Motivation a type of chemical that blocks pain,
Motivation and the Brain 1 Running Head: Motivation and the Brain Motivation and the Brain Allison Finnie University of Phoenix Motivation and the Brain 2 Motivation and the Brain The process of trying to quit smoking is harder than one could ever imagine. This addiction will have you on a terrible emotional roller coaster where you’ll begin to have mixed emotions about what to do.
People already smoke cigarettes for totally different reasons, such as loosing weight, relieving stress, and to control unwanted feelings. In the beginning your negative emotions will begin to over power the positive.On one hand your intellect knows that smoking cigarettes is a terrible thing to do to your body and your environment, and you want to quit, but on the other hand the biological brain has been formed to seek gratification and avoid grief. When it comes to trying to quit smoking several brain functions and structures are involved with this process as well as your environment and heredity.
This paper will discuss the brain structures and functions that are involved with your behavior and emotions to drive people to smoke and quit smoking.And it will also discuss weather or not smoking is hereditary and how much effect the environment has on an individual who is trying to quit smoking. Dopamine is a hormone and a very important neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with pleasure and enjoyment.
When dopamine is released into the nucleus accumbens dopamine will increase due to the affects from nicotine. Dopamine plays a very major role in addiction because it affects the brain process controlling the ability to experience pleasure. Endorphins are a type of chemical that blocks pain, and instead they produce feelings of happiness and well being.
Endorphins are chemical substances in the nervous system that are also involved with pleasure. In addition, nicotine may produce a calming effect by triggering the release of beta-endorphins. Endorphins and Dopamine Motivation and the Brain 3 are both located in the midbrain and play a major role on a person’s addiction to nicotine.
The midbrain is where neural centers are located near the top of the brainstem dealing with arousal. If someone is trying to maintain their weight by smoking cigarettes they may become an addict because of these structures within the brain along with environmental effects and heredity.Because of what their motivations are and their perceptions of pleasure they may not even be aware at the time that to quit smoking would become one of the most important decisions they would make in their life. This could be one of the main reasons why smokers have this craving for nicotine because of that first intake; chemically it’s hard to say no. The hypothalamus is a structure in the brain that is located beneath the thalamus. It maintains the body’s internal environment, emotions, and drives. In stressful situations certain chemicals are produced, and when an individual intakes nicotine the hypothalamus is stimulated in the same way.
Most people say that smoking cigarettes make them calm and more relaxed. Yet within the brain the hypothalamus also affects the blood pressure, heart rate, and metabolism. This alone is a major problem for any smoker because this will cause you to possibly have a heart attack as well as having a lack of metabolism. Your health and your environment both should be significant to everyone. The amygdala also dealing with emotion is a lower-level brain structure that is part of the limbic system. The limbic system is involved with the arousal and regulation of motivation, emotion, and several other aspects of behavior.
It too is a lower level Motivation and the Brain 4 brain structure that is part of the brain. It controls how you deal with problems because it is the emotional center of the brain. So what happens is when the body tries to reject the cigarette the limbic system creates a craving for the nicotine which sometimes leads to an addiction. These regions play very important roles in the reason why so many people become addicted to nicotine. Now the brain has higher functions that are more important to this situation, one important structure that will be discussed is the cerebral cortex.
The cerebral cortex that sits outside of the two cerebral hemispheres regulates most complex behavior, such as motivation, emotion, reasoning, and self-awareness. It has four lobes within its structure but only two tell why some people have such a hard time trying to quit smoking. Your occipital lobe affects your visual perception. This can be the reason why some smokers that are trying to quit smoking see a co-worker smoking and all of a sudden have a craving for a cigarette. Visually at the time it may look appealing because all of your co-workers are outside talking appearing to have a good time.But maybe they’re not aware of the information the non-smoker’s aware of, maybe they don’t care about there environment. Since your temporal lobes have some control over your comprehension and emotions you must be able to comprehend what is the right and wrong thing to do.
Even though it may be hard to believe, but the chemicals that are created within our brain and the way the structures in our brain are developed this is the main reason why you can’t just think you will smoke only one cigarette and not become addicted like everyone else.Motivation and the Brain 5 These structures and functions in the brain and the cravings are causing the body to be emotionally distraught. There is an actual war going on within your body with the intelligent mind and the biological brain.
This is something non-smokers don’t understand because their bodies are not going through this physical and emotional withdrawal. Some say the only way to trigger the brain back into its normal way of thinking is to “cold turkey” quit. When one is trying to quit smoking they need to ensure that their environment is very supportive or they have their mind set to give up the nicotine.The smoker that is trying to quit smoking cigarettes needs to take it seriously, and they should sit down and write out their goals and the reasons they hate smoking so that way when their biological brain wants to smoke this can help them fight ambivalence. Some people have a greater urge to smoke after watching another person smoke cigarettes or even seeing a pack of cigarettes. If one person experiences greater sensitivity to environmental cues then it will be particularly harder for that person.You may relapse very quickly if looking at a pack of cigarettes gives you a craving to smoke.
You must be Just because you see someone smoking a cigarette doesn’t mean that you have to crave for one. Don’t allow anyone or any situation to drive you to smoke. This may be an environment that you may need to change if something puts you in a stage where you feel that smoking is the stress reliever. Being around friends that try to constantly offer you a cigarette when they know that you are trying to kick the habit may not truly be your friend.This indeed may need to be a major change in your environment. When a person is trying to do something positive in Motivation and the Brain 6 their life they shouldn’t allow anyone to stand in their way especially when it’s dealing with your health. Sometimes a change of environment may be good for everyone.
I don’t believe that smoking is hereditary, but I do believe that if you do it front of your children they have more chances of becoming a smoker than a child that grew up with a non-smoker as a parent.If you’re not properly educated you may not know that it’s unhealthy to smoke around your children or to even smoke period. This will start a vicious cycle until someone becomes informed on what health issues are involved with smoking. If every time you go to a family function your family is encouraging you to smoke this will influence you to continue. Then you have some children who decide not to be like their parents because they were smokers.
Some people decide to stop smoking when their parents feel it’s appropriate or when their parents decide to quit.This is why most people believe that smoking is a personal decision where every person decides weather they want to smoke or not. So, if anyone out there is trying to kick that nicotine habit be patient and ready for what is coming ahead. It will be emotionally difficult and very nerve wrecking, but it’s a healthy decision that all smokers should make.
No matter how many times it takes please try to kick that deadly habit called smoking cigarettes. Motivation and the Brain 7 ReferencesDuke Med News, (2007) Brain Scans Reveals Cause of Smokers’ Cravings. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www. emaxhealth. com/58/10356. html#. Perry B.
D. , (2007) Brain structure and function II. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from www. childtrauma. org/ctamaterials/brain_II.
asp – 64k Zacharia, Suzanne (2006) Smoking and Genetics: Is Smoking Hereditary? Retrieved December 12, 2007 from www. articlealley. com/article_87495_17. html
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