The Addicted Brain: Why We Abuse Drugs, Alcohol, and Nicotine

6. Why Are Drugs So Powerful?

Arla, like other members of her family, is a bright, attractive, and successful person. She’s always been popular and a leader in many activities. As you might expect, she’s confident of her abilities and feels that she can succeed at anything she really tries. But, she has a secret and a worry. She has been taking opiate drugs, at first for pain from a root canal, for many months. She has come to crave the high and has discovered that even though she really wants to and tries to stop, she relapses to drug use after a couple of weeks at most. She is beginning to worry that she might need help stopping, but she doesn’t really want to admit this, because it seems like a failure. She can’t believe that her urge is so ...