Word: addictively
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...ultimately, addiction is a physical disease of the brain caused by exposure to drugs. It starts, many neuroscientists believe, when alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines or other drugs boost the activity of a brain chemical called dopamine, which generates the sensation of pleasure. Flip the pleasure switch often enough, and nerve cells in many parts of the brain--especially in a tiny region known as the nucleus accumbens--become accustomed to the rush. When the switch is left in the off position too long, nerve cells feel deprived, a sensation the addict experiences as a nearly irresistible craving...
...even when an addict has been clean for a long time, says Leshner, the addictive brain has been permanently primed for relapse. One common trigger for returning to drugs is stress, which can send the recovering addict back to a proven stress reliever. Another is contact with people, places and things associated with drugs--cues that bring up dormant memory circuits laid down during active addiction and thus reawaken craving...
...Since addiction is caused by drug exposure, Leshner believes, anyone who takes drugs long enough will become an addict. But "long enough" can vary dramatically from one person to the next. In Downey's case, it can't have helped that when he was six, he was given a joint by his filmmaker father (Downey Sr. has since expressed regret for that action). But without an understanding of individual biological differences, which scientists have yet to unravel, nobody can say whether those experiences turned Downey into an addict right from the start or whether repeated drug use over many years...
...When I read about a celebrity's failure to stay sober, I think of the addict out there who's reading the same thing and giving up hope. And I sometimes wonder if sobriety does anyone any good unless you can use it to help sell your junk on the Internet. And so I make myself feel better by going on melaniegriffith.com and ordering some goddess beads. I don't know long delivery will be, but I'm sure it's something less than 28 days...
...Ibis, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting In an undisclosed location on our nation's eastern shore. And the Poonsters have the seeming of an opium addict's dreaming, For the lamplight o'er them streaming throws his shadow on their floor; And their souls from out that shadow that lies floating on their floor Shall be lifted--nevermore...