Dual Diagnosis Treatment Center in Bothell East
Relapse is the return to drug usage following a period of abstinence. Relapse suggests that further or alternative therapy is required.
Most medications work by flooding the brain's reward circuit with the chemical messenger dopamine. Dopamine surges in the reward circuit reinforce enjoyable but harmful behaviours, causing people to repeat the activity again and over.
Over time, the brain adjusts to the extra dopamine, reducing the high relative to the high experienced when initially taking the drug—an process called as tolerance. They may take more of the medicine in an attempt to attain the same dopamine high.