You want to stop: Your mind doesn’t 

At night, you tell yourself: I’ll stop tomorrow. But then morning comes and you give in right away. How does that happen? To find out, you have to look inside your mind. 

By Has Cornelissen 

All sorts of things happen in your mind that make your craving for tobacco or other drugs stronger than what’s good for you. Thanks to vastly improved imaging techniques, our understanding of this has increased dramatically over the last few years. A complex interaction of signals takes place between our brain cells and certain chemicals such as dopamine and endorphin. We will describe six main systems that interact in the process of maintaining (and losing) control. There are also other systems at play, such as GABA (rest) and oxytocin (connection), but for now, we will focus on these six systems. 

1 – Dopamine 

Having lots of dopamine in your brain gives you a nice feeling. It feels like a reward after eating, having sex or a compliment. Dopamine regulates motivation and how you learn. When this system is stimulated, you think: ‘this is important, I need to do this more often’. On the other hand, the dopamine system can also be linked to psychosis when it becomes overstimulated. 

2 – Endorphins 

The endorphin system helps your sense of well-being and increases your pain tolerance. Opioids such as heroine do this as well. Opioids are stronger than the endorphins that your body produces, so much so that when using opiates, your body actually stops producing endorphins. As soon as the drugs have worn off, you often feel pain, restlessness and sadness. 

3 Serotonin 

XTC gives you a massive dose of serotonin. This chemical regulates mood, sleep, hunger and impulse control. After taking XTC, a lot of people feel a wave of euphoria, warmth and connection. Once it wears off, your serotonin levels are temporarily depleted, which can cause sadness (the notorious Tuesday Blues). 

4 – Stress system 

The part of your brain called the pituitary gland regulates the production of hormones that help with important bodily processes such as the stress system. Substance use disrupts the pituitary gland and also hormone production. Once the drugs wear off, you become more easily agitated and anxious, which causes your craving for the substance. 

5 – Prefrontal cortex 

The prefrontal cortex develops in the frontal lobe of brain during adolescence. It manages a number of functions including cause-and-effect reasoning, planning and self-control. Cannabis use during puberty affects this development. This area can also be disrupted later in life due to a lack of sleep or drug use. An impaired can lead to more impulsive behaviour, affect planning and less REM. 

6 – Limbic system 

In the centre of your brain, your primal brain, the amygdala and the hippocampus work together. We call this the limbic system. The amygdala processes feelings and the hippocampus the memories associated with them. The interaction between these small areas of the brain is also called the emotional brain. The limbic system does not only remember what you’ve done, but also how good that feels. The more you use a substance in a particular situation, the stronger this system connects the feeling and the situation with each other. This causes cravings when you are in that same situation again. At the same time, having the same feeling in that situation gets harder without the substance. 

To conclude 

First and foremost, using drugs is a choice. It can sometimes feel like self-medication. But the complex system in your brain means that your control soon becomes disrupted and that using the substance gives a better feeling than everyday life. Does it take multiple attempts to get your use under control? Well, that seems about right.

How exactly do substances work in the brain?

Nicotine makes your brain less able to learn from mistakes. You can read this and other facts in:

• NRC (you are already referring to the articel from May 2025): ‘Ik wilde begrijpen waarom rokers niet kunnen stoppen met hun verslaving’ 

• NIDA: Drugs, Brains, and Behavior — The Science of Addiction 

• Trimbos Institute files over substances and the brain: https://www.trimbos.nl/kennis 

• Mainline report 2018 ‘Speed Limits. Harm reduction for people who use stimulants’  

• Want to know more about kratom or other substances? https://www.drugsinfo.nl/overige-middelen/wat-is-kratom/