Addiction to 1 is not a normal physiological disease. In modern society, people are usually addicted to some things, such as smoking, drinking and gambling, playing computer games and shopping. What is addiction? In fact, addiction can be divided into two types, one is caused by the intake of certain chemical substances, such as smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse and dependence on stimulants; The other is getting used to sex addiction, such as gambling, playing computer games and shopping. As for the addiction caused by the intake of certain chemicals, the medical community generally believes that they are a physiological disease, not due to moral decay. However, it has been found that although smoking and drinking have many similar characteristics to other diseases, for example, there are some symptoms and a predictable evolution process, which often leads to physical decline or even death. But in addition to these, smoking and drinking have characteristics that other diseases do not have, because smoking and drinking are basically voluntary, although people know its harm. From this point of view, smoking and drinking is not a general physiological disease. It is based on this understanding that the treatment of smoking and alcoholism is mainly carried out by compulsory means, sometimes adding some vitamins, or joining some alcoholics organizations such as Alcoholism Support Society. 1935 was established in the United States, and millions of members have successfully given up drinking. However, it turns out that the effects of these treatments are not particularly ideal. People who have been treated are easy to relapse, and so are drug addicts. "Disappointingly, if you look at people's treatment of various addictions 10 years ago, you will find that in the past 10 years, human beings have not made much progress," said Dr. Martin paulus, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Diego. "In contrast, human beings have made great progress in the treatment of cancer in these 65,438+00 years." Addiction stems from the excitement of the brain. However, all this is beginning to change. Thanks to advanced technology and equipment, researchers have made great progress in understanding addiction, mainly because humans are now able to scan brain activity. After scanning the brain through electronic technology, researchers will find out what will happen to various parts of the brain after a person is addicted, and what parts are problematic. Not only that, researchers can also know the extent to which addiction affects the brain. The current research is mainly based on the addiction caused by the intake of chemical substances. Through this understanding, researchers can develop new drugs, and addicts will have a certain effect on resisting the temptation of addiction after taking these drugs. Joseph Frasella, director of the clinical neuroscience department of the National Institute of Substance Abuse, said: "Simply put, addiction is actually that you have to constantly engage in behaviors that may have negative results, even though you know that doing so is harmful to yourself." Taking alcoholics as an example, the researchers scanned the brains of addicts before and after drinking, and found that the nerve cells in the brain that control emotions will be more concentrated, which means that this addictive behavior will bring pleasure and stimulate the nerve cells in the brain that control human emotions. At the same time, it turns out that not everyone will become an alcoholic. The reason for this is that there is also an analytical nerve concentration area in the human brain, which belongs to the rational area and will resist the area of controlling pleasure when making decisions. Addiction also comes from human instinct. In addition, since the civilization era with written records, human beings have used some drugs and are used to experiencing things that can make them feel happy. From the perspective of human evolution, addiction actually absorbs a function that human beings have had since ancient times. This role is that human beings will pay special attention to things that are particularly related to them. For example, people will pay special attention to things that pose a threat to themselves, which makes human beings instinctively stay away from threats. Meanwhile, people will pay special attention to food and sex. This is the result of human evolution, and it is also one of the reasons why human beings can overcome difficulties and survive in ancient times. The activity pattern of addiction in the brain just "kidnapped" this function of human beings, making the brain instinctively pay full attention to these things that can bring pleasure to itself. Dr. Nora Volcker of the National Institute of Substance Abuse said, "Many people are born addicted, but in fact everyone will be addicted, as long as the temptation is big enough, because it involves the basic functions of the human brain." This principle also applies to the addiction of non-chemical substances, from gambling, shopping to sexual behavior, which can bring pleasure to people. They may be just a habit at first, but they are likely to develop into addiction. Treatment of addiction can be based on the above understanding of addiction, and researchers can start from two aspects when helping addicts quit addiction, just like stopping a high-speed Mercedes-Benz car. On the one hand, they can pay, that is, drain the gasoline, on the other hand, they can step on the brakes. For withdrawal, the radical way is to suppress the nerve cells in the brain that control emotions through drugs. If drugs can inhibit these nerve cells, smoking or drinking will no longer bring pleasure, which will naturally help withdrawal. Last year, Pfizer developed a drug named Warren Nicklin, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Drug Administration for smoking cessation treatment. Valennik acts on protein, the "nicotinic acetylcholine receptor" in the brain, reducing the pleasure that nicotine brings to the brain and reducing people's smoking addiction. Recently, researchers have also found that this drug is effective in reducing alcohol dependence. The researchers first trained mice to be addicted to alcohol, and then gave these "alcohol mice" Warren Nicklin. The results showed that after taking this smoking cessation drug, even after long-term exposure to alcohol, the behavior of mice to find their own wine to drink was greatly reduced, and even if they found wine to drink, the amount of drinking was significantly reduced. Researchers believe that Warren Nicklin has greatly relieved the symptoms of alcohol dependence in mice. In addition, the researchers also found that the alcohol consumption of rats who took Warren Nicklin for a long time did not rebound after stopping taking it. Obviously, Valenick can treat addiction by inhibiting nerve cells that can bring excitement to the brain. The way to step on the brakes is to suppress the pleasure impulse by strengthening the rational area in the brain. This method is similar to the traditional treatment, that is, after the brain is destroyed by addiction, it is recovered by compulsory withdrawal, and the effect is obviously not as good as the former one. Medication is still risky. However, although the eradication of addiction is thorough, it is not a complete solution. Because different areas of the brain have different functions, but there is no strict distinction, the brain is actually a very complex and interrelated system, and the suppression of one part of the brain is likely to destroy the functions of other parts. There have been cases in which some smokers have damaged a part of their brains after a stroke, and then these patients have no desire for nicotine. Therefore, from the point of view of treating addiction, this kind of stroke can be said to completely overcome addiction, but because this part of the brain shoulders very important kinetic energy at the same time, such as judging danger and controlling other emotions, it also damages this part of the brain while quitting smoking. Although this is only the result of a stroke, if medication is the same result, it is obviously not worth the loss. In any case, addiction is a disease, and it should be recognized that drug treatment can change the pathology of this disease. However, it should also be noted that because the brain function is quite complex, there may be some unexpected side effects by inhibiting the function of a certain part to achieve the therapeutic effect.