Addiction: A Disease Affecting Behaviour and Brain - Essay Sample

Introduction

Addiction refers to a disease that influences an individuals’ behaviour and brain. When people are addicted to the smoking of nicotine, they cannot be of any resistance against the urge of using it, regardless of the evident degree of harm that the substance may create or cause to them (DiClemente, 2018). The addiction to nicotine may thus be referred to as the disorder of substance use, as it is a disease that renders an individual’s behaviour and a brain affected (Everitt & Robbins, 2016). It results in a person’s inability to regulate its consumption. Addiction to drugs like cigarettes may begin with just experimental consumption of the drug substances recreationally in social scenarios (Palmer & McGeary, 2016). For some groups of individuals, the act becomes more repetitive and frequent. On some occasions, nicotine addiction starts through the exposure of a person to the environments where people smoke. The frequency of its use determines the degree of nicotine addiction and how accelerated a person becomes addicted to it. Smoking of cigarettes poses a speedy habit to it and health risks to some users than others, as is evident in the victims of lung cancer (Hogarth, 2018). Their overtime consumption may trigger an individual’s urge to obtain a large number of rolls to be satisfied. Later, the individual may require cigarettes just to have a good feeling. The continued smoking of nicotine by the individual increases, eventually they find it difficult to live without it. Consequently, the attempts to quit from consuming and depending on nicotine may trigger harmful cravings, therefore making them acquire a physical illness. The paper, therefore, discusses Nav’s smoking behaviour based on theories of addiction, as well as seeking of support, free will and voluntary interventions as the most appropriate and effective interventions to remedy it.

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Nav’s Addictive Behaviour Based on the Relevant Addiction Theories and Research

Nav has been a cigarette addict for 20 years. In his early years, he smoked a range of 10 and 15 cigarette rolls daily. However, the number of rolls he smoked rose to a range of 20 and 40 cigarettes every day, and was influenced by the freedom he had daily. His smoking frequency elevated since his father’s demise. He struggled with issues of depression and anxiety. Nav had been on medication of antidepressants for a while. His family made several attempts to make him quit smoking but in vain. He willingly quit it a month ago, but later felt miserable for gaining a lot of weight, and claimed that he weighed more because he stopped smoking. He later embarked on the decision to smoke again to evade being in a low mood. His decision was also precipitated by his smoking friends, as he had to smoke while in their company. Nav later showed signs of quitting from smoking yet another time, as he realised that it is the same reason that contributed to his father’s early demise. The latter also propelled by the fact that he was dating someone who did not smoke. The nature of Nav’s smoking addiction behaviour can, therefore, be explained and put into a clear understanding through the following theories of drug addiction that are relevant to his case:

Negative Reinforcement Theory of Drug Addiction

The Negative Reinforcement Theory of drug addiction is also referred to as the Theory of Pain Avoidance or abbreviated as the NR Theory. Negative reinforcement means the cessation or removal of negative behaviors of feelings in an occurrence of a situation or an activity (Stewart, 2019). The theory states that an individual justifiably abuses drug substances to evade a persistent pain, trouble, as well as bad experience or feeling (George & Koob, 2017). Individuals thus get addicted to the substance as they cannot manage the pain soberly without it. The theory of Negative Reinforcement is, therefore, relevant in explaining Nav’s smoking addiction behaviour. He is addicted to cigarettes as he depends on it daily to evade awful feelings like being in a low mood and gaining a lot of body weight.

Positive Reinforcement Theory of Drug Addiction

The Positive Reinforcement Theory of drug addiction is also known as the Theory of Pleasure Seeking or abbreviated as the PR Theory. As per its name, the theory states that an individual abuses drug often and repeatedly to generate personal pleasure (Mathew et al., 2017). Positive reinforcement refers to a scenario where a situation or activity possess beneficial results like reward or pleasure (Acuff et al., 2019). The individual, therefore, gets used and addicted to the substance as he or she cannot generate pleasure or happiness soberly without depending on the substance. As is in the addiction case of Nav, he depends on smoking to be happy and of good mood. Nav has depended on smoking of cigarettes for twenty years to be in a good mood and evade depression. He entirely depends on smoking to get pleasure, especially when he is in the company of his smoking friends, thus his addiction.

Incentive Salience Theory of Drug Addiction

The Incentive Salience Theory of drug addiction is also referred to as the Theory of Craving or abbreviated as the IS Theory (Berridge & Robinson, 2016). The theory has a posit that drug addiction majorly initiates into being by the drug-induced sensitization. It occurs in the mesocorticolimbic brain systems that lead to the attribution of craving to the reward-related stimuli (Jones & Neria, 2019). As in the Nav’s smoking addiction case, his continued increase of craving for more rolls has necessitated the increase in the number of cigarette rolls that he has been smoking overtime for the last 20 years since he began smoking. No wonder he began smoking with about a range of 10 to 15 roles a day, but later advanced to the range of 20 to 40 rolls of cigarettes every day.

Stimulus-Response Learning Theory of Drug Addiction

The Stimulus-Response Learning Theory of drug addiction is also called the Theory of Habits or abbreviates as SRL Theory. Regarding the theory, the incentive salience attributes to the drug-associated stimuli are boosted through exposure to the drug substances abused (Goldfarb et al., 2017). Thus, consequently, the Stimulus-Response Learning Theory outlines the learning of habit as the capital understanding regarding addiction to drugs (Islam et al., 2018). The Theory of Habit is, therefore, relevant to Nav’s smoking addiction case. It is evident as it seems like Nav learned and adopted the habit and culture of smoking from his late father, who died because of cigarette addiction. The same habit influence also intensifies by his company of friends who are also smokers; he, therefore, gets addicted the same way his late father was, as well as his friends.

Inhibitory Control Dysfunction Theory of Drug Addiction

The Inhibitory Control Dysfunction Theory also refers to the Theory of Impulsivity. In a broader definition, impulsivity is the fashion or manner of occurrence of behavior that is under-controlled (Brennan & Baskin-Sommers, 2018). Here, a person cannot slow down gratification and embarks into actions without considering or fore-thinking about the potential repercussions of the decision (Zilverstand et al., 2018). Impulsivity, therefore, propels an individual’s degree of drug addiction as it appears to be playing an etiological function towards it. As in the case of Nav, the Theory of Impulsivity is of high relevance to his smoking addiction story. Nav began to smoke and has been doing it for the past twenty years, regardless of knowing its associated health risks. He has been ignoring the health and psychological consequences related to the smoking of cigarettes even though he knows that his father died because of it. He instead progressively increased the number of cigarette rolls that he has been taking overtime since he began smoking. In the Incentive Salience model, the connection between motivation and particular sensitization of the brain systems posits, a fact that elaborates in the perspective of craving for drugs. In theory, the incentive salience model to drug-oriented stimuli attributes elevates through abused drug exposure. Therefore, following the Theory of Incentive Salience, the usage of drugs can be attributed to craving.

Treatment Interventions to Nav’s Smoking BehaviourThe Free Will and Voluntary Quitting Intervention

The appropriate remedy to Nav’s smoking addiction behaviour can be initiated by his own free will to quit voluntarily. However, there is contentiousness regarding the issues of cigarette smoking, free will, and addiction. It brings the controversies of whether an individual’s addiction to the smoking of cigarettes eradicates or lowers their free will, instead of maintaining it (Baumeister, 2017). According to some theories, free will is a behaviour created by immaterial souls (Racine et al., 2017). It can also refer to the exemption from problems. The theory of free will encompasses some primary aspects like autonomy. The element is evident in the perception that the elements within a person create behaviour, to the extent that the individual makes ultimate choices regarding their behaviour (Vonasch et al., 2017). As for a person’s external elements, there is a notable significant influence. However, free will refers to autonomy in the perception of personal government. Therefore the individual has the option of making the ultimate decision as unity in a manner that is independent of the factors of the environment that are external (Racine et al., 2017). The responsibility here is that the person has the acknowledgment concerning the contingencies and implications, thus embarks on various decisions with an admission of the expected outcomes and consequences (Baumeister, 2017). Thus, free will incorporates the fact that an individual recognizes the many options and has the liberty to decide on choice consciously regarding which outcome of realizing. The notion that nicotine addicts generally overpowers on how to dictate and regulate their addictive behaviour is quite unbearable to uphold in the presence of a lot of evidence that many other smoking addicts quit. Millions of addicted smokers have managed to quit the habit voluntarily out of their free will. Evidently, before the 1960s, many male Americans were addicted to smoking nicotine, according to the 1988 report of Surgeon General (Fragale et al., 2017). The number of male cigarette addicts had already dropped significantly below 23% during the writing and compliment of the report (Keramati et al., 2017). Though, a portion of the change was as a result of the deaths of many cigarette addicts, as well as the birth of a fresh generation of people, most of whom had never used nicotine. It also portrays the reflection regarding the significant population of Americans that quit.

Seeking Support on the Addiction Behaviour

Nav’s nicotine addiction behaviour can stop upon his decision to seek support on the issue. His physical and emotional dependence on smoking proved to be challenging for him to refrain from using nicotine just after he had quit. He therefore needs to tackle his dependence on cigarettes by trying self-help materials, support and counseling services to aid him into getting through the problem permanently. His emotional symptoms of addiction will improve overtime, and so will his physical ones. The intervention ranges from drafted information and pieces of advice, to personal counseling or group therapy, via online means or through the use of phones (Vonasch et al., 2017). Materials about self-help boosts the rates of quitting rather than absence of any kind of support, however, the most fruitful support concerning nicotine addiction is individual counseling.

Conclusion

Generally, addictio...