What could happen to your brain!

Addiction may feel harmless, but there can be life altering changes to our brain that can have long lasting affects.

Drug Addiction

The overuse of any drug changes the functions of the brain circuits that are involved in pleasure, learning, stress, decision making and self control (Surgeon General).
Morphine binds to opioid receptors, which release dopamine, and also to the thalamus, brainstem, and spinal cord, which are the parts that have to do with pain. (National Institution on Drug Abuse)
Developing the tolerance to the painkilling effects of morphine involves the thalamus and spinal cord. (National Institution on Drug Abuse)
Cocaine binds to the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens, and the caudate nucleus. These parts of the brain are all involved in fictions that have to do with memory, learning, and reward. (National Institution on Drug Abuse)

Alcohol itself causes problems in the brain having to do with balance, memory, speech, and judgement. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)
Heavy drinking causes a reduction of the size of neurons and alcohol abuse in adolescents can interfere with brain development. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)
Brain abnormalities such as the effectiveness of nerve cells decreasing and brain shrinkage are commonly seen in alcoholics. (National Library of Medicine)
Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to neurological complications, including but not limited to, Korsakoff syndrome, alcohol-related dementia, alcohol-related cerebellar degeneration, and different types of neuropathy and myopathy (Planas-Ballvé et al., 2017).

Like drug abuse, gambling affects the reward system of your brain.
Decreased activity in the ventral striatum is shown in people with gambling problems (Clark et al,. 2013). The ventral striatum is the brain's reward center, so when the activity in this region is decreased, people gamble in the hopes of winning to make up for the lost activity.
There is also decreased activity shown in the prefrontal cortex during gambling (Clark et al,. 2013). The prefrontal cortex is involved in decision making and being impulsive.
Gambling can also affects the brain by causing cognitive disorders such as the gambler’s fallacy (thinking your chance of winning is higher the more times you gamble) and the illusion of control (gamblers thinking they have some type of control over the outcome when it is all due to chance) (Clark et al,. 2013).