Q.Why is that once a person starts taking alcohol or drugs, it is difficult to get rid of this habit? Discuss it with your teacher.

The reason it becomes so difficult to stop once a person starts taking alcohol or drugs lies in how these substances affect the brain. They interfere with the normal functioning of the brain's reward and pleasure centres, creating an artificial feeling of euphoria or well-being. Over time, the brain gets used to this artificial stimulation and starts to depend on the substance to feel normal.

This leads to two powerful forces. First, tolerance develops — the person needs larger doses to get the same effect. Second, dependence sets in, where the body and mind crave the substance. If the person tries to stop, they experience intense physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, shakiness, nausea, and severe cravings. These symptoms are so unpleasant that the person often relapses just to feel relief. …

The difficulty in breaking free from alcohol or drug habits lies deep in how these substances interact with the human brain. When a person first takes alcohol or drugs, the substance triggers an intense release of dopamine — the brain’s “feel-good” chemical — in the reward centre. This produces a feeling of pleasure far stronger than what natural rewards like food, friendship, or achievement can provide. The brain, being a highly adaptive organ, quickly learns to associate the substance with this powerful reward.

Over time, the brain adapts to the constant flood of dopamine by reducing its own natural production of the chemical and by decreasing the number of dopamine receptors. This is called tolerance — the person now needs larger amounts of the substance just to feel the same level of pleasure they once got from a small dose. What started as a voluntary choice becomes a biological necessity: without the substance, the brain’s reward system is now underactive, leading to feelings of depression, anxiety, and intense craving.

The second major force is psychological dependence. The substance becomes linked with every aspect of the person’s life — stress relief, socialising, coping with failure, or even celebrating success. The brain builds powerful memory associations: a particular place, a certain time of day, or even an emotional state can trigger an overwhelming urge to use. This is why relapse can happen even after the body has been detoxified; the psychological hooks remain long after the chemical has left the system.

Method: A Three-Stage Progression Model

Instead of explaining brain chemistry as one continuous narrative, this method breaks

addiction into three named stages, each with its own biological marker — which makes it

easier to explain WHY quitting gets progressively harder rather than uniformly hard.

Stage 1 — Experimentation: a first dose triggers an unusually strong dopamine

("reward") release — far stronger than any natural reward. At this stage, the substance is

still a choice, not yet a need.

Stage 2 — Habituation (tolerance): with repeated use, the brain adapts by reducing its

own dopamine production and the number of receptors. The same dose now produces a weaker

effect, so larger doses are needed to feel the same pleasure — the marker of this stage is

tolerance.

Stage 3 — Dependence/addiction: the brain's reward system is now under-active without

the substance, so stopping causes genuine physical and psychological distress —

withdrawal symptoms. At this stage the substance is no longer sought for pleasure but …