Dr. Anna Lembke

So taking them for a medical reason, but then over time finding that illegal.

Their brain has adapted to that and wants more and more.

People can get addicted to all kinds of behaviors, gambling, sex, all kinds of digital media, social media, video games, online pornography, online shopping.

People can get addicted to other people, love and other forms of attachment.

Really?

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

So three general categories.

The first is simple access.

Simple access to our drug of choice.

It's one of the biggest risk factors.

If you live in a neighborhood where drugs are sold on the street corner, you're more likely to use them and more likely to get addicted to them.

Now, there is genetic variation between individuals for susceptibility to addiction, and that plays a role.

But whoever you are, if you have more access to whatever your drug of choice is, you're more likely to use it, more likely to get addicted.

And what we have in the world today is so many more drugs.

And the old drugs are so much more potent than they used to be, and everybody has more access to a much larger quantity.

Number two is potency.

So how much dopamine is released and how quickly it is released has a huge impact on how addictive that substance or behavior.

And what we have with digital devices is technological affordances or dynamic design features that make them more potent.