Thank you, Vale, I was just thinking about the reptile brain as I was taking a beautiful drive through the countryside this morning. It must have just set my mind on "primitive" which led to "primitive addict brain." I am often trying to understand the science behind addiction, and this morning I was asking, "Why does the primitive brain overtake the higher brain in addiction?" I know about all the extra dopamine receptors which grow as a result of drug abuse. I know that their "hunger" for dopamine compels the addict to compulsively seek the drug that satisfies those receptors. But the switch being completely thrown from higher brain to lower brain...the door shutting behind the addict and locking him or her into that lower brain....the science of it is confusing to me. If you know of a very good article about this, I'd appreciate a link.
I just have to add one more thought to the thread. Often I hear people say, "Underneath the addiction, addicts are really lovable and wonderful people."
I think language like that is a set-up for relationship disaster. "Underneath" an addiction may be a pathological narcissist. Or a predator of any variety. A sociopath. A rapist. A pathological liar. A child abuser. A maniac. It seems to me dangerously naive to say that the individual is a train wreck because of addiction but sober the individual will be compassionate and ethical. (You didn't say that, but often I hear people say that in various ways).
It seems so classically codependent to me, that kind of language about who is "underneath" the addiction. Still projecting goodness onto people, still getting conned too many times.