Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically

July 21, 2015

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: The best ways of managing pain and depression

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically is a sure way of restoring the comforts of life for absolute happiness and life enjoyment to the fullest.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically can be a tall order for many people owing to the many life demands and challenges. But all the same we must all do something about these two conditions despite those known challenges. That is why we as professionals from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury we are on the front in creating awareness to all people about depression and chronic pain so that people can take timely actions to defeat all the consequences that comes with late responses of these conditions. Therefore it would be very important for all of us to appreciate that depression doesn’t only affects our brains and behavior but it also affects our entire body. Doctor Akoury says that depression has been linked with other health problems like chronic pain and therefore if we have to address depression, then it would mean that we will be dealing with more than one health problem at a time which can be very difficult at times, but all the same it must be done professionally for timely treatment. Besides these it is important to note that depressive disorder or depression is a serious mental illness which can interfere with your daily activities, life and routine by impacting negatively on the quality of your life.

Pain on the other hand can also come in different kinds. The major types of pain we have include acute and chronic pain:

Acute pain – this kind of pain can be intense and short-lived, in which case we call it acute pain. Acute pain may be an indication of an injury however when the injury heals the pain usually goes away.

Chronic pain – this sensation lasts much longer than acute pain. Chronic pain can be mild or intense (severe). Therefore knowing how to deal with these conditions is very important and to get more about the approaches to take, we are going to respond to some of the questions that have been raised so that we can be up to speed with the modalities of dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically as we progress into the discussion.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: Is there a whole-life approach to treating pain and depression?

Like we had mentioned before, chronic pain and depression can affect a person’s entire life. Consequently, an ideal treatment approach addresses all the areas of your life that are affected by chronic pain and depression. Because of the connection between chronic pain and depression, it makes sense that treatments for these conditions overlap.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: How do antidepressants help both chronic pain and depression?

Because chronic pain and depression involve the same nerves and neurotransmitters, antidepressants are used to treat both chronic pain and depression. Antidepressants work on the brain to reduce the perception of pain. There is adequate evidence of the effectiveness of tricyclic antidepressants such as Elavil and doxepin. However, because of side effects, their use is often limited. Newer antidepressants known as serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (Cymbalta, Effexor), on the other hand, seem to work well with fewer side effects.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: How can physical activity help both chronic pain and depression?

Many people with chronic pain avoid exercise. But, if you don’t exercise, you get out of shape and have an increased risk of injury and worsened pain. Consult with a physician to design an exercise plan that’s safe and effective for you. Remember that exercise also helps in easing depression by releasing the same kind of brain chemicals that antidepressant medications release.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: Why is taking control important for healing?

Chronic pain affects your ability to live, work, and play the way you’re used to. This can change how you see yourself sometimes for the worse as you feel victimized by the pain and depression. Getting busy and taking control of your life is important. Working with a health care provider who refuses to see you as a helpless victim but sees you as a healthy person with pain is important.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: How does talk therapy help chronic pain and depression?

Research clearly shows that, for many people, certain kinds of mental training can help improve chronic pain. Like for instance, cognitive therapy is one approach. In cognitive therapy, a person learns to notice the negative “automatic thoughts” that surround the experience of chronic pain. These thoughts are often distortions of reality. Cognitive therapy can teach a person how to change these thought patterns and improve the experience of pain. Besides that cognitive therapy has also been proven as an effective treatment for depression and can reduce symptoms of anxiety in those with chronic pain.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: What’s the best way to manage chronic pain and depression?

The best way to approach managing chronic pain is to consult regularly with a pain specialist or even your family doctor to create a treatment plan. When chronic pain and depression are combined, the need to work with a doctor is even greater. When you visit your doctor’s office, tell him/her that you want to gain control over your chronic pain and depression. As you develop a plan, keep in mind that the ideal pain management plan will be multidisciplinary, which means it will address all areas of your life that are affected by the pain. Therefore empower yourself by tapping into available resources such as the American Chronic Pain Association, the American Pain Foundation, and the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. It is important that when you’ve started the treatment process, you must stay committed to the treatment plan until you feel in control of your pain and depression and can fully live your life, doing the activities you enjoy.

Finally to defeat this problem, don’t wait for too long but find a cognitive therapist near you with experience in the treatment of chronic pain. If you are in doubt then you can locate one by contacting AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center or alternatively you could settle for any of the cognitive therapists’ professional groups mentioned above.

Dealing with depression and chronic pain specifically: The best ways of managing pain and depression

Coping with chronic pain and Depression

July 21, 2015

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Things you need to do when in pain

If coping with chronic pain and depression is giving you helpless night, then you need to seek for help immediately. Early treatment will go along way is dealing with the problem effectively.

Pain is one thing that we will always live with and we cannot just wish away. If you have not been in any kind of pain the probably you don’t know what pain is and so I will take time to briefly describe to you what pain is. According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, doctor Akoury says that medically pain could derived its meaning in relation to a sensation that hurts. It therefore means that there will be no pain without being hurt, feelings of discomfort, distress and in other times agony and this will also depends on the severity of the pain. When in pain you must be able to understand that generally pain can either be steady and constant and in such cases you may feel some aches. Besides that it might be a throbbing pain – a pulsating pain. The pain could have a pinching sensation, or a stabbing one. From the definition, we can comfortably say that it is not practically possible for one or those who suffer from chronic pain to feel stressed and depressed at times. This is no surprise, given the fact that “chronic pain” usually means pain that lasts more than three to six months. Nonetheless prolonged pain appears to set up a pathway in the nervous system that sends pain signals to the brain, even in the absence of an underlying anatomical problem. Therefore to understand the significance of pain well we are going to focus our discussion on the possibilities of coping with chronic pain and depression. Doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center will be sharing with us more about pain from a professional point of view.

Besides that it is important to appreciate that some chronic pain may be due to a diagnosable anatomical problem, such as degenerative disc disease or spinal stenosis that can cause continual pain until successfully treated. More often, the chronic pain has no clear anatomical cause, as in failed back surgery syndrome or chronic back pain without an identified pain generator. In such cases, the pain is itself the disease. Yet again for some people, the stress and depression resulting from chronic pain can become consuming, and can even worsen and prolong the pain. Increased pain can, in turn, lead to increased stress and depression, creating a cycle of depression and pain that can be difficult to break. To be fairly safe from all these pains, there are certain things that we can do to prevent, manage or minimize chronic pain and depression. The following are some of the things you can do:

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Minimizing the chances of developing chronic pain

Talking to a physician about symptoms of depression or stress, or a history of depression, while still in the acute pain phase can alert a physician to the need for consideration of both conditions in creating a treatment plan for the patient’s spine health. While one patient may demonstrate a full recovery from the initial injury, a patient who is more prone to depression and stress, shows signs of depression and/or stress, or who has a history of clinical depression may be more vulnerable to developing a chronic pain problem that persists beyond the initial acute pain complaint. An informed physician can suggest a treatment plan early on that treats the patient’s mental state as well as their physical pain, minimizing the chances of the patient developing a chronic pain problem.

It is advisable for patients to talk with their doctors if they experience any of the following common symptoms of depression that is changes in sleeping patterns, appetite and feelings of anxieties.

Remember that stress a lone can manifest itself in several ways. Therefore it is important for patients to seek their doctor’s opinion if they think or believe that they are displaying symptoms characteristic of stress-related back pain, which are similar to those of fibromyalgia: Back pain and/or neck pain, diffuse muscle aches, muscle tender points and sleep disturbance and fatigue. Besides that doctor Akoury says that chronic pain can also be exacerbated by things such as physical de-conditioning due to lack of exercise and an individual’s thoughts about the pain. Patients can help thwart their pain from developing into or minimizing chronic pain by engaging in an appropriate exercise program and practicing distraction, guided imagery and other cognitive techniques.

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Stress triggers that can increase chronic pain

Patients can monitor how their own stress and anxiety affects their back pain by keeping a diary of when their back pain changes and what kinds of stress could be triggering the pain. This exercise can redirect a patient’s focus from the pain to the elements in their life that affect their pain. Identifying stress triggers or emotional triggers that affect the pain will give the patient the opportunity for better pain relief through avoiding or eliminating these stress triggers. Recognizing how depression and stress affect their pain can lessen anxiety by giving patients more control over their chronic pain problem.

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Share your experience about depression

Doctor Akoury says that depression and an emotional reaction to chronic pain are normal. However many patients do not speak to their physicians about their depression because they believe that once the initial pain problem is resolved, the depression, anxiety, and stress they are feeling will go away. Nevertheless, secondary losses from a chronic pain problem, such as changes in the ability to do favorite activities, disrupted family relationships, financial stress, or the loss of a job, can continue to contribute to feelings of hopelessness and depression. Therefore talking to a physician about your feelings of depression will keep the physician better informed and better able to provide appropriate care. Remember that depression can affect the frequency and intensity of pain symptoms, and the healing process. In the meantime it is important to appreciate that getting simultaneous treatments for both the back pain and depression is healthy and will give the patient a better chance of realizing a full recovery.

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Seek multi-disciplinary care for pain and depression

Did you know that by sharing your story with your physician about the challenges of depression, you can be creating an opportunity for a multi-disciplinary course of treatment involving both a physician and a mental health professional? This is very possible and with a team approach formula, both the pain problem and the depression are monitored simultaneously, and both doctors can communicate about how each area affects the other. It’s important for physicians to understand that changes in the physical symptoms of pain can also be related to changes in a patient’s mental state. Finally remember that even as you seek for these medications, some common treatments for pain, including opioid pain medication, can actually worsen your depressed situation. This worsening depression can then affect the physical presentation of the pain. Therefore if both physical and mental well-being is being monitored closely by medical experts, treatment and medication recommendations, including antidepressants, can be made that take both the physical pain and the emotional health of the patient into account. There are a lot more that can be done to remedy the situation. Therefore you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury for more professional guidance today.

Coping with chronic pain and Depression: Things you need to do when in pain

Addressing complications of Depression and Chronic Pain

July 21, 2015

Addressing complications of Depression and Chronic Pain: What is chronic pain?

Addressing complications of Depression and Chronic Pain is something that needs to be done continuously for stability in life and health

Chronic pain can be described as any pain that lasts much longer than would be expected from the original problem or injury. Up on registering chronic pain in the body, the body is likely to respond in various ways. There are certain facts that we need to understand clearly and we are going to be relying on the expert’s opinions from the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury. And to start us off doctor Akoury says that chronic pain may be characterized by abnormalities in brain hormone, low energy, mood disorders, muscle pain, and impaired mental and physical performance. Chronic pain worsens as neurochemical changes in your body increase your sensitivity to pain and at this point you begin to have pain in other parts of your body that do not normally hurt. Ordinarily nobody would want to be subjected to any kind of pain and that is going to be our focus under the topic of “addressing complications of depression and chronic pain.” So many questions have been raised by many of you and doctor Akoury is going to respond to them as we progress into the discussion. In the meantime you may want to schedule for an appointment with the expert (doctor Akoury) today for a one on one professional advice.

Addressing complications of depression and chronic pain: What happens with chronic pain and depression?

This is a worthy concern and for sure when you are struggling with both chronic pain and depression, you’ll definitely have plenty of company. It will interest you to note that depression is one of the most common psychological issues facing people who are suffering from chronic pain. This problem if not addressed timely can really complicates the patient’s conditions and treatment. The most worrying thing is that prevalence of these problems is escalating on a daily basis. Like for instance according to the American Pain Foundation, they have registered that about 32 million people in the U.S. alone have had pain lasting longer than one year. And about one quarter to more than half of all the population that complain to their doctors registering depression. And on average up to 65% of those depressed individuals are also complaining of pain and yet again those people whose pain limits their independence are especially likely to get depressed. These statistics are a reflection of how depression and pain are a serious threat globally. It has now become an epidemic that must be addressed from all quarters if we want to enjoy comfort in life says doctor Akoury.

Addressing complications of depression and chronic pain: Is there a cycle of depression and pain?

One would not be punished for saying that pain is a trigger of depression. In fact it has been established from various studies that pain can provoke an emotional response in everyone. Like for instance if you struggling with some pain, you may also have high anxiety, irritability, and agitation. These are very normal accompaniment feelings when you’re hurting. Even though this is so, the good news about all this process or relations is that under normal circumstances, as pain subsides, so does the stressful response. However with chronic pain, you’re likely to constantly feel tense and stressed. Nonetheless with time, the constant stress can result in different emotional problems associated with depression. Doctor Akoury says that if you are suffering from these chronic pains and depression then you are likely to experience some of the problems: Altered mood, work issues, fatigue, physical deconditioning, financial concerns, chronic anxiety, weigh gain or weight loss, anger, social sleep disturbances, isolation, legal issues, confused thinking, family stress, reduced sexual activities, fear of injury, decreased self-esteem and irritability.

Addressing complications of depression and chronic pain: Why is there an overlap between depression and chronic pain?

Scientifically some of the overlap between depression and chronic pain can be explained. It has been established scientifically that depression and chronic pain have a common denominator and that is, they both share some of the same neurotransmitters brain chemicals that act as messengers traveling between nerves. Depression and chronic pain also share some of the same nerve pathways.

Besides that it is important to note that the impact of chronic pain on an individual’s life can also contribute to depression. In fact chronic pain can exact pressure and force you to struggle with tremendous losses, such as the loss of exercise, sleep, social network, relationships, sexual relationships, even a job and income. These losses can make you feel depressed and bring a total change in your life and even to that of your loved ones. With this depression will then magnify the pain and reduces your coping skills. It therefore means that when you used to exercise and be active when you felt stressed, with chronic pain you can no longer deal with stress in this manner.

Experts while carrying out research, they compared people with chronic pain and depression to those who only suffer chronic pain. It was established from that research that those who suffer with both depression and chronic pain report: more intense pain, less control of their lives and more unhealthy coping strategies. Therefore since chronic pain and depression are so intertwined, they are often treated together. In fact, some medications can improve both chronic pain and depression. That is why you need to seek for a more professional input if any of these discussions suits your situation. You may be wondering on where to begin, we are here to help you do the right thing and with the right people. Remember that Dr. Akoury made a decision to create a medical center whose main objective is to transform each individual’s life through increasing awareness about health and wellness and by empowering individuals to find their own inner healing power. Dr. Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms. This is what doctor Akoury intends to achieve if only you can schedule for an appointment with her today.

Addressing complications of Depression and Chronic Pain: What is chronic pain?

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains

July 21, 2015

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains: The careful application of opioids

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains. Pain can really rearrange your life in a very miss arable way if you do not take appropriate actions to address it from source.

Chronic pain is a major public health problem, which is estimated to affecting many people globally. It is estimated that in the US alone more than 100 million people suffers from this problem with up to 20–30% of the population globally feeling the same. Talking to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center about the same, you will be very disappointed if you think that there will be some good news. In fact doctor Dalal Akoury MD and also the founder of the facility is saying that with the incidence of associated diseases like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disorders, arthritis, and cancer across the globe, the prevalence of persistent pain is expected to rise in the near future. With this risk of escalation of chronic pain, it is very important that we work very closely with the experts to identify and deal expeditiously with some of the real causes of chronic pains. From the list mentioned above, it is evident that addiction is one of the fundamental causes of some of these pains. Therefore talking to doctor Dalal Akoury veteran addiction experts would be a very good point you are getting concern about your body pains. When you schedule for that appointment today, doctor Akoury together with her team of experts will in the most professional way help you overcome all the avenues of pain in your life. In the meantime with the help of these experts, we are going to focus on the opioids role in treatment of chronic pains.

In the effort of defeating chronic pain, we must be careful not to add more problems to the ones we already have. Doctor Akoury is saying that whereas opioids are powerful analgesics which are commonly used and found to be effective for many types of pain it is important to take note that, opioids can produce significant side effects to the human health including, constipation, nausea, mental clouding, and respiratory depression, which can sometimes leads to death.

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains: The effects of long term use of opioids

Couple with many challenges of opioids we must take into consideration that any long-term opioid use can also result in physical dependence, making it difficult to discontinue use even when the original cause of pain is completely dealt with. Besides that, from the several studies done, there is mounting evidence that long-term opioid use for pain can actually produce a chronic pain state, whereby patients find themselves in a vicious cycle, where opioids are used to treat pain caused by previous opioid use. This means that when opting for opioids, a lot of balancing must be done lest we land ourselves into even more deeper problems. To add more injuries to that, the statistics available from data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the prescribing of opioids by clinicians has increased threefold in the last 20 years, contributing to the problem of prescription opioid abuse. It is no wonder that a number of people who are dying today from prescription opioids exceeds the number of those who die from heroin and cocaine substances put together.

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains: Treatment dilemma using opioids

The intensity of this problem is one that is causing a lot of jittery to the health care provides when administering treatment. Actually healthcare providers are in a difficult position when treating moderate to severe chronic pain; this is so because opioid treatments may lessen the pain, but it may at the same time also cause harm to patients. Additionally, there has not been adequate testing of opioids in terms of what types of pain they can best treat, in what populations of people, and in what manner of administration. With insufficient data, and often inadequate training, many clinicians prescribe too much opioid treatment when lesser amounts of opioids or non-opioids would be effective. Alternatively, some healthcare providers avoid prescribing opioids altogether for fear of side effects and potential addiction, causing some patients to suffer needlessly.

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains: The Future of Integrative Addiction

From the discussion you must have realized that there is a lot of pull and push about this form of treatment. Doctor Akoury and her team have been observing this and are organizing through AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center which is also one of the leading pioneers in natural and holistic addiction treatment, the first ever Educational, Functional and Integrative Addiction conference for tailored to professionals like doctors, counselors, nurses and addiction therapists and all those experts who attend to addicts. The conference is schedule for August 23-25 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This new frontier in Addiction Medicine will be conducted by the most influential group of leading visionaries specializing in the latest advances in natural and integrative addiction medicine, under the theme “The Future of Integrative Addiction”.

Integrative Addiction Conference 2015 mission is to provide prevention education, awareness, options and support to patients and physicians dealing with addiction. You will benefit immensely by attending this conference and together we are going to rewrite history when it comes to handling all matters relating to addiction and substance abuse. Besides that the aim of the conference is for the empowerment of all physicians to be involved in determining their personal “best responses for addiction” and promoting physician/patient awareness of a natural, yet profoundly effective, addiction treatment options that result in you “thriving while surviving” during treatment and recovery. Integrative Addiction Conference 2015 will cover topics such as addiction as a holistic body ecosystem derangement, the interaction between stress, survivorship, pain and addiction, the role of hormonal imbalance in the disease of addiction, the genetic and epigenetic influences on the disease of addiction, psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration essential to reverse addiction as well as new and future therapies in the horizon for addiction treatment including stem therapy for psycho neuroendocrine immune restoration.

This article will not be properly concluded if I don’t share with you on how you can be involved in this conference. Therefore for those purposing to come for the conference, you can seek for more information through the following contacts: www.integrativeaddiction2015.com or call the event organizer Sharon Phillips on Tel: 954 540 1896 or on email all your queries to her on this address sharon@integrativeaddiction2015.com.

Opioids role in treatment of chronic pains: The careful application of opioids

Habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction

July 20, 2015

Habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction: Addictions’ effect on the amygdala

Habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction. On the formation of these conditions, an immediate treatment for addiction becomes very necessary.

In many peoples’ minds addiction is a habit which is very difficult to disassociate yourself with once it settles in your body. There are several factors that supports this description including denial and relapse among many others. Therefore when people make effort of quitting their addictive life styles whether it is drug use or addictive activities, the problem of withdrawal often becomes a great challenge. If you have been there, you will agree with me that withdrawal is such an unpleasant experience that you wouldn’t want to repeat since it serves as a serious influence and a motivator to get back to your old habits. When this finally happens (getting back to your addiction), it becomes much more pleasurable to the victim even as the consequences of addiction sink further. And because of its pleasurable nature, it even becomes more rewarding and therefore it is bound to be repeated again and again. Some drugs, such as alcohol and opiates, have withdrawal effects that are both physical and emotional. Other drugs or addictive activities may primarily involve around emotional symptoms. This characteristic of addiction occurs because of several changes in the brain and for that reason we want to focus our discussion on the habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction with the help from doctor Dalal Akoury MD a veteran expert in addiction who is also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center.

Doctor Akoury explains that as drug use or the addictive activities escalates the involvement of various brain regions associated with our emotional state also increases. Therefore the brain region that is most often associated with our emotional state is the extended amygdala. Experts are of the opinion that, this area of the brain plays an important role in addiction because of its association with emotions and stress. And like we had mentioned previously that addiction and stress are closely related, we are going to be looking at the two progressively as we progressed into the discussion.

Habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction: The effects of amygdala on emotions and memories

All of us have memories about various events in our lives which can either be bad or good memories and these memories and emotions can be affected by amygdala. The amygdala affects emotions and memory. These memories can be can be categorized as good or bad depending on the emotional states that happen during those events we are remembering. It is therefore very important to appreciate that these memories are formed from the brain and up on their formation, they are kept still within the brain along with the emotional attachment that occurred during those events. Let’s us an illustration to bring it closer to our understanding take for example when you smell the sea air or feel the ocean breeze and hear the seagulls, you will have a pleasant memory and emotional experience alongside. This is because these things have been repeatedly associated with relaxing and enjoyable times. The memory of the sea is stored along with a pleasant emotional state. It therefore means that you can merely visualize the sea in your mind without necessarily being there and you will experience a pleasant emotional state. In the same way an addicted person may only need to visualize about engaging in his addiction and that will be enough for him to experience pleasure. In that case, the memory of engaging in the addiction is stored with a pleasant emotional state and hence the pleasing memories of engaging with an addiction can lead to repeating those behaviors and eventually forms a habit. This is what we must deal with owing to the enormous consequences that come with the formation of an addiction. When you realize that such experiences are happening in your life, then you must seek for an immediate treatment solution from the experts. Doctor Dalal Akoury a veteran addiction experts and her team of experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center can be of great help to you. All you have to do is to call her today to schedule for your appointment and your life will never be the same again.

Habit formation, craving, withdrawal, relapse triggers addiction: Cue anticipation

As we come to the end of this discussion, it is important to note that emotional memory also has another role in the development of addiction known as cue anticipation. Cue anticipation refers to environmental cues that can initiate or elevate craving. Cravings often lead to relapse. For this reason, these cues are often called relapse triggers meaning that, a successful recovery plan will include a strategy for coping with cues (relapse triggers).

These environmental cues (relapse triggers) can be anything that is associated with the addiction. It could be a certain time of day, a place, a person, or an activity. For instance, suppose a man is addicted to pornography use and because of that he usually gets online after his wife goes to bed to satisfy his addiction. The mere act of his wife getting ready to go to bed serves as a cue that prompts powerful cravings. Later, even his own anticipation of his wife going to bed will serve as a powerful cue. The amygdala’s role in emotional memory is responsible for these cues taking root. The brain forms an association between pleasant memories of drug use or addictive activities, and the cues. The more a person repeats this cycle, the more it strengthens the emotional memory circuits associated with these cues. Eventually, this leads to a complete pre-occupation with the addiction.

Finally, so far our discussion has been focusing on the role of amygdala and positive emotional memories. Nonetheless the brain may also form an association between unpleasant emotions and a memory thereby forming a “bad” memory. For your information, these negative emotional memories play an important role in withdrawal. The negative emotional memory of anxiety becomes associated with the physical signs of withdrawal. And as withdrawal begins, the symptoms trigger an unpleasant emotional memory. This increases the negative experience of withdrawal. Withdrawal avoidance (via returning to the addiction) often becomes the cornerstone of the addiction in the later stages. Thus, in the earlier stages of addiction the pleasurable experience of the drug motivates a repetition of that behavior. In the later stages, relief of withdrawal symptoms (physical and/or emotional discomfort) achieves pleasure. This pleasurable relief from withdrawal symptoms continues to motivate the repetition of that behavior. This is a very interesting topic that needs further consultation with the experts. What we have discussed here may not be conclusive and therefore you may want to schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury for more health insight about addiction and the brain.

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