And then what happens after that peak ? It all becomes very clear as to why addiction happens and why it's so pernicious . So for instance , let's take cocaine .
It is both the duration between desire and effect . And when I say effect , I mean , the rewarding properties of dopamine that are experienced that's important . So very short gaps teach the system to expect and want short gaps makes it very hard to pursue things that take longer .
So that , that short , we can even say hyper short contingency is really what the system wants so much . So that longer contingencies of say , putting in the hard work of , you know , generating a fitness program or a professional program for yourself or a uh education program , which takes not just many days but many weeks and years . Well , none of that is going to lead to P and dopamine that are as high as the peak in dopamine associated with cocaine .
But that engages this progressive narrowing of the things that bring someone pleasure such that nothing else is really salient . Nothing else is really pulling them in in the way that their video games or sex or pornography or alcohol , pick your substance or you know , behavior that you see out there or uh hopefully not , but that you might suffer from an addiction to . So what's happening in addiction ?
And worse still is that the peaks in dopamine that are created from more consumption of cocaine leads to progressively lower peaks and deeper troughs below baseline . So the whole system is shifting away from pleasure and more to pain and the desire for pursuit of the drug .
