Top 5 Addictive Behaviors
By Jacqueline Detwiler
When it comes to addiction, the brain region everyone talks about is the mesolimbic reward system. Located near regions involved in emotion, pain and decision-making, it’s a motivational circuit that normally encourages humans to pursue evolutionarily beneficial activities, like having sex, drinking water and eating.
It does this by supplying little hits of dopamine and natural opioids when we do things our bodies like. In the context of drug addiction, people refer to this system as having been “hijacked”—the drug of choice causes such strong reactions that the circuit rewards drug taking above all else and an addiction begins. You know all this already.
But here’s another catch: For some people, the very behaviors the system is designed to reward can become as addictive as any drug. Just ask any problem gambler.