Understanding the Nervous System Root

Welcome to this mini episode on the biology behind it.

So as an addiction medicine physician,

I have worked with so many individuals who have gotten dependent on substances,

And it was clear that they were using those substances in order to create an inner state that was more comfortable for themselves.

We all do this to some degree,

But we have this inner state.

We have inner sensations.

And if it's more uncomfortable to the point where it feels unmanageable that I can't even function in my day and in my life because of how uncomfortable things are inside,

Then I am going to be doing something about that.

Some of us turn to emotional eating.

Some of us turn to friends or social networks.

Some of us turn to isolation or binge watching movies.

I mean,

There's so many different ways in which this manifests.

But for some people,

Given their biology,

They may turn to a substance in order to help that inner state be more quiet or be more aligned with how they like to feel.

So let's take a quick look at that because there are some biology factors that will create an uncomfortable inner state that's constant and it's always in the background.

And so then when a person comes along and finds something,

And maybe it's like a sleeping pill,

Or maybe it's a pain pill,

Or maybe it is a food,

Or maybe it's exercise,

Or for some it's alcohol or marijuana or a substance,

And they engage in that and they feel better.

Wow,

Their brain is going to lock onto that and say,

I know how to feel better every time I don't feel good.

And now it becomes a survival thing because the nervous system is designed to keep us alive.

And it is going to be pushing us,

Literally pushing us to go and use that same thing that we did before when things start to feel unmanageable inside.

When is it that things start to feel unmanageable inside?

Adrenaline.

So adrenaline is a major stress hormone.

It is the major stress hormone.

And so the more adrenaline that we have,

The higher and higher those levels go,

The more anxiety we feel.

And it's not just an anxiety,

It's a restlessness.

It's creating physiological changes throughout our whole entire body that can become more uncomfortable because it's starting to near the sensation.

Of panic.

Panic is very uncomfortable.

And so that adrenaline,

Depending on the level of adrenaline that we have,

That may be pushing our system into a degree of anxiety and restlessness that feels very unmanageable.

And that is not something that we can live with sustainably.

So if there's nothing else to turn that off,

Guess what our brain will go to?

I know that one thing that will turn it off or at least turn it down.

Another hormone that creates some internal restlessness is histamine.

And actually histamine and adrenaline are related.

And so histamine is another factor that we want to look at for its role in the biology behind addictions.

And part of that is because there's so much that we can do about it.

If we know that a person's histamine levels are high,

We have solutions for that.

And it's not a medication per se,

Even though there are many medications that I have used in my addiction medicine practice,

That that is what I think its main mechanism of action is and why it works.

Even though it's under the label of a mood medication,

For example.

Decreasing one's histamine levels also.

They may be increasing serotonin.

They may be increasing dopamine,

But they are also decreasing histamine.

And when I do the lab studies and I find that many of those who become dependent or addicted,

If you want to use that word,

I don't like that word at all.

I see it as a dependence.

But once they become dependent on that one thing.

Then we're looking at what is it doing to the histamine levels.

And there's so much of what is used in an addiction that is decreasing those histamine levels.

And so when we know that,

We have other solutions because we know the biology behind it.

So already I've shared with you two things,

Adrenaline and histamine.

And these are drivers of inner anxiety,

Restlessness that will drive a person to using a substance just to turn the background volume down and be able to focus,

Awful they feel.

But there's a deeper aspect to this.

And that is the role of the freeze response or trauma in an addiction.

And this is something that.

This is something that Gabor Mate talks about a lot.

This was actually one of the reasons I went into addiction medicine is because I had worked.

For years with adopted children and had come to understand their nervous system really well and could see this progression that the body goes through.

And their way of surviving being,

A lot of it is disconnecting.

Maybe you want to use the word dissociating.

Maybe that's too strong of a word for you.

You don't like that word.

That's fine.

That I need to disconnect and not feel it I need an escape from these emotions and sensations that I feel in my body.

It's not something external for me that I'm trying to escape.

I'm trying to escape from my own body because of how awful it feels.

That's what also will drive an addiction.

And so,

Yes,

While some of us have a.

Epigenetic,

Meaning how our DNA is read,

Or sometimes genetic tendencies based on histamine.

I'm going to talk about copper in a moment because excess copper will create more adrenaline in our blood.

And more adrenaline,

More histamine,

I've already said is going to create.

More uncomfortable inner sensations that will drive a person to need to do something just to be able to focus and do something else in life.

And so as we look at these aspects,

We still want to bring in how do these relate to the stored trauma aspect of an addiction.

Because like Gabber Mate,

I have found that every person with an addiction,

Meaning they continue to do or use something even though it causes them harm.

And that actually could include a lot of us.

So it's not just a substance,

But it's anything that we do because it makes us feel better in the moment,

But it does come at a significant cost.

And the higher the risk,

The more that people are quick to label that as an addiction when it really is this survival-based dependency.

So I want to share with you the actual.

.

.

Trauma response and how this plays out in an addiction and so how we can look at the role of adrenaline and histamine and so what you can do about it in these last few minutes.

So as we look at the body's trauma response,

We see that there are specific steps.

The specific steps are that we have a startle.

That's where we would start to realize that there might be a problem.

At that point,

Our adrenaline is starting to kick in because there is a sympathetic nervous system response.

That sympathetic nervous system being the nerves that run down the back of our spine and are intended to give us fast energy to take fast action.

We need adrenaline to do that.

But then it goes into the stress response.

And this is once we have confirmed that we do need to respond.

And the stress response is where adrenaline is the hero of the day.

It comes in and says,

You need to do something big and you need to do it fast.

I'm here for you.

And so our sympathetic nervous system is causing the release of a lot of adrenaline,

Hopefully the amount of adrenaline that matches the size of the problem that we're up against.

Because if it's not enough adrenaline,

We're not going to make it.

But that's exactly what happens when we go into a trauma response.

Enough of what we need.

And whether it's because we're not big enough,

We're not strong enough,

We're not smart enough,

We're not,

We're not enough.

And that is when our body will freeze.

At the realization that I can't do this.

And then it will go into the shutdown.

This is what those with an addiction are facing all the time because internally they get to this place where it's such high panic that they cross the critical line of overwhelm.

And they realize that I can't manage this level of discomfort.

And so they go into a freeze and a shutdown response.

And that is what happens when people are often using any kind of a downer,

What we would consider an opiate or a pain pill,

A benzodiazepine,

Anti-anxiety.

Something that will bring the anxiety and the panic down.

Whether that anxiety is caused from adrenaline or histamine,

It just brings it down.

But then it comes at the cost of making us feel numb because it's like it puts us into a shutdown state,

Puts us into a physiological shutdown state.

Those who tend to use what we would consider uppers.

These are the people who are trying to stay out of that shutdown state.

They feel numb.

They feel dead.

They feel blah.

And they want to feel more alive.

They're looking for the adrenaline.

They want the adrenaline.

And so they're going to use a substance or an activity or.

.

.

Drama,

Create some drama and stress in their life in order to create and generate an adrenaline surge.

We call that an adrenaline junkie,

If you want to use those terms,

Because they need the adrenaline to stay out of that.

Heaviness and that shutdown place that they would go to,

Their body would go to,

If left on its own.

How interesting that this is literally how this plays out in addiction.

It is the body's trauma response.

And so as the body's trauma response is a form of protection from us.

So let's go back to that trauma response where we were going into it because of panic.

And if we're going into it because of panic,

We are going to go into that freeze and shut down.

And this is where we will end today is looking at.

The What are the benefits that it gives us?

It gives us all the benefits that a person wants to have when they are using their substance or their addiction of choice.

It causes a dissociation.

Dissociation is an escape.

They are looking for that escape and it's what gives them their escape.

So,

In summary.

Anytime we are looking for an escape anytime we're looking for an escape.

Whether that's an escape from what's happening in our life or an escape from what's happening inside of our body because it's just too uncomfortable.

Then we want to look at what is my body doing and what is creating that level of unmanageability that I feel that I need an escape.

And I will say that based on the number of patients that I've worked with over the years.

It is so important to look at the biology behind it.

There is always biology behind any addiction or addictive personality.

And this is where I come back to the three biochemical imbalances.

For me,

Those have been so common in those with an addictive personality or who have actually become dependent on a substance because of the.

.

.

Increased adrenaline and the increased histamine that these biochemical imbalances cause.

You are able to order labs by yourself on yourself.

And how wonderful is that for you to be able to check this out?

So you're going to be looking for your histamine level.

You're going to be looking for your copper level because excess copper is going to cause excess adrenaline.

So you're going to be looking at the copper to zinc ratio and any copper level that is higher than that ideal ratio is going to be causing your body to release more adrenaline,

Which will make you more at risk for needing something,

Needing to find something to tune down.

That inner anxiety and panic and restlessness that's always in the background.

The other biochemical imbalance is the pyroluria.

I cannot tell you how many of my addiction medicine patients had this biochemical imbalance.

It's one that I have as well.

I have all three,

In fact.

So I have really needed to learn how to support my biology.

To protect myself,

To make myself resilient and not as vulnerable to an addiction that I know that my biology is set up to be.

The pyroluria is one that is going to have tremendous impact on our brain chemistry as well that will set us up for needing to find something like,

In this case,

Like adrenaline to give us some joy,

Give us some dopamine because we're going to be naturally low in that.

So I will post the link to this week's podcast episode.

It was with the late Dr.

Charles Gaunt,

A beautiful person who,

Because of how he was looking at the biology behind addictions,

Had the best recovery rates.

Across the country.

His relapse rates were so much lower than a conventional recovery program because he was looking at this biology.

And I wanted to come in and bring in these extra elements around the adrenaline and the histamine specifically,

Because there's some big misunderstanding about those.

And I wanted to bring that to light.

With that,

I'm Dr.

Amy.

Thank you for joining me for this weekly series on the biology behind it.

And have a wonderful rest of your day.