Have you ever heard someone say “Chipotle” and automatically wanted it? Or Pilgrim? Or BK?  What about Tumblr or Facebook or tanning? Do you think that these cravings you have right now could actually be completely out of your control? Because they probably are.

Cravings and habits are now believed to be addictions that have been built up throughout your life. Because they have been built up for so long, they are harder to resist. Even if you don’t necessarily want to follow through with your addictions, your brain does.

Due to studies by Nora Volkow and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, featured on a recent edition of 60 Minutes, researchers
believe that addictions might be due to the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is an organic chemical proven to be responsible for satisfaction and reward-driven learning.

In experiments, when a subject is shown a picture of something they might be addicted to, brain scans show an increase of dopamine in the brains. When the release of this chemical occurs a person has a harder time resisting the craving or addiction.

Food cravings can be considered addictions. Whether someone is craving Chipotle or Pilgrim, once someone gets his or her mind set on a certain food and dopamine is released it is hard for teens, or anyone, to resist these cravings.

When we think of addictions, we tend to think of substances.
But teens today have many behaviors that may indeed be addictions. Some of these include tanning, Facebook, cellphones, and more. Junior Cassidy Chait admits that when she hears the word tanning she immediately thinks of the
satisfaction she gets from going tanning and wants to go. This is exactly the sensation Volkow is studying.

Many researchers claim that using Facebook can lead to addiction. Facebook Addiction Disorder, or FAD as it
has been called, has been said to affect approximately 350 million people, according to an article on Facebook Addiction
Disorder by Amy Summers. This disorder can cause people to spend hours on Facebook and reduce the time spent in normal social activities. Dopamine can be released when thinking of how much something pleases you to do, and for someone
who enjoys “stalking” people on Facebook, this can easily become an addiction.

Even cellphones are very addicting. People are constantly checking their texts or other apps on their phone, such as Instagram or Twitter. People enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing, this gratification comes from knowing what is going on at all times.

“I feel like I have to know what is going on otherwise I am missing out” says junior Kelsey Attamante, “By checking the news feed I feel content knowing what’s going on.”

Not all addictions are as serious as FAD or food addictions but they can still havethe same control over someone. For instance, Junior Christine Farawell thinks she is addicted to picking her split ends. “When I see a split end, I know how
satisfying it is to pick it so I have to,” she says. Years of doing this may be causing her brain to release dopamine.

We all know how hard habits are to break. If Volkow’s researchis correct this is because they aren’t just behavior – they are the result of changing brain chemistry. So now Volkow and other researchers are trying to develop medications which could control the level of dopamine released in the brain, minimizing the urge or addiction.