Why is heroin both physically addictive and psychologically addictive?

Answer 1

Heroin is physically addictive because it is an opiate, and all opiates are physically addictive.

Heroin is psychologically addictive because it produces desirable feelings and emotions in the user, and also because when the user is physically addicted, they will become physically sick if they do not have their dose. They develop an aversion to doing without because of this.

Answer 2

Once the heroin gets into your blood stream it goes straight to your brain and takes over. The drug takes over the physical dependence and blocks the sensation of being rewarded for the body. Thus, a steady user of the drug cannot feel any good feelings without the drug in their system. So people that use the drug get addicted because without it they cannot feel happy feelings.

More specifically, heroin (and most other addictive drugs) affects the dopamine system of the brain which is responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward. Initially use will increase the amount of available dopamine resulting in feelings of pleasure. Continued use will "down-regulate" the dopamine system making it less sensitive. When drug use is stopped, dopamine levels fall back to normal. Because the system has now been desensitized, the user will not feel the same degree of pleasure from activities such as sex, eating, etc. (anhedonia). It may take many months, however, the dopamine system will usually recover and the user will feel better/normal. This effect is partly responsible for psychological dependence on heroin.

Heroin acts on other systems of the brain and body which can result in physical dependence as well as the psychological effects noted above. When use is stopped, a very unpleasant "acute withdrawal syndrome" may result, lasting for days. This syndrome is probably what most people associate with heroin addiction, as "dope sickness" is often depicted on television and in moves.

Physical dependence makes it difficult for an addict to initially stop using the drug. Psychological dependence makes long term abstinence difficult.

Answer 3

== Heroin is an opiate-- that is, it is made from narcotic alkaloids found in opium, or an derivates thereof. Heroin causes delirium, disorientation, and physical and psychological dependence. Asides from the psychological need to imbibe heroin that is associated with psychological dependence, withdrawal symptoms from heroin are unpleasant. Withdrawal symptoms include depression, insomnia, anxiety, excessive sweating, and "itchy blood" (where one compulsively scratches the legs, often breaking the skin and causing scabs). Abruptly stopping the use of heroin can cause the leg muscles to spasm.

The withdrawal symptoms may begin in 6-24 hours of discontinuation of heroin's use.

Answer 4

It makes you feel good. Like the feeling you get after sex, but it lasts 1-3 hours. They only have to do the drug very few times before they are very addicted. More so than tobacco. It also makes people imagine things that they want, then they do crazy things.

Answer 5

Well, ultimately heroin is morphine and I'm not sure one is necessarily more addictive than the other. You can get just as addicted to either form. But speaking from experience, with heroin it is that unbelievable rush (for the IV'ers). That's what hooked me, whereas with regular morphine I'd be just bored.

Answer 6

Heroin is so addictive because of the opiates that make it up along with the physical dependence that your body forms which then leads to a mental need as well.

Answer 7

The physical origin of heroin addiction resides in the brain with the over-stimulation of opioid and dopamine receptors in the reward pathway.