Abstract
Addiction alters the levels of all happy brain hormones. My hypothesis is that addictive stimuli cause high amplitude changes in happy brain hormones with initially very high levels followed by very low levels (rebound effect). On the other hand, non-addictive stimuli such as creative work, moderate physical activity, healthy diet, healthy relationships and socialization, cause moderate amplitude changes in happy brain hormones with stable levels of dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin without rebound effect. Therefore, all of these non-addictive stimuli might be very helpful in the treatment of addiction.
Highlights
Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences
Tolerance develops, what means that an individual, who is suffering from addiction disorder, needs to increase the dose of addictive stimulus and shorten the intervals between two consummations of addictive stimulus
Addiction causes short-term increase in happy brain hormones, especially dopamine, with the development of tolerance, what means that the dose of the addiction has to be increased and the intervals between consuming the addiction have to be shorter
Summary
Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences. Addiction is a disorder of the brains reward system which arises through transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms and develops over time from chronically high levels of exposure to an addictive stimulus (food, cocaine, sexual activity, gambling...). Like eating, as well as recreational drug use cause a release of dopamine, and are associated with the reinforcing nature of these stimuli [10].
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