Homeostasis
The internal state where our body is at equilibrium.
​Addiction, whether that is drug abuse or activity addiction, interrupts an important biological process in our body called homeostasis. When we have an addiction it creates chronic overstimulation in the brain which thoroughly affects our homeostasis. However, because our brain is adaptive it creates a new set balance point, called allostasis, to help maintain homeostasis in our body. Though this keeps our body functioning, it causes significant changes to our brain’s functioning. These changes contribute to behaviors associated with addictions such as the need to continue harmful activities, difficulty in quitting an addictive activity, and lastly the obsessive nature of addictions that makes all other matters insignificant. This means that once addiction changes our brain’s balance to accommodate the addiction. The brain then requires the addictive substance or activity in order to maintain this new homeostatic balance.
