Question: Why are some people so addicted to drugs?

Sonia Lenehan answered on 6 Nov 2018:

The basal ganglia is a part of the brain that is involved with making us feel happy after we do something! So if we do well on a test or get a present that we really wanted and feel really happy and please about it the basal ganglia and the amygdala light up with neurons firing in theses areas! Some drugs can get into this areas and cause these areas to light up even if you aren’t doing anything that makes you happy. Once the drugs wear off you can get really sad and down and find it easier to just take drugs again rather than do something that makes you happy. This is one of the ideas of the way drugs works on the brain but there are other ways. It is a really complicated problem and some scientists think that becoming addicted to drugs could be something to do with our genes or how early we try drugs.