SOCL 1295 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Caffeine, Civil Liberties, Plastic Surgery
2 Apr 2014
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Defining addiction: a drug does not have to be addicting in the classical sense of the term- generating physical withdrawal symptoms to produce a dependence in users. Non-drug addictions: shopping, sex, social media, shopping, food, gambling, exercise, plastic surgery, cleaning, technology. Physical dependence: state resulting from chronic use of a drug that has produced tolerance and where negative physical symptoms of withdrawal result from discontinuation. Psychological dependence: a highly reinforcing drug alters the chemistry of the brain such that the neurons remember having been reinforced, having felt a pleasurable stimulus before; thus, the intense cravings: cocaine, meth, tobacco, and heroin, etc. You get pleasure the first time you try them. Other drugs trail far behind because you have to learn how to enjoy them (marijuana, alcohol, lsd, nicotine) People vary with respect to their degree of susceptibility to becoming dependent on a chemical substance variation is much greater than in animals.
