RESOURCE LIBRARY

How Addiction Hijacks the Brain

DVD, 2016, HRM, CC, 24 minutes, Grades 7-College

This film drives home the message that drug and alcohol addiction are a disease of the brain and that teens are at highest risk for acquiring this disease. Leading scientists detail how drugs like heroin, nicotine, cocaine and marijuana change the brain, subvert the way it registers pleasure, and corrupt learning and motivation. Young recovering addicts provide a human face to the effects of drugs and alcohol as they describe how addiction involves intense craving for a drug and loss of control over its use. Viewers also learn that the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change, offers hope for addicts that they can turn their lives around.

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