Page 8 - Summa Health Vitality Fall 2018
P. 8
Addiction isn’t a purely psychological condition.
Addiction is a disease.
Addiction is a neurological disease that affects two areas of
the brain: the frontal cortex and the unconscious midbrain.
Frontal Cortex
Where you think and make choices.
• Personality • Ethics and morals
• Values • Willpower
In the past: We believed that addictive drugs worked
in the frontal cortex because we thought addiction
was a behavioral disorder.
Midbrain or “Survival Brain”
Functions as the survival processing station.
• Primitive part of brain
• Primary role is to keep you alive NO
• Doesn’t weigh consequences CONTROL
• You have no control over it
Now: Brain scans show that addictive drugs activate the midbrain,
tricking it into believing that it needs a high in order to survive.
Primal mid-brain will make you do The drug of choice
whatever it takes to get that high. doesn’t matter.
Manipulate Lie to your Steal Alcohol Heroin Marijuana Cocaine
money
your doctors family
To get help for yourself or a loved one with addiction, call the Summa Health Behavioral
8 Vitality Magazine I Fall 2018 I Issue 3
