By Tanmayi Parepalli
Alameda County’s opioid crisis has escalated fast. In fact, the California Syringe Exchange Programs Coalition states that overdose deaths rose over 60% in just one year, from 2022 to 2023. Behind the statistics is something even more disturbing–the way opioids rewire the brain itself.
Innocent lives are being lost every day in Alameda County and this epidemic needs to end. Understanding how these drugs rewire the brain could be key to preventing future deaths, reducing stigma, and guiding local prevention efforts.
An opioid addiction is not an immediate result of opioid use. On the contrary, an addiction occurs after the brain has undergone substantial change due to consistent outsized impacts of the opioids.
It is well known that there are many activities that make people happy – eating flavorful food, dancing, running, you name it – and all of them do something to your brain: they produce dopamine.
Dopamine does not sound terrible in and of itself, and it is not. Dopamine production holds many benefits for the body and brain when it enters the reward pathway at a reasonable rate. That’s where opioids come in.
When a person consumes opioids, brain receptors get overwhelmed due to the influx of dopamine being produced – which is almost 10 times the natural amount – according to Yale Medicine. The reward system in our brains is made so that it reinforces behaviors that it deems to be necessary for our survival, and when opioids are being continuously consumed, the brain begins to associate dopamine production and the overall feeling of happiness with that substance, which leads to the development of an addiction to that substance.
In Alameda County, stress from poverty, housing instability, and trauma makes people more vulnerable to this neurological trap. Once opioids take a hold on one’s brain, quitting becomes nearly impossible without adequate support, medication, and mental health care, which might not always be a viable option for many.
To prevent this, people need to treat opioid addiction by addressing its roots. This means understanding how it starts in the brain and taking steps to interrupt it early. We need to be proactive and begin discussing non-opioid alternatives with our doctors, properly managing prescription medicine, and educating each other about the effects of opioids on brain chemistry.
The better we understand how opioids work, the better we can stop addiction before it begins.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
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