With the current opioid addiction epidemic, you may wonder what the existence of endogenous opioid systems serves. Endogenous opioids manufactured in our brains right from the day we are born are the very same opioids being chemically manufactured. They are the same opioids causing the addiction epidemic.
Opioid Addict Pixabay.com Images
Secure Attachment
When babies receive consistent, ongoing love and warm, touching, tender care, they are happy and contented. Adults are happy and cheerfully contained when they are supported by loving, caring family and friends. A secure attachment and positive social bonding are accompanied by the release of three neuropeptide brain chemicals. The strongest of these three neuropeptides is our endogenous opioids. Opioids make people feel secure and happy.
Anxious-Avoidant Attachment
On the other hand, when infants do not have a loving maternal bond, they suffer from anxiety and produce GRIEF-stricken distress vocalizations (DVs). Neglected, isolated adults become lonely, GRIEF-stricken, and depressed. Arousal of the GRIEF system feels awful because the brain stops manufacturing endogenous opioids.
The effects of a poor maternal bond have lifelong repercussions. As infants, our dependency is complete and our survival rests on social bonds created by those who care for us. When young children receive poor care –– when abandoned, neglected, or abused –– they endure an ongoing sense of insecurity and longing arising from these same networks that promote lifelong personality and social bonding issues.
As adults, they turn to psychotherapy. Others turn to alcohol and drugs. Opium in the form of heroin offers dramatic results for these lost individuals, at least at first. Years ago opiates were the only effective psychiatric medicines available to doctors. And although their use often led to addiction, they definitely made GRIEF-stricken patients feel better. They knew even back then that the effects of opioids were similar to the feelings of security from supportive social bonds and networks.
Social Networks and Bonds
Supportive social networks and bonds are intimately entwined with the production of endogenous opioids in the brain. Therapy must attempt to restore social networks and bonds in the lonely and grieving. But how many therapists are aware of or have the training for this, even though the connection between social bonding and opioids was known back when the therapy consisted of opioids.
GRIEF/Addiction Therapy
Recovery from addiction typically consists of individual, group, and family therapies. But recovery is difficult and sometimes may be best in a residential setting. And recovery may mean a long-term maintenance medication of methadone.
Methadone
Methadone is an opioid and like heroin or opium, it is addictive. It acts on the same receptors as Morphine and Heroin but blocks the euphoric “high,” which stabilizes patients and minimizes symptoms of withdrawal. Methadone, therefore, replaces the opioids in a patient’s system with milder effects, so it is known as replacement therapy. Taken in the form of a pill or liquid, it eliminates the threat of HIV from shared injections. And it eliminates a life of criminality by eliminating the need to spend much of their time finding ways of obtaining and paying for the opioids. The patient can maintain a normal family and work life.
Buprenorphine
Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist, while Methadone is a full opioid agonist. Very basically this means Buprenorphine is not as strong as Methadone and it has a “ceiling effect” meaning that it can be increased in dosage up to a ceiling level, so no further. Methadone has no ceiling. Much of the euphoria is eliminated with the use of Buprenorphine.
Attention Therapies
Attention therapies are not a cure for addiction. But they are effective at maintaining mental and even physical balance on a day to day basis. I find Ki Breathing Meditation along with Insight Meditation and Bibliotherapy to be most effective.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
