Neuroscience shows that individuals in high-power positions exhibit reduced motor resonance when observing others. This is a measurable neural change indicating diminished automatic empathy, not just a metaphorical shift in attitude or a conscious choice.

Modern society turns normal behaviors like eating or gaming into potent drugs by manipulating four factors: making them infinitely available (quantity/access), more intense (potency), and constantly new (novelty). This framework explains how behavioral addictions are engineered, hijacking the brain’s reward pathways just like chemical substances.

Our brains are wired to release dopamine through social bonding via the hormone oxytocin. Addictions hijack this natural reward system, replacing deep human connection with a substance or behavior. A key part of recovery is reactivating this healthy pathway by moving out of isolation.

The brain maintains balance by counteracting any deviation to the pleasure side with an equal and opposite reaction to the pain side. This opponent process is why we experience hangovers and why chronic indulgence leads to a dopamine deficit state, driving us to use more just to feel normal.

Dopamine is often misunderstood as a 'pleasure molecule.' Its more crucial role is in motivation—the drive to seek a reward. Experiments show rats without dopamine receptors enjoy food but won't move to get it, starving to death. This seeking behavior is often triggered by the brain's craving to escape a dopamine deficit state.

The "disease model" of addiction is flawed because it removes personal agency. Addiction is more accurately understood as a behavioral coping mechanism to numb the pain of unresolved trauma. Healing requires addressing the root cause of the pain, not just treating the addiction as a brain defect.

An animal study shows a rat, when painfully shocked, will immediately try to get cocaine again even after the habit was extinguished. This models how humans under stress revert to high-dopamine rewards because the brain has encoded this as the fastest way out of any painful state.

Addiction isn't defined by the pursuit of pleasure. It's the point at which a behavior, which may have started for rational reasons, hijacks the brain’s reward pathway and becomes compulsive. The defining characteristic is the inability to stop even when the behavior no longer provides pleasure and begins causing negative consequences.

Constantly bombarding our reward pathways causes the brain to permanently weigh down the 'pain' side of its pleasure-pain balance. This alters our baseline mood, or 'hedonic set point,' meaning we eventually need our substance or behavior not to get high, but simply to escape a state of withdrawal and feel normal.