Finding the Brain's Addiction Switch | Steven Laviolette | TEDxWesternU

I have been an addiction medicine physician for 27 years (congrats to all below on their recovery!) and consider it a privilege to be in this field. Interesting information but I disagree with the statement that diseases are static. As a family physician as well I can certainly tell you this is absolutely not the case. I also strongly disagree that we don't have effective treatments for addiction. We clinicians need researchers like this speaker but they also need us to be informed about the incredible people who treat this disease successfully. They are my heroes.

7 years 4 months 2 days Yay me!

I can't thank you enough for this. As a recovering addict I was very unhappy with the whole "You will forever be an addict"-paradigm in science and in therapy. That always gave me a bad feeling and led to nihilistic thoughts like "If I am addicted forever, it doesnt matter if I am sober or not". Reading and watching ted talks about the connection between dopamine, memory and addiction now really helps me a lot. Maybe there is a way to even change the addiction-memory or the (falsley) good association an addict has with a drug. When I had a releapse, I was very disappointed from my used-to-be-all-time-favorite (prescription drug). I hope this memory helps me overwrite my memories. Anyways, thanks again Steven Laviolette! If anyone has more research/videos on this subject, I would highly appreciate it. Stay sane!

My son died of an overdose 2 months after getting out treatment for the 8th time, and I believe that it was because the reason he started using in the first place was never addressed. I believe the solution is to focus on the demand not the supply. If we heal the pain the drugs were used to numb, the addiction will fall away on its own. The closest thing to a switch would be ibogaine, but even that is just a start. You still need to heal the underlying pain.

Anything but the steps. Anything but rigorous honesty. Anything but reduction of ego. Science hasn't got a clue.

Heck yes! I've been telling the 12 steppers the disease model is outdated for a couple years now. I could never swallow the disease model version. I had settled on it being a response to trauma and I still believe that's correct, but the switching of brain states just takes my theory to a whole nutha level. This is supremely cool. 😎

How? What treatment exists that can target these brain areas and functions, and switch them from on to off? If this guy's theories are correct and he has identified these addiction switches and is also able to develop a treatment and put them in the off position, this would be one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of our time. Imagine the healing that could occur in families and individuals around the world.

After 24 hours abstinence, you can't sleep well or making countdown.. you're addicted In front of your mirror, if you can recognize the problem... this is the start of the right way. Take time, not pharma and think about which steps you did when you start this "journey", and do it now backward. Slowly, day by day and don't ask yourself so much, because you're too sensible, your feelings are not working right. I mean you're going from panic to laughing to crying to it's too cold or hot in not normal short time. After a while, when your body is abstinent, all of your feelings (smelling, touching, looking, hearing, eating) are so clean and clear that, you have to re-educate your body to this "new" life. It's not easy to manage this situation, and love could help a lot. The looking for drug is a (not right) reaction of something that we had to much, or we needed in our childhood. Be honest, so you need to find the solution only one time, in yourself and not outside. You can't find the switch in your brain, but you can recognize that your brain switched.

Interesting, and as a former addict and alcoholic there are a couple of questions that I have. First, I completely agree that the reward pathway can reverse itself and lose the impulses that trigger the reward pathway triggered by external stimuli. Completely agree; however, as someone who drank again after a decade and having experienced the brain reversal and now sober again, What I can tell you is even after long periods of time the memory of the feeling you get from that first drink or drug never goes away. Essentially, it stops getting triggered by external stimuli, but the physical memory never leaves. That leaves us with the human condition: What is it exactly? A delusionary idea that we are going to ease are suffering by creating more suffering? Looking at a Macro perspective very few who passed over the line never return to normal drinking, and the trouble is that most will think that they are that exception. In the early years of research it was described as " Dipsomania" A manic condition, and it is apparent to all except by the one who suffers from it. I think these perspectives on brain activity are amazingly astute; however, returning to substances again in most cases will once again redevelop that reward pathway and all it's workings on another occasion. No one is exempt, and I thank that scientific community for offering hope; however, why are you ignoring the need for total abstinence and high risk susceptibility for the former addict or alcoholic?

Addiction is a tough thing to explain in detail in 15 or so minutes. You have done such an awesome job! I give you props as a fellow TEDx Talker and an occupational therapist.

Obvious question after watching this: Why cannot we simply switch the brain from addicted state to non addicted state as a cure for addiction -simple? I'm sure that's what everyone wants to know......

fucking fix the audio

Ok well where do we sign up to get our switches flipped

In this talk only dopamine is included in the 'addiction picture". But what about endorphins? Morphine has the same chemical structure as our endorphins, which are our natural painkillers. And that's why opiates drugs are able to bind to our opioid receptors. Opiates replace our endorphins and that's why we become dependent. After a short while we no longer produce endorphins, and that's why withdrawals are so bad. Why no expert/neuroscientist ever mention the endorphin aspect of addiction?

I'm with you I think this is a great method to gain new understanding of addiction and it may possibly end it altogether

Since the dopamine reward pathways also have to do with learning, it would be interesting to investigate if traumatic learning experiences cause the floods of dopamine that addictive chemicals are said to cause. My reasoning is twofold. Drug addictions seem to form because the body releases huge amounts of dopamine, more than would ever be released in a naturally occurring pleasurable experience, in reaction to various substances. The process can be fairly rapid, for instance in the case of nicotine addiction. Is it possible that when a person needs to learn something real fast for ultimate survival, the body dumps large amounts of dopamine to create an instant memory? For instance, if you are a child and you touch a hot stove and get horribly burned, you learn quickly and permanently not to repeat the action. Perhaps a similar scenario could help explain PTSD? My scientific question, if I was doing research, would be something like, is there any naturally occurring experience in human existence that would equal the release of dopamine that occurs in reaction to certain chemical substances? If so, what is the purpose of this action in relation to survival?

Listened to this hoping I could find out. This talk is for doctors, can't really help someone struggling with addiction itself.

Was this recorded on a cellphone?

Very informative

The audio is so bad.