Neurology Vs Psychology: Understanding The Concept Of Addiction.

Let us talk about one of the most fascinating parts of our body, the one that consumes nearly 25% of oxygen consumption is the Human Brain and while talking about it, one of the two most overlapped words are Neurology and Psychology. While for most of the people, they might find it difficult to differentiate between the two.

Neurology is a branch of medicine studied by the neurologist which deals with the disorders of the nervous system. Neurology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease and conditions involving the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.

“It is also defined as the science of behaviour and mind. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought.” – Wikipedia

Simply putting it, neurology is like putting main ingredients to your dish and Psychology is like how you are seeing it or smelling it. But due to many overlapping Disease like Addiction, these two are often get confused with each other. And, maybe due to a disease like addiction which stands somewhat between of Psychology and Neurology.

While Addiction, according to some studies is neurological as addiction is a state of mind, where your mind constantly wants to be in.

So, let us take an example of eating food. Earlier, you were eating it because you were hungry, now you are eating it. After all, it is giving you a state of high you want to be in. While addiction of any kind is bad but there are some certain substances which equally affects all or a significant portion of humans i.e., DRUGS.

But, how we got to addiction? Let’s get runner’s high or any kind of thing for a person which triggers endorphins and other hormones that make you feel happy and after that, a stage comes Euphoria where if it’s occasional will make you feel very good(it’s good to have that) because it’s a kind of reward system like after working out you feel good. The problem comes when your mind wants to be in that stage now and then you are getting consumed by it and the situation even becomes worse when you are triggering these emotions at your will by smoking and taking drugs in different forms.

See, it affects the psychology of wanting and making all possible ways to be in that state.

But, how does the connection in our brains so different from each other that it rises to different kinds of addiction? Smoking, for example, is very addictive so it was a small experiment for me where I observed that my friends were two of them that had quite a good childhood with no stress even (while Smoking means that they didn’t start it as a way of relieving stress) but when they smoke for the first time even (in their 9th-10th grade) they didn’t build an addiction towards it. Maybe it was something else? While my other friend, she too had a nice childhood but from then don’t know where she developed an addiction towards it. May be stress or that few seconds where you feel light?

It might not be the case with a lot of people but they are real-life examples too that didn’t have time to know a lot about their genetics (neurologically) which also plays a part in it but had sufficient time to know about their social factors and other factors that affect Psychologically. And, while this was a case of psychology, another study where psychoactive drugs were used which usually make you high and then brain releases less of dopamine to regulate it but then you use more drug to achieve the same level of high i.e. Tolerance.

The same that normal people would increase their Caffeine intake to fool your brain to do more work rather than abstaining it for 2-3 weeks so that the previous levels would give you some level of alertness. (PS: But Caffeine is way less addictive and Legal)

It’s genetics as well the same thing we might like it or not but it’s true. But other addiction, like overtraining in the gym or running more or workaholics, they are also doing damage to their body, and to their social lives as well but that thing is often not talked about like how you might affect your relationship with this as it takes a toll on your body.

But they are also trying to run away from the things they want to be in a state. So, is it bad to feel high?

Do Exercise does that release dopamine yes do we get addicted most probably not. People drink alcohol, even the consumption in the upper or more educated class be more but do they heavy drink? Most of them don’t. It’s more prevalent in poor households where they want to ease their stress by drinking. This might have helped a bit on the difference between neurology, and Psychology and more on addiction.

Here are a few tips to break the addiction.

✓ Conscious decision: you have to make a giant decision to stop that habit.

✓ Describe, observe and explain.

✓ Discontinue that habit and begin a new routine.

✓ Find a therapist( psychologist)

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