David N. Greenfield - Overcoming Internet Addiction For Dummies

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the biology behind addictive behavior in kids and teens

Recognizing how screens impact brain development and function

Exploring the vicious cycle of addiction and the inexperience of youth

Considering other factors that may trigger or worsen Internet addiction

Anyone can develop an addiction at any stage of their life, but children and adolescents seem to be more susceptible to addiction. This increased susceptibility should be no surprise, after all, as these are formative years — when young people acquire the habits they will carry for the rest of their lives. The brain, where addictions are formed, is more malleable, more impressionable, during these early stages of development; in addition, the areas of the brain that are responsible for executive skills and judgment are not fully developed until around age 25. The inexperience of adolescence compounds this vulnerability, and this is also the same period of life when children and teens are introduced to the various objects of addiction — alcohol, nicotine, drugs, sex, video games, Internet, smartphones, social media, pornography, and so on.

Understanding the process of addictive behaviors is valuable in both preventing and overcoming addictions of all kinds, especially in the context of children and adolescents. When you have a clearer understanding of what is going on inside the mind and body of your child, teen, or young adult as they interact with the world, you’re better equipped to be empathetic to their addiction, and to support interventions to effect positive change.

In this chapter, I reveal what’s going on inside children and adolescents during this time when they’re most susceptible to addiction, and I look at how certain internal and external factors may contribute to the problem.

All addictions are centered in the brain and are reflected in our behavior in the form of habits, so the brain is the logical place to begin the investigation into why children and teens are particularly susceptible to addiction.

Simply put, what happens in the developing brain to increase susceptibility to addiction is that the pleasure and reward centers (in the limbic system) begin to fire heavily before the brain’s mechanisms to buffer that desire for pleasure are fully formed. In other words, desire and the capacity to feel pleasure (through increased dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens) are off the charts during adolescence — and at the same time the neurological capacity for good judgment and self-control (found in the frontal lobes) is just starting to develop. It’s like hitting the gas pedal but without a set of brakes! When the desire for pleasure exceeds the capacity for self-control, you have the perfect environment for developing addictions.

In the following sections, I take a deeper dive into the pleasure centers and control centers of the brain to provide a clearer picture of the biological factors that can drive the development of addiction in children and teens. I also explain the role that sex hormones play in compounding the problem.

Several areas of the brain are involved in addiction, including the ventral tegmental area (VTA), substantia nigra, amygdala, anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens (see Chapter 2for details on the brain). The nucleus accumbens is the main area in the limbic pleasure region of the brain; it’s a dense bundle of cells where a very large number of dopamine receptors reside. Dopamine is one of the major excitatory neurotransmitters responsible for pleasure and movement, and along with serotonin and norepinephrine, also has a lot to do with mood, reward, motivation, pleasure, and compulsion — as well as numerous frontal lobe functions. ( Neurotransmitters are chemicals that enable nerve cells to communicate with one another.)

The development of the nucleus accumbens and the dopamine reward system seems to mature in its dopaminergic efficacy sometime in the mid-teens, resulting in a powerful desire for fun and pleasure.

To simplify, the brain has two primary mechanisms for buffering the desire and drive to experience pleasure: the frontal executive areas of the brain, and the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA). Unfortunately, when activity in the brain’s pleasure centers begins to peak in the mid-teens, neither of these inhibitory mechanisms is fully developed.

The frontal lobes (shown in Figure 3-1) start to develop and mature during the teen years but aren’t fully formed until around the mid-twenties (give or take). This is, in part, why the teen years can be rocky at times. Desire for pleasure exceeds the judgment needed to control it, often resulting in what might be considered irresponsible decisions and behaviors. This seesawing of pleasure and control is further complicated by inexperience, impulsivity, and feelings of invulnerability that permeate adolescence. The timing of when the pleasure drive peaks and the frontal lobes fully develop varies among individuals, but this process is part of normal biopsychosocial development.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 3-1:The frontal lobes, executive function, and dopamine (DA).

Many theories have been proposed to explain reduced access to the frontal lobes when people are engaged in addictive behaviors, but it’s likely due in part to the evolutionary and biological origins of addiction. The powerful dopamine pleasure center in the brain evolved because it helped ensure survival of the species. Think about it; food and sex are associated with some of the biggest releases of dopamine in the body, and they are two factors that are essential to human survival.

That food and sex become addictions for many people is no surprise. In fact, if you look at the overall negative health impact, food addiction alone likely dwarfs all other addictions combined.

Eating and sex are pleasurable because both are essential for the survival. They’re pleasurable, and hence dopaminergic, because our brains want to make sure we engage in these activities, and what better way to make sure we do something than to make it incredibly desirable?