Engage (30 minutes)

• Give each person a small sheet of paper or index card and a pen/pencil. Ask them to take one minute to think about how they would define addiction. Then pairing up with another (or in threes if that suits your group better), ask each pair/trio to quickly construct and write down a definition of addiction based on their current understanding. Remind the participants that because substance use and addiction are complex, there is no single, perfect definition, and that perhaps various pairs will bring up different aspects that are important to include. Have the groups share these quickly, with the leader writing key words from their sharing on newsprint or white board.
• Watch the brief video “Addiction: What is it?”  (be smart be well.com; also on Vimeo and YouTube) Ask the group how the ideas about addiction shared by speakers in the video support or change the ideas that group members mentioned in their definitions. The key elements of the video’s presentation of addiction are:
  1. addiction is a disease;
  2. addiction involves changes that happen in a person’s brain that cause them to lose control over their use of a substance even though using it brings on negative consequences;
  3. addiction can happen to anyone.

  Bring the discussion to a close with the following: For us as Christians, we can also understand substance abuse and addiction as a “barrier” or “impediment” to the joy God desires for us: it takes away our freedom to make choices; it narrows the focus of life away from love of neighbor and self toward love of a drug; and because of how drug abuse changes our brains, the “fake joy” in substance abuse makes us less able to experience real joy.

  Activity 2:  “Joy, Drugs, and Our Brains”

  Share the following information with the group, using the handouts provided in the resource section as teaching aids.

  Option: you may wish to use one of the following two-minute video resources available on YouTube, plus discussion to introduce this topic, either instead of or in addition to communicating the information-points below: “The Reward Circuit: How the Brain Responds to Natural Rewards and to Drugs” (2 minutes); or the animated video “The Science of Addiction” by Life Noggin (2 minutes).

  The Human Brain: God’s work of art for our enjoyment of life

  1. Not all substance use is substance abuse or addiction. Read Psalm 104: 14-15. Remind participants that there are multiple scripture texts that describe wine as something given for humans to enjoy, and that tell of it being used in celebratory ways (e.g., Jesus and the wedding at Cana).

   

“Substance use” simply refers to ingesting a substance (e.g., alcohol) or a engaging in a behavior (e.g., gambling, internet gaming) that can change one’s mood.

“Substance abuse” is when a person uses more frequently, and perhaps uses more of, a drug or alcohol, even though it has some negative consequences for them. For example, a college student who continues to engage in “binge drinking” several times a month, even though it causes her to be physically ill and to miss classes, is engaged in substance abuse.

“Addiction”is persisting in using alcohol or other drugs even when harmful or negative consequences result. When the college student begins to develop cravings (an intense desire for alcohol), tolerance (she must use more alcohol, more often, and/or in stronger forms to get the same effect as she did initially), and withdrawal (feelings of physical illness that come from the absence of the drug), these are signs that she is addicted.

3. What’s the brain got to do with it? Our brains have a system of cells called the “dopamine reward system.” Dopamine is a neurochemical that gets released in our brains when we do certain things like connect with a friend, have a good meal, or accomplish a task we’re proud of, brain. When levels of dopamine rise, we feel a sense of well-being and goodness. Scientists suggest that this brain chemistry rewards us with good feelings when we do things that contribute to our survival and well-being. You might even say that the dopamine reward system is the biological aspect of joy—it’s responsible for the sense of well-being we experience. In other words, while joy cannot be reduced to a neurochemical event in the brain, it seems that God created us with brain chemistry that is the biological basis for that sense of well-being and flourishing we associate with joy, all the way down to the cellular level, in the way our brains work! Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “we are what God has made us, created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Sometime the beginning of this verse is translated, “We are God’s work of art!” Nothing makes that clearer that the artistry of the human brain. God designed us for joy: read Ps. 139: 14-15.  substance abuse becomes a barrier to joy when it changes our brain circuitry.
4. Here’s the problem: the brain’s reward system doesn’t just get activated by things that are good for us. Substance use, along with certain behaviors like gambling, also can activate the dopamine reward system in the brain, causing higher amounts of dopamine to be released, which means that the person experiences dopamine’s effects at an even greater level of intensity. And, we tend to repeat actions for which we are rewarded. This brain response to the substance (e.g., alcohol) or behavior (e.g., internet gaming) thereby reinforces repetition of it: we want to play the internet game again/longer/at the next level, to get even more of this reward affect; to have another drink. For some people that is not a problem: they still have control over how much they drink or of their gaming.
5. But as they continue to use a drug like alcohol more often and in greater amounts, the brain begins to change. Using more of a drug, more often, or gambling for higher stakes, causes dopamine “spikes” which the user feels as an intense reward for the behavior.

So the brain “learns” that drug use or internet gaming will bring about the dopamine surge and therefore it stops making and releasing as much natural dopamine.

5. When the elevated dopamine level caused by substance use drops, the fall from the peak back to the baseline of dopamine feels especially low. This creates conditions for a craving to develop for whatever substance or behavior brings about the dopamine surge. Over time, the brain’s reward system begins to respond with a surge of dopamine not only to the active use of the substance, but also to planning, imagining, and anticipating its use.
6. As more of a person’s time, energy, and resources go into using drugs, there begin to be negative effects in multiple areas of life (job, school, relationships, interests in other activities), but the person continues to use. In fact, they use even more, to activate the dopamine reward system and to stave off the cravings and bad feelings that come when the effects of the substance wear off. The reason “just say no” doesn’t work is because this compulsion to use is not under the conscious control of the person—it’s based on what is going on with the dopamine reward system in the brain. Addiction is when a person continues to use a substance or engage in a behavior repetitively and compulsively, even though doing so has negative consequences in their life.
7. Teenagers are especially vulnerable to substance abuse and addiction because their baseline dopamine levels are lower, meaning that when the reward system is activated, the “reward spike” they experience delivers a stronger reward, thus reinforcing repetition of behaviors like substance abuse or excessive internet gaming.