“IDIOT BRAIN: what your head is really up to” by Dean Burnett

The book “Idiot Brain: what your head is really up to,” written by the neuroscientist Dean Burnett, uses humor and layman’s terms for somebody who, like me, enjoys learning more about the brain.
But everything Dean Burnett writes is backed up by science 100%.

Why does nobody quit opiates cold turkey?

“If you’re a long-term drug user, it’s not a simple matter of willpower and discipline; your body and brain are now so used to the drug they’ve physically altered to accommodate it.
Sudden removal of the drug therefore has serious consequences.

Heroin and other opiates provide a good example of this.
Opiates are powerful analgesics that suppress normal levels of pain by stimulating the brain’s endorphin (natural painkilling, pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters) and pain-management systems, providing an intense euphoria.
Unfortunately, pain exists for a reason (to let us know about harm or damage), so the brain responds by increasing the potency of our pain-detection system, to cut through the blissful cloud of opiate-induced pleasure.
So users take more opiates to shut it down again, and the brain strengthens it further, and so on.

Then the drug is taken away. The user no longer has something that made them incredibly calm and relaxed.
What they do have is a super-enhanced pain detection system!
Their pain-system activity is strong enough to cut through an opiate high, which for a normal brain would be agonizing, as it is for a drug user going through withdrawal.

This is why cold turkey is so hard, and legitimately dangerous.”

Kindle, 2023