How do people become addicted to cocaine?

How do people become addicted to cocaine?

Cocaine causes an intense flood of chemicals in the brain’s “pleasure” or “reward” pathway—essentially short-circuiting what would normally only be stimulated, or roused, by pleasurable life events. Repeated overloading of this brain circuit by cocaine causes changes in the brain in which nothing seems pleasurable without the drug.

The chemicals released in the brain by cocaine also play a role in maintaining normal feelings of happiness. Reduced levels of these chemicals (as during a cocaine “crash”) can cause intense feelings of depression. The addict will try to avoid these negative feelings by using more of the drug as soon as these symptoms arise.

These actions can ultimately lead to changes in other parts of the brain that result in drug use becoming an obsession and compulsion—like an itch that must be scratched no matter what the outcome. This is why addicts will continue to use the drug despite all of the negative consequences. The obsession with the drug is also referred to as a craving.

In the case of cocaine, addicts also report an intense motivation to try to obtain the “high” that they experienced the first time they ever used, but the intensity of that first experience is impossible to ever achieve through repeated use.