- The human brain is the most complex organ in the body.

It regulates our body's basic functions.

It enables us to interpret and respond to everything we experience in life and shapes our behavior.

The brain does have some vulnerabilities, though, and that means so do we, especially when it comes to drug use.

Hi.

I'm Rylee.

Today on "Mind Frame," we're talking about substance use disorder.

Did you know drugs can actually alter important parts of the brain that we need to survive and thrive?

These changes in the brain also drive the compulsive drug use that marks addiction.

Look, we've all been told that drugs and alcohol aren't good for us.

Yes, even vaping too, but how is substance use linked to mental health?

To answer this question, we caught up with Tristyn Ball, who's the director of the Prevention and Intervention for Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services.

Tristan helps people with depression and many other mental health disorders.

- There is a link, actually, between substance use as well as depression and anxiety.

So I will say mental health issues can cause somebody to turn to substances and vice versa.

So, substances can cause somebody to feel depressed, anxious, as well as some other indicators of other mental illnesses.

Sometimes, if people are feeling depressed or have feelings of depression or have feelings of anxiety, they may feel like substances, whether that be alcohol or vaping or other substances, will alleviate those feelings or make them feel better, and we know that that's not true.

Alcohol is actually a depressant and can actually make people feel depressed, and then marijuana and tobacco use can actually increase feelings of anxiety and make people feel more anxious.

- So, if drugs and alcohol make people feel worse, why do people turn to them?

And how does addiction actually work?

To answer these questions, we talked to Jodi Kulka, who works as a school psychologist and prevention coordinator, and sees firsthand how substance use disorder impacts the brain.

It all comes down to a chemical called dopamine.

Dopamine is made in your brain and serves like a little chemical messenger, communicating between nerve cells and your brain and between your brain and the rest of your body, but as Jodi tells us, it's how you feel under the influence of dopamine that could play a role in people getting hooked.

- Essentially, dopamine is our brain's chemical communicator and indicates a feeling of pleasure.

So it is the chemical in our brain that really communicates when things are good for our body.

It encourages our body to seek out that same feeling again.

So, essentially, it is what drives repeating behaviors.

Lots of behaviors that we engage in on a daily basis or on a regular basis, such as eating or exercise, can cause our body to naturally release dopamine.

Since dopamine is really responsible for us wanting to repeat or engage in the same behaviors, some substances can mimic that in our body as well.

For some chemical substances, they release this surge of dopamine, sometimes more than what naturally is occurring in our body, and that makes our body want to repeat or seek out that feeling again.

So we might reach for a substance because it gives us a sense of pleasure greater than what we typically feel from other behaviors, and, unfortunately, when we start to repeat that and seek out that feeling again, it can trigger that reward center to make us want to repeat that behavior over and over again.

- Let's break this down.

For our brains, the difference between normal rewards and drug rewards can be compared to the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone.

Just like we turn down the volume on a mic that is too loud, the brain of someone who misuses drugs adjusts by producing fewer neurotransmitters in the reward part of the brain.

As a result, our ability to experience pleasure from naturally rewarding activities decreases.

So, as Jodi laid out, dopamine surges caused by substance use teach the brain to seek drugs at the expense of other healthcare goals and activities.

Dopamine occurs naturally in our bodies.

A good example of this is exercise.

When we exercise, you provide a low dose jolt to the brain's reward centers, or the part of the brain that helps you feel pleasure, feel motivated, and maintain hope.

Over time, regular exercise rewires this reward system in a healthy way, leading to higher levels of dopamine.

Exercise can both relieve depression, anxiety, and expand your capacity for joy.

So, now that we know what is happening in the brain when we use substances like drugs and alcohol, what are the symptoms of substance use disorder?

- The things to look out for in terms of yourself or a friend would be just feeling the need to have it as part of your life, the need to use that substance more and more.

Maybe you're using the substance more frequently than you intend or using higher quantities of the substance than you would have before.

Eventually, you're going to feel like that substance is really intruding in your daily thoughts, that it's maybe got more control than you do over it.

You might be engaging in behaviors and making riskier choices than you normally would make, and, at the end of the day, you're going to feel, as you increase use, that you are really not able to stop anymore, and then when you do attempt to stop, you might even experience symptoms of withdrawal.

If you feel like you or a friend are really struggling with substance misuse or overusing a substance, the key part that that I think everybody needs to remember is that it's not your fault, but you need to seek the advice of a trusted adult.

Whether that be a physician, a parent, a teacher, maybe a mental health professional, it's important to make sure that someone knows that you have concerns.

Substance use might make us feel better for a a temporary amount of time, but, ultimately, they lead to worsening of symptoms over time and they're not going to ever really solve what is the root for most of us in terms of our mental health concerns.

So it's important to really seek help to get to the root of those concerns rather than turning to substances to cope.

The human brain isn't fully developed until the mid-20s, early to mid-20s, and the last structures to develop in our brain are our prefrontal cortex or the front of our brain, our forehead, and, really, the processes involved in that part of your brain are things like planning and problem solving, decision making, and what research has shown us is that the long-term use of substances or misuse of substances really can start to change the structures, not only those dopamine receptors and the levels of dopamine in our brain, but the actual connections and synapses that help us to think and plan.

So, ultimately, long-term use or early use of substances can really change the structure of our brain as it's finally forming.

- Just like Jodi mentioned, if we are struggling with our mental health, it's important to get to the root of those issues before turning to drugs or alcohol to cope with those problems.

In fact, turning to substances instead of professional support will only make things worse.

So, whether it's for yourself or for a friend, reach out and speak up so we can all get the help we need.

There are plenty of resources available if you know someone's struggling with addiction.

You can find links to those below.

Until next time, be well, and let's take care of each other.