure out how to get that, how to make it happen. So you will start to plan, scheme, rationalize, dig in your pocketbook and see if you've got some money. You're figuring that because when dopamine's release, it really activates that front brain to think, but not necessarily think so rationally. It's all about desire. It says go after it. Think about when you've been in love before or had a mad crush on someone. Your brain releases this dopamine. It's all you can think about. It creates this sort of obsessive craving feel. And you just want to talk to that person non stop. You're looking at your phone to see if they've texted you or Instagrammed or anything. You just want to see some sign from them and you're just hoping that they've sent some message to you. That's actually a really intense feeling that most people can connect to what that dopamine surge feels like. So Amber's brain on chocolate chip cookie. Pretty bad, right? You see where it would be a problem. Sometimes I like to joke and say, if any of you have ever seen there's an old family guy out there somewhere where Cookie Monster is actually in a bathroom stall, like free basin cookie dough or something. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's me. I know, that's crazy, huh? So if this is my brain on chocolate chip cookie, what do you think my brain might look like on cocaine or heroin or methamphetamine? Oh my gosh. Right? Let's see how many dopamines are up here. Now this is just pretend numbers. These aren't real numbers. But let's see. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 little dopamines in my brain. Chocolate chip cookie. If I get 17 for chocolate chip cookie, you better know I get a lot more than that for some of those very intense drugs. Something like cocaine is going to give you a super ton of dopamines. So here's what my brain might look like on cocaine. So sometimes when I teach this in front of a live audience, I'll say, you guys tell me when to stop drawing these dopamines. When I get like, where you think I should be to say what my brain would look like on cocaine. And I'll just be up here drawing and drawing and drawing. And the audience is going, keep going, keep going. I'm like, I'm running out of paper. And they're like, keep drawing them, keep drawing them. Because people that have experienced that before, they know, oh, yeah, there's a big difference in chocolate chip cookie dopamine and cocaine dopamine or heroin, dopamine or some of those other drugs or alcohol. So you get the point. You get a lot more of a release here. There's a lot of dopamine is being released, okay? So you can get the difference in the way our brains release dopamine related to things that are generally normal, regular survival things, and the way our brain releases dopamine when it comes to sort of tricking it with the drugs and alcohol. It's a big difference in how much dopamine is getting released. And that's really just about half the story when it comes to this whole dopamine thing and what's really going on. Now I'm going to teach the rest of the story to you in a way that's a very, very, very, very simplified version so that you can understand it. Because we're not trying to get neurology degree here. We are just trying to understand what in the heck is that person thinking? What is going on in their br. Have an addiction now for this particular neurochemical. I want you to know, if it's addictive, it's probably acting on dopamine. If it's not, it's probably not messing with dopamine. Some drugs are addictive and some basically aren't, like Lexapro, Prozac. Those are antidepressants. Not so much addictive. You never really hear anybody obsessing about or just can't wait to get a hold of their Prozac or Lexapro. I've never really heard anybody come to my office and say, oh, yeah, I went into my friend's house and I opened their medicine cabinet and they had some Prozac in there. And I took it because it just doesn't work on this chemical. But there are a lot of other things that can be addictive that do work on this chemical that aren't even related to drugs and alcohol, like food, exercise, sex, gambling, video games, shopping. All of those things actually make your brain release dopamine. Those are pretty much typical biological behaviors that are causing your brain to release dopamine. But because it's releasing this chemical, it can be addictive. So Anything I'm saying here will apply across the board to anything addictive that you can be possibly thinking of. So don't pigeonhole it. I know I used the example of cocaine, but I just threw something out there to be able to relate. But you can think of whatever addiction you want to think of. Fill in the blank. So here's what we're going to do now. I am going to magnify up pretend, magnify this dendrite over here. Remember, dendrite is one of those little hairy looking things that come off of the neuron or the nerve cell. I'm just going to sort of blow it up a little bit big so that we can actually see maybe what's inside of there. Inside of each of these dendrites, you actually have little receptor sites. Remember I said it's kind of like that toddler toy where there's the shape. In this case, the shape is the chemical shape. And then there's the hole where that shape, the star, can only fit in the star and the circle. And the circle and the heart. And the heart. You know what I'm talking about. Okay, this is where we're going to see where that chemical actually fits into. And remember, it has these little receptor sites. There's a whole bunch in here and they all have different shapes. If you can't see this, it's okay. It's just stars. So if you want to look really closely up there, you go ahead and do that. But it really is just stars that I'm drawing inside of there. So here's how it works. Remember, dopamine is released when the person wants to or experiences excitement or obsession or craving about going after that thing that they really want. It's released out here. Think about Amber's brain at the mall on Great American Cookie company. And then those neurochemicals sort of float around out here into the synapse. Remember, S for synapse, S for space. And it's a little more complicated than this, but let's just say the chemical finds their way down to the receptor sites. Remember, there are receptor sites inside of all these dendrites, but I'm just drawing them one for you here so we can see what's happening. So the star chemical comes down here and finds the star receptor site and it fits right in there and it basically absorbs all of this dopamine. And remember, this is happening in every cell in your brain. When it's happening, we're just taking a little bitty close up view here. After all those Little dopamines start to absorb into these receptor sites. It kind of sets off like a chain reaction. So then the next cell releases and the next cell and the next cell. So you have this big, massive, sort of like a domino effect. So you have this release of dopamines and then it absorbs inside of the receptor site. Remember, this is the simplified version, okay? Now this is the normal process that happens. Let's look at how that actually begin. Kind of messed up. Or how that changes in your brain when you have an addiction. When you first start using chocolate chip cookies or heroin. Hey, whichever one you prefer. Your brain will work like this. Normally, you'll have dopamine stored up inside the cell. Everyone has dopamine in there. You'll have regular receptor sites over here that absorb that dopamine and all is good. But there gets to be a problem when you have this really big release of dopamine. Then you get a really big desire or want to, to go after whatever that is that's telling your brain to release that dopamine. It just becomes an obsession. And I'm going to take a little pause here and give you a little spiel about obsession. Obsession is addiction. It doesn't really have anything to do with what the chemical is. And it might not even have anything to do with how much of that chemical you're using. The most surprising things that I teach my families and my patients would be the fact that I don't really even ask a lot about what someone's using and how much and how often I do sometimes. But mostly if I'm just trying to figure out, is this person going to go withdrawal, Are they physically safe? Do I need to do something medically here other than that? I don't ask a lot of questions about it for several reasons. One, you're probably not going to hear the truth. Two, it makes people feel really shameful and awkward. And so I might do that later on when I have a really good relationship. But not necessarily up front in the assessment unless I just have to for some particular reason. What I'm looking for is obsession. Obsession is the measure of addiction. Not what you're using, not how much you're using and not how often you're using. In fact, if you look in the DSM 4, that was the last version. Or 5, it doesn't say anything in there about how much or how often. It does have some things in there that really get to the underpinnings of obsession. And we'll talk about those DSM criteria Maybe in another lesson, but I want to see how much time and energy is this person putting into this substance? How much other things are they giving up? How much chaos is it creating in their life? Because those are measures of the obsession. And that is what addiction is. In fact, I tell people, you know what, you can be an alcoholic and only drink once a month. Can you believe that? Most people think you can't be an alcoholic unless you're drinking every single day, all day. And if you're not drinking in the morning, then you're definitely not an alcoholic. Not true, people. It's about the obsession. So we want to measure dopamine, or obsession, problem, more readily than we want to measure the particular chemical, the particular behavior, how much and how often. Because you can actually drink a lot and not be an alcoholic, but you can actually drink not nearly that much and be an alcoholic. So it's confusing, I know, but that's just my little sidebar note on obsession or thinking about it. Now, here's where the problem starts to come in. Because you get a lot of this dopamine release, you start thinking about a lot, and most of the time you start wanting it more, and you start wanting to use it or have that feeling more frequently. And so your supply up here, the first thing that happens is your supply up here can get kind of low. Because if you're drinking pretty regular or using whatever it is you're using pretty regular, then you're releasing your dopamines faster than they can recharge or boot back up in there. Think of it like your cell phone. If you're on that thing all the time, it's like you're constantly having to plug it in and charge it up, and you can't keep up with and keep it charged because you're running it out faster than you can rebuild. So that's what's going on this side of the equation. On this side of the equation, inside the dendrite, there's actually changes in the way that your brain receives the chemicals. And I'm going to give you a very simplified example of that just for understanding sake. What I like to say is because you're having this ginormous dopamine release, your brain's not really set up to, like, absorb all that dopamine. And it gets in a little bit of a distress state because it's more than it's used to. It's more than it's sort of equipped to deal with. And it will start to through a process of I'm Going to write it up here. I don't know if you'll be able to read it, but I'm going to write it. Homeostasis. Okay, now I know you're really, really, really triggered back to 9th grade science. Homeostasis just means homeo means the same and stasis means status. Think of it like that, same status. So in the human body, especially for things that are good for survival, dopamine, brain chemistry, that's one of those things good for survival needs to be regulated. That our bodies and our brains actually has this sort of self control or monitoring mechanism. And we refer to that as homeostasis. A very basic example of something that works on homeostasis would be your body temperature. Human body temperature normally stays at about 98 degrees. And you can go up a little bit and you'll be alright. And you can go down a little bit and you'll be alright. But if you go up too much, danger zone, you're not going to be alright. What happens? You can actually fry your brain. It has to be at a certain temperature or it's not good. If you go down too much, totally not good. Freeze to death. That's a no go too. Has to stay within sort of some parameters. It's not like it has to say exactly this one number doesn't exactly have to say 98. You go up a little and down a little. But it needs to stay in that zone. Think of the dopamine the same way. Dopamine really should stay sort of in the regular zone, you know, like the chocolate chip cookie zone. Should stay in that zone. That would be at the high end. But with addiction, what you're going to see happening is there's such a massive dopamine release. It creates a hyper focus on whatever the thing or behavior is that's that's related to that. And your supply starts to dwindle over here, but pretty quickly over here. When you're having these massive releases, your brain needs a way to absorb or bring that dopamine level back down into that homeostasis level. Remember that. So that interval that it needs to stay into. So one way I like to think of it is to imagine that your brain actually begins to build more receptor sites. So you actually begin to get more little holes where the dopamine can fit into that way it can be absorbed faster because you're having such big quantities being released one way. I like to think about these receptor sites and I heard this in lecture or workshop I went to one time and I loved it. I've kept it ever since. And that is to call these little receptor sites monster mouths. Let's put that up here, Monster mouths. Because as you begin to build more and more and more of those, it's like they're talking to you all day, every day. Remember, this is desired chemical. So these little monster mouths, they want to be fed. So there's a way old movie. Probably haven't even seen it, because it's pretty old. It's called Little Shop of Horrors. And it's where this guy, his name is Seymour, I think, and he has this plant and it's like a man eating plant. It's like a Venus fly trap. But this one eats like people or something. And he says, feed me, Seymour. This plant does. It's like your little receptors here, they're saying, feed me, Amber. And so in your head, that will translate into this obsession. I want you to think about that obsession and craving. Like little monster mouths that are constantly, like, working on you all the time, wanting to be fed. So all this really translates down to a pretty basic problem that can be understood like this. Your supply starts to run short. Your ability to absorb all those dopamine signs starts to ramp up. So you start to be able to absorb them quicker. Most people start to use more frequently or more often, which means they're releasing that dopamine, it's not being charged. We're developing an ability to absorb it faster. And once this thing gets into motion. Now we have what we call an addiction, a symptom called tolerance. Let's put that over here. Tolerance. So that means it takes more of a substance to get the same or the desired effect. Or that the person has to use for a longer period of time to get the same effect. So that means maybe it started and one double doozy would put you in like a sugar coma. And now you've been eating double doozies every day. And it takes you four double doozies to get that same sugar coma effect. So one's not good enough. You've got to have more than that. Now we have tolerance building. Now we got a big problem here. Because the way that this translates into your everyday regular life is this less supply. You have a better ability to absorb it. And now it's like your brain can absorb this stuff so fast because it's trying to keep you regulated in those normal limits. Because dopamine, it really does have to stay in the normal limits. There are other things other than desire that this chemical is connected to. One thing is the ability to Be steady. So most of us know with certain kinds of drugs or alcohol that you might see someone's hand shake. You see a person's hand shake if they're maybe in withdrawal from alcohol, or you might see a person's handshake. If they're high on a stimulant like an amphetamine or a methamphetamine or cocaine or something, you might see a handshake. You also see shakiness in other diseases not related to chemical substance abuse at all. Things like Parkinson's disease has to do with the ability to hold those motor movements solid, and that's dopamine being messed up. Other diseases that dopamine chemical is connected to would be things like schizophrenia. So seeing and hearing things and believing things that aren't necessarily there, that's connected to the dopamine. And all of that needs to be regulated. So our body has some pretty important processes designed to keep that in check. When you have an addiction, those processes get all out of check. Guess what, people. This is why we call this a disease. Because you've changed the brain structure. You've changed the way the brain is operated by something you've put inside of it. I know. Crazy, right? We like to think it's a choice. This is not a choice. You cannot will yourself to, like, create more receptor sites. You can't will your brain to release a lot of dopamine or a little dopamine. Some of you, when I'm telling the double doozy story, you're thinking something like, oh, man, I couldn't tolerate that. That's too rich. Whew. That'd be way too much for me. That's because you're not a cookie addict. You know how I know an alcoholic? They say things to me like, I don't really even know why someone would drink if they weren't gonna get drunk. Hmm. Regular drinker, alcoholic drinker. There's a difference in the way our brains respond to that. That's why some people become addicts and alcoholics, and some people don't. I'll tell you all about that later and some more explanation into who does and who doesn't. But for now, some people's brains do this faster. Other people's brains, not so much. The faster our brain actually adapts to this, the more addictive of a person that we are. You know, recently, I listened to a podcast. It was pretty phenomenal. And the lady was saying how addicts and alcoholics are. Actually, I'm the most fit. And by fit, I mean like survival of the fittest of all people. It means our brains adapt super fast, which is super cool in some ways and super not cool in other ways. Now, last thing I'm going to tell you is very important. Whether you're listening to this because you have a problem, or you think you might have a problem, or you're listening to this because you're family member and you're just trying to understand this. This dopamine issue is very connected to why this person begins to lose joy and excitement and interest in anything else. Basically, it happens over a course of time. As this process ramps up and a person becomes more and more and more addicted to the substance or the behavior that they're doing, their ability to experience joy from other things decreases. It gets less and less and less and less. And the reason is because the regular things can't produce the amount of dopamine that's needed to satisfy all these monster mouths. Never mind the fact that the supply is getting really low. So the person's having to do larger and larger and more crazier, intense things to get this same amount of dopamine release over a long course of time. So things like hobbies, interests, activities, those things start to dwindle down. One of the things that I look for when I'm interviewing high schoolers or college students. Remember I said I don't ask so much about how much you're using. I do a little bit, but not a lot. But I might be interested to know, do you play any sports? Are you on any teams or clubs that you're really interested in? And if I have people sitting in front of me that are just all enthralled with some things, I'm like, alright, we still have something left going on in there. And I'm excited. But oftentimes what I have is someone that's like, well, I did play baseball until last year, or I used to be on a bowling league, but I quit that five years ago. Or I used to be super into collecting, I don't know, model airplanes, whatever it was. But I really done that in a long time. That's the thing that I'm listening to and I'm trying to measure there because I know that what could be going on right there is that this person's lost the biological capacity to experience joy and desire the way they used to have it. So those hobbies and interests and activities begin to become less and less and less important. The person may still engage in them even if they're addicted, but probably only if the Substance is going to be present. So I might still really like to watch football as long as I'm drinking a ton. Or I may choose to go and watch football with my friends or at the sports bar, but only if there's going to be alcohol there. If alcohol is the drug of choice and you can substitute alcohol with whatever word that you're thinking here, but you can kind of see biologically why this person gets less and less and less interested in outside things. Now. As this progresses, this problem becomes worse and worse. The person will actually lose the ability to experience joy from really basic things. They lose the desire for really basic things like food, like sex. You want to know how addicted someone is. If you're dealing with some young college guy and they don't seem interested in girls or relationships or boys or whatever it is they used to be interested in, that's a problem. You know, something is off. These are the sort of the secret things that I'm listening for that you might not necessarily would listen for. You're just listening for how much and how often and what it is they're doing. They could be doing the same amount as everyone else in the fraternity is doing. But if these other things are happening, that's how I sort of know the difference in problem, not a problem or developing a problem or. I think we're okay for now. It's this issue with the dopamine and the desire. Most alcoholics I know only eat about once a day. The reason for that is, number one, alcohol. The food that you eat. Excuse me, the food messes with the absorption of the alcohol. You don't get the same effect, and we don't want to block that effect. So they eat less often. They probably only eat like a burger or something in the middle of the day, and that's about it. There's a lot of other reasons. I do want you to know that there are a lot of other chemicals in the brain involved in addiction. We're going to talk about those, but I have tried to break it down. This is probably the longest module because this dopamine is very central. So the other lessons that you listen to. Listen to this one first. Keep this in your brain and then layer on the top of this dopamine talk some of the other chemical processes that are going on in relation to other particular substances that are being used. This is what I would call, like, the universal chemical involved in addiction. I hope that was helpful for you. I enjoyed it. That's probably the scariest, most scientific that I'm going to get. So if you got that and you understood it, the rest of these should be a piece of cake, right? I'll see you next time.