[ExI] addiction

Keith Henson hkeithhenson at gmail.com
Thu Mar 17 04:18:30 UTC 2016


On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 5:53 PM,  Will Steinberg
<steinberg.will at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's not endorphins, it's dopamine.  Trust me on this one.

It's both.  The ultimate doper's high is cocaine which acts like
dopamine and heroin which acts like endorphins.  This mix was at one
time called a speedball.

 From: William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>

> ?One could speculate that the people who get addicted are either low in
> endorphins as a result of their usual lifestyle (or perhaps even
> genetically low), or are high in them and the drug or whatever is just a
> fantastic, incredible high unattainable any other way.?

It's genetic.  Only a minority (5-10%?) of people can be addicted to
opiates at all.  The genes involved are not yet understood, but it
should not be hard to do given the big data bases like 23andMe.

Addition to nicotine is better understood.  I don't think anyone who
has a double dose of the D5 version of the dopamine receptor gene who
is addicted to nicotine has ever gotten off some form of nicotine.

There may be a cross susceptibility between nicotine and cult rewards.
The scientologists are well known for their very high rate of smoking.

> ?  I was instantly addicted to morphine at age 9 after ear surgery.  Have
> not felt that good since.  No pain was the very least of it.  Perhaps would
> have been satisfied to stay that way.

Interesting.  I know a few other people who are that way about opiates.

Keith



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