Motivation and the Brain
PSY/355
June 13, 2016
Motivation and the Brain
I could have written about any one of the topics given. I have decided to talk about refraining from the use of drugs and I chose this topic because of personal experience. Refraining from drugs is a lifelong battle for people that have addiction problems. I live the experience every day and understand fully how and why I do what I have to do to stay away from drug use. Extrinsic and intrinsic factors have a huge impact on an individual’s motivation to refrain from drug use. The brain also plays a role in the same motivation, certain parts and functions of the brain impact our motivation.
Motivation is defined as the reason or reasons an individual has for behaving in a certain way. It is also defined as the desire or willingness an individual has to do something. So the first step from refraining from drug use, at least for me, was to find a motivation strong enough to push me. I woke up one day and said enough was enough. I wanted to be a better person and I was tired of living the “drug life”. Another motivation was my children, I needed to be there for them and they are much more important than any chemical I could put in my body. I also wanted to be healthy again, my body had definitely taken a beating due to my drug usage.
The chemicals found in drugs can cause interruptions in how our nerve cells work. The way they process information is impaired. The way that drugs do this is by imitating our brain’s chemical messengers and they also bombard our “reward circuit” (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2012). In my case, methamphetamines caused my nerve cells to release large amounts of dopamine which is found in many parts of the brain. This neurotransmitter is in parts of the brain that control movement, motivation, emotions and pleasure. Since the brain is swimming in dopamine, it produces feelings of euphoria. When this happens over and over, addicts “teach”...