{"id":5515,"date":"2025-11-12T10:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T23:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/?p=5515"},"modified":"2026-01-20T20:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:50:25","slug":"how-chronic-stress-rewires-the-brain-and-increases-addiction-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/how-chronic-stress-rewires-the-brain-and-increases-addiction-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chronic Stress Rewires the Brain and Increases Addiction Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"5515\" class=\"elementor elementor-5515\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-357f75ef e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"357f75ef\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1713302e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1713302e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5520 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/depressed-300x159.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/depressed-300x159.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/depressed-768x407.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/depressed.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Recent research from the University of Mississippi has revealed how repeated stress fundamentally alters brain function in ways that persist for weeks, potentially explaining why some individuals become more vulnerable to substance use disorders. The findings, published in the journal eNeuro, offer critical insights into the neurological mechanisms that link chronic stress to increased addiction risk.<\/span><\/p><p><strong>How Stress Alters Decision-Making and Reward System\u2026<\/strong>The study revealed a troubling pattern in brain activity following repeated stressful events. Activity in the prefrontal cortex decreased significantly, potentially compromising the brain\u2019s ability to make sound judgements. Simultaneously, activity in the ventral tegmental area initially increased, heightening the desire for rewards, before dropping below normal levels in subsequent weeks.<\/p><p>This dangerous combination creates a perfect storm: diminished capacity for rational decision-making coupled with intensified cravings for immediate gratification, followed by a persistent \u201creward deficit\u201d where normal rewards no longer provide satisfaction. The research demonstrates that chronic stress makes risky behaviours more tempting and harder to resist.<\/p><p>\u201cStress decreases the percentage of people who can just walk away from drugs and increases the risk of developing substance use disorder,\u201d Del Arco noted.\u00a0<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wrdnews.org\/stress-and-addiction-how-repeated-stress-changes-your-brai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read complete research here<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent research from the University of Mississippi has revealed how repeated stress fundamentally alters brain function in ways that persist for weeks, potentially explaining why some individuals become more vulnerable to substance use disorders. The findings, published in the journal eNeuro, offer critical insights into the neurological mechanisms that link chronic stress to increased addiction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-need-counselling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11107,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5515\/revisions\/11107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}