How Addiction Destroys the Brain Addiction is one of the most destructive conditions known to neuroscience, not because it only affects behavior, but because it fundamentally rewires and damages the brain itself. Far from being a matter of weak willpower, addiction is recognized today as a chronic disease of the brain’s reward, motivation, memory, and control systems. The American Society of Addiction Medicine and Harvard Medical School both describe addiction as “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry,” showing that the condition is deeply tied to neurological malfunction rather than personal failure. This definition can be found on Harvard Medical School’s health publication: https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/addiction-brain. --- The Reward System and Dopamine Flooding At the center of addiction lies the brain’s reward system, also called the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. This circuit connects the ventral tegm...
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