Movie Review : Basketball Diaries

Addiction is a chronic brain disease that often results in some sort of relapse. Addiction is characterized by inability to control drug use which results in problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships. This disease causes compulsive behaviors such as the need to use drugs despite the many harmful consequences that affect the addicted individual and those around him or her. Although for most people, the initial decision to use drugs is a one time lapse in judgement, the brain is easily affected by these drugs if the person decides to use these drugs multiple times. The changes that occur to the brain over time will cause the addicted person’s ability to resist the intense impulses of drugs to be altered causing the addict to often give into the temptation of these drugs. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death. Drug addiction is an issue that many people deal with whether they are the addict or the addict is their loved one; but with a good source of support anyone can over come the challenges and consequences of addiction.

Besides the obvious appeal of the "high" or elation, which occurs subsequent to drug administration, a greater influence leading to an increased dosage and necessitated use, would seem the acquisition of tolerance. There are three subtypes, pharmacokinetic/dispositional tolerance, pharmacodynamic tolerance, and behavioral tolerance which all prove relevant in the drugs of abuse, with the exception of the stimulants (cocaine, methylphenidate, etc). Pharmacokinetic tolerance refers to the changes in substance distribution due to the bodies metabolism of the drug, while pharmacodynamic tolerance addresses the adaptive changes which have taken place within the system thereby reducing the efficacy of the drug. The final, behavioral tolerance, seems perhaps at once the most confusing and most compelling. Behavioral tolerance has to do with the learned tolerance in relation to a specific situation and it's environmental cues by which the body adapts and prepares itself thus minimizing the drugs effect ( 6). Thus the physiological dependence, or the need to administer the drug in order to maintain even a state of normalcy, is a direct result of these developed tolerances. It is the re-setting of the bodies homeostatic mechanisms in order to adapt for the effect of

According to Drugabuse.gov, Drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. Addiction is viewed as brain disease due to the changes that are going on in the brain due to the usage of the drugs, so it alters the structure and how it regularly functions. However, after reading Maia Szalavitz book, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary new way of understanding addiction (2016)”, she has a unique view of what brain addiction is and her experience with addiction. In her novel, she views addiction as a learning disorder, like in her case it started early on in her as a child learning to be addicted to other things that develop habits of pleasure, reaction that makes up their addiction. Her memoir is her personal experience with addiction with using reputable journals and study to convey her point on what her rollercoaster with addictions has been starting early on in early childhood.

Addicts use drugs to overcome their feelings. If an addict is feeling sad, happy, or angry, they use. This leads to their addictions. After a while, the addict can’t hold a steady job,

As results of scientific research, we know that addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior. A disease is an interruption, cessation, or disorder of a body system, or organ structure, or function; according to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. (Sheff ,2013) cites, the disease od addiction has an etiologic agent, identified by a group of signs and symptoms or consistent anatomic alterations. There are significant changes in the brain. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) states that addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristics biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathology pursuing reward and /or relief by substance use and other behaviors. (Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment of behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships and dysfunctional emotional responses. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse, and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death. (ASAM Adopted as Policy, February

Basic neurobiological research has improved our understanding of the biological and genetic causes of addiction. These findings have helped establish addiction as a biological brain disease that is chronic and relapsing in nature (Leshner, 1997). As the central nervous system is considered to be the communication pathway to the entire body with the brain being its control mechanism. The brain processes sensory information from throughout the body, guides muscle movement and locomotion, regulates a multitude of bodily functions, forms thoughts and feelings, modulates perception and moods, and essentially controls all behavior (Leshner, 1997). The body and brain then become defendant on this stimuli, as the body and brain adjust to the rewards of receiving this type of sensation. This is where the substance abuse and addiction problems

The brain disease concept from this documentary series restricts our understanding of complex behaviors such as drug addiction or alcohol use as a large population of society wonders why these people don 't simply stop the negative behaviors that they are engaging in. This disease perspective sends a message to the public that an addict 's condition is amenable to a medical cure and that the language used is more to describe conditions such as schizophrenia and other such afflictions that have not been brought on by the sufferer themselves and that cannot modifiable by the person 's desire to do better. From the brain disease perspective; addiction is something beyond these people 's control and is in part contributed by genetic dispositions and a chemical imbalance in the brain among other things, and not something based on an individual 's choice and behaviors leading to heavy drug use. The studies from the video, as well as other sources, typically cite the brain as the organ in which addiction is said to reside yet this is not perfectly clear and has not been thoroughly scientifically explored. Images of the brain are shown in the videos, one of a normal healthy person and one of a person who has an addiction. While this is true to an extent,

The video, “The Truth of Addiction – Side Effects of Alcohol Review” by Healthy2Fitness describes a personal experience with substance addiction and recovery, as well as the physiological processes that take place when addiction occurs (2013). The speaker begins by stating that as a child, he did not know that people did drugs or how drugs were taken (Healthy2Fitness 2013). Instead, he felt that parents and teachers warned him about drugs because they were paranoid. At the age of 15, he began chewing tobacco, drinking alcohol, and using recreational drugs (Healthy2Fitness 2013). This lead to a series of consequences and despite those, the speaker continued to abuse substances until realizing that in order to control his addiction,

Drugs may be able to affect the brain by causing changes in the cellular structure of neurons in the brain such that the brain becomes essentially “wired” for addiction, but neuroplasticity is evident in much more than this. Neuroplasticity is at work in the human brain across the lifetime of an individual while the way they interact with their environment becomes a determinate in the relatively unique changes with unique combinations in the development of their particular brain structure (Karatoreos, 2013). Certainly this can set up a biological predisposition for addiction where adding the substance means full blown, active and progressive addiction, but that is, by no means, something “carved in stone.” Experience, knowledge, and interaction outside that of contributors to addiction can affect this same underlying process and change the neuropathology that was once addiction manifest in the brain (Karatoreos,

Scientists and physicians say that addiction is a complex, but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior. The use of

In today's society, addiction is not viewed as brain disease. Many believe the act of taking illicit drugs or indulging in addictive behaviors, such as gambling, is a voluntary act. However, studies of the past few decades support the idea of addiction as brain disease. Unfortunately, this concept is still questioned because the behaviors of addiction have not yet been fully linked to neurobiology.

While the choice to use alcohol and drugs is initially voluntary, alcohol and/or drug addiction arises because the normal functioning of the brain is impaired so that alcoholism and drug addiction become a “chronic relapsing disease of the brain” (National Institute of Drug Abuse, Drugs, Brains and Behavior. The Science of Addiction. 2014, 5). Drugs impact the pathways of the brain by flooding the circuit with dopamine, which disturbs and distorts normal communication between the brain’s neurons. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain which regulates movement, emotion, motivation and feelings of pleasure. Over stimulating the system with drugs produces euphoric effects which strongly reinforce the behavior of drug use teaching the user to repeat drug use. Continuing alcohol and drug use despite the adverse consequences of such use results in abusers experiencing some or all of the following symptoms: mental stress, impulsive behavior, anger, disorganized thinking, poor coping skills, inadequate decision making and inflexible cognitive response patterns.

The film relates to Chapter 7 and a NPR article talked about in class. The title of Chapter 7 is “Addiction and Drug Abuse.” The chapter talks about many different addictions that people can be affected by, but the main addiction that is talked about is drug addiction. Much like the film, the chapter talks about how prescription drugs play a big role into getting hooked to more dangerous drugs. The chapter also talks about the ways that one can treat these addictions, much like the film talked about ways people can treat heroin addictions.

NIDA (The national drug institute on drug abuse and addiction) conducted brain scans to prove that addiction is a disease (Brain disease to be specific). NIDA says that the changes in the brain cause the addiction (which is known to NIDA as compulsive drug seeking and use) (Slate). However, the changes

Chapter two describes how addiction is a brain disease and explains how drugs and alcohol change the way the brain works. Based on what I read, people with addiction basically play mind games to themselves. Most of the time is it all in their head. The way the brain structure works is the first time someone consumes drugs or alcohol and get “high”, the quantity of chemical they consume surpasses the altitude of neurotransmitters in the body. The quantity of the neurotransmitters may contaminate higher than they do even when eating, which may last longer. The “Go” system collects that experience, which is kept in the hippocampus and amygdala. When someone initially gets intoxicated or high, both consumptions deluge the brain with dopamine with an illustrated memory of the pleasant event and response. Which makes the individual look forward to implementing the experience again.