Human beings have been around for millions of years—at least a version of us, anyway. But prescription strength opioids, cocaine as we know it today, and other substances like methamphetamine, alcohol, and even cigarettes, have not.
Nowadays, many people believe that the human brain is wired for substance use disorder (SUD), but how can that be if, throughout most of human history, we lived without substances?
It may have everything to do with the exact center of the brain that SUD affects—the same one that played a large role in our survival up until this point: the rewards center.
The Rewards Center In Early Human Environments
Colombia University describes early human environments—the ones from 300,000-400,000 years ago—as unstable and sometimes even unlivable. That’s when the brain’s reward center really started to shine. It helped human beings survive by associating situations, events, activities, and, yes, substances—mainly food and water —with powerful positivity.
That center of the brain, known as the mesolimbic system, ‘rewarded’ people with feel-good hormones like dopamine, every time they found a warm, safe space, or edible food and drinkable water. Those chemicals helped motivate the behaviors that allowed people to continue living and seeking out those rewards.
But, if you think about it, the heaviest hits of dopamine that we would have experienced 300,000 years ago would have been largely limited to:
- Interacting peacefully with others and bonding socially
- Enjoying a night around a warm fire or inside a shelter during severe weather
- Eating food and drinking water that didn’t make us sick
- Sexual activity and reproduction
And as The University of Pennsylvania explains, while many of these activities involved pleasure, they also often required a high level of motivation—especially in hostile environments that multiple plant and animal species inhabited. All of the above scenarios were essential for staying alive and feeling like doing so was worthwhile.
Plus, that rewards center not only enabled survival throughout our earliest history—it enabled us to nurture our mental well-being, a miraculous psychological element of our existence that informs so much of our physical state.
The only problem is that we developed our environment so quickly—and in such a short time—that we may have equipped the very environment we matured in to hijack our rewards centers.
The Rewards Center In Today’s Environment
Today, many of us—and certainly most of us reading this article—are lucky enough to access the internet, usually indoors, in climate-controlled structures with food, water, and socialized people nearby. Today’s environment is not the same as the one our species first encountered. There can often be a surplus of natural rewards and a gargantuan amount of artificial ones, both physical and behavioral.
The Many Artificial Rewards We Depend On Today
It’s not so much that our brains are wired to develop dependencies and addictive disorders; it’s that there are so many more opportunities to be rewarded in ways that don’t benefit us biologically while triggering massive waves of dopamine release.
Here are just a few examples of artificial rewards that we can seamlessly come into contact with every day:
Social Media
According to Stanford University, on its surface, social media seems to fill a biological human need: connection. But the bulk of scrolling, posting, liking, commenting, and creating content may very well involve more flashing lights, engaging notifications, and bright colors than anything else. Also, social media doesn’t run out, and scientists now know that we experience temporary dopamine loss as soon as we sign off.
What signal does this send to the brain? “Stay online.”
Processed Foods
While the earliest human beings may have eaten totally organic, they never ate McDonald’s, refrigerated jumbo eggs, artificial sweeteners, or flavor-enhanced snacks. But we do now. It’s not that these foods are automatically addictive, but they are more abundant—and often tastier—than earlier options.
The University of Michigan addresses the addictive nature of ultra-processed foods, and we probably should, too.
Substances
Research shows that the illicit and prescription substances we become dependent on offer our brains a powerful reward with no real biological purpose, maxing out our dopamine production without any food, shelter, water, or companionship to show for it. And there are new substances coming out every day: endless varieties of alcohol, marijuana, opioids, stimulants, and mixes of all those things.
This type of access and availability can make it too easy to develop SUD, compromise overall brain health, and even permanently disrupt our behaviors and motivations.
Of course, we can experience all of these artificial rewards and more without developing a disorder, but it may be getting harder to do so.
Recovery From Substance Use Disorder is Possible in Iowa
If you struggle with substance use or any other type of dependence, you’re not an outlier. Iowans are not immune to illicit substance use or the dangers of overdosing, just like they’re not immune to social media dependence or the malnutrition that eating modern foods can cause. You’re not alone, and despite how much more hostile earlier environments may have been, living with SUD may be just as dire.
The good news? Your brain is wired for survival. If you want to help your brain appreciate all the natural, healthy rewards available through residential recovery, contact our care teams in Des Moines and Bayard now to reclaim your brain.
