WHY DO WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUTFEELINGS?!

Week 6 - Emotion &Addiction

Quiet TimeSit quietly for a minute or two, and focus on where we are now.

TODAY’S AGENDAQuiet Time

Check-in Review AOD Relationships

Review Four Characteristics

Continuum

Emotions & Addiction Presentation

CHECK-IN Name Feeling Last use 12 step meetings? What happened? Who attended a meeting? If you did not attend both meetings

• Did you think about it?• What prevented your attendance?

What can you do differently this week? Success with last week’s recovery tool

THINK ABOUT IT…If you don’t manage your emotions, they will manage you!

Feelings…………….

Sometimes it’s hard to sort them out…

they’re like a tangled knot

SORTING IT OUT -EMOTIONALCATEGORIES

Understanding different types of emotion is a tool for recovery

Plutchik (1994)suggests there areeight basicemotions, groupedin pairs ofopposites…

CATEGORIES OFEMOTIONS

These seven basic feelings were first introduced to the author by staff at

the Meadows treatment center in Wickenberg, Arizona.

ADDICTION < > EMOTIONThe powerful connection with

emotion

BREAK TIME!

UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONSIs the key to understandingaddiction…

REDEFINING ADDICTIONA preventable and treatable brain disease influenced by a complex set of behaviors that may be the result of genetic, biological, psychosocial, and environmental interactions

THE HIJACKED BRAIN Our emotions play a (big!) part

in why addictions are so powerfulOur body is wired with a reward

and punishment system to guide our behavior

Drugs of abuse “hijack” this system, confusing the drug’s reward & punishment with our bodies own chemicals

THE POWER OF ADDICTIONOur most basic drives Hunger and food seekingPleasure and reproduction Fight/Flight survival Cravings Based in the same part of the

brain affected by ALL drugs of abuse

Addiction imitates our basic drives

DISCUSSION Which of the seven basic emotions trigger cravings for you most often?

Does one emotion show up more in your life than any other feeling?

Which emotion is your primary feeling?

THE BRAIN, EMOTIONS& DRUGS

There is an “emotional neural network” implicated in human drug abuse.

THE LIMBIC SYSTEM First thought

to be a neural circuit known as the Papez circuit

The modern notion of emotional circuitry has been expanded to include the amygdala and other regions

WHAT THE LIMBIC SYSTEM DOES…

This system is concerned with visceral and emotional behavior, with primal urges and primal moods.

It causes the organism to recognize a reward, and work for it; to recognize punishment, and try to avoid it.

Ways Drugs Can FundamentallyAlter Neural Or Brain Function

Drugs can interact with systems regulating these basic drive states through effects on receptors in the brain and neural circuitry

Drugs can capture control of brain mechanisms that control motivations and emotions (i.e., Basic drives, such as anger, fear, anxiety, pain, and depression).

NEUROTRANSMITTERS & ADDICTION

Dopamine, one example of a neurotransmitter, is correlated with: “highs” elicited by addictive drugs (i.e. cocaine) cravings in withdrawal

Dopamine is activated in a “reward system”

Drugs of abuse activate the same reward system, - increasing or decreasing dopamine

Learned emotional reactions are created contributing to drug addiction…

NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS –ONE SITE FOR DOPAMINE RELEASE

The main target ofthe reinforcing effects of stimulantsis the nucleus accumbens Alcohol, morphine, and

nicotine also exert some of their reinforcing effectsvia the nucleusaccumbens

The "reward pathway" in the brain that isactivated by natural rewards and by artificialrewards such as addictive drugs. – JanetFirshein

THE EMOTIONAL NEURALNETWORK Regulation of Emotion may be

implemented by certain brain regions The pre-frontal cortex (PFC)• Orbitofrontal PFC• Dorsolateral PFC• Anterior cingulate cortex

The limbic/para-limbic structures• Amygdala• Hypothalamus

DRUGS & THEIR EFFECTSON EMOTIONS

Alcohol & Other Drugs

ALCOHOL & EMOTIONAlcohol dampens fear and inhibits response By impairing cognitive processing capacity

Drinking Alcohol

Can lead to changes in behaviorand emotional reactions

Can inhibitadaptivebehavior

NICOTINE The nicotine molecule is shaped like a

neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine and its receptors are

involved in many functions, including mood, appetite, memory, and more.

Nicotine also activates areas of the brain that are involved in producing feelings of pleasure and reward.

Recently, scientists discovered that nicotine raises the levels of dopamine.

Methamphetamine The shape, size, and chemical structure of

methamphetamine and dopamine are similar. Dopamine is sometimes called the pleasure

neurotransmitter. Methamphetamine is able to fool neurons into

taking it up just like they would dopamine. Methamphetamine causes that neuron to

release lots of dopamine, creating an extra sense of pleasure.

Eventually these pleasurable effects stop. They are followed by unpleasant feelings called a "crash“ that often leads a person to use more of the drug.

If a person continues to use methamphetamine, he will have a difficult time feeling pleasure from anything, and this effect can last a long time

DRUGS LIKE COCAINE “LIGHT UP” THEREWARD PATHWAYS OF THE BRAIN

MARIJUANA One region of the brain that contains A lot of THC

receptors is The hippocampus, which processes memory. When THC attaches to receptorsIn the hippocampus, it weakensShort-term memory. The hippocampus alsoCommunicates with other brainRegions that process newInformation into long-termMemory. In the brain, under the influence ofMarijuana, new information mayNever register - and may be lostFrom memory. THC also influences emotions,Probably by acting on A region ofThe brain called the limbic system.