It becomes very clear why users of Facebook and parents of users need to start taking notice. How is a Facebook addiction physiologically possible?   The brain has primary pleasure centers and reward circuitry (specifically referred to the nucleus accumbens). This brain area and related circuitry does not differentiate pleasure derived from one activity to another as long as it feels good. Specifically food, sex, drugs and now, Facebook all flood the pleasure centers with dopamine, the neurotransmitter most involved with the reward system. This reward system is the most primitive aspects of the human brain and something we share with all animals. The primal instinct that drives us to drink when thirsty, eat when hungry or have sex when sexually aroused is the same instinct that causes humans to continue pleasurable but addictive behaviors. The reward circuitry is connected to many important brain circuits involved in higher reasoning, motivation, rational thinking and physical bodily sensations. It is the intricate relationship of this circuitry in the context of a person’s genetic make-up that dictates susceptibility to becoming an addict.

With proof Facebook indeed fits the definition of an addiction, is it a gateway for kids and adults alike to advance to more dangerous addictions? While Facebook has not been around long enough to collect good data on this phenomenon, one can easily hypothesize that inevitably it will have similar effects as marijuana or other ‘gateway” drugs in terms of propagating further addiction. This does not mean that everyone using Facebook will progress to more dangerous behaviors but like all other addictions, the “perfect storm” of susceptible underlying genetics and a ones environment will ultimately dictate whether someone becomes an addict.

One key unique concern of Facebook addiction is the presence of an addiction at ages so young that the brain is still malleable and developing. Older teens and adults who partake in almost all other addictive behaviors on a regular basis have essentially fully developed brains. Their brains are “equipped” with their specific circuitry and structure. However what if extremely early age addiction “turns-on” the susceptible genes in genetically pre-programmed kids at ages when the brain has yet to fully develop? Even in a fully developed brain, the ability to strengthen and modify reward circuitry is immense but a developing brain has more potential to develop more potent reward circuitry leading to even stronger primal reward seeking behaviors.

Although this is a hypothesize at this point given the relatively short amount of time Facebook has been around, with more time, imaging, genetics and further research, people will be surprised at the eventual impact of Facebook. If you have doubts, keep in mind, decades ago, tobacco was considered benign and pleasurable. The long-term consequences it has on mind and body were greatly underestimated. Facebook may not cause cancer but deterioration of other important aspects of one’s life is a real possibility.

Michael Yasinski M.D

[Michael Yasinski M.D is a Scottsdale Psychiatrist with his own house-call practice-Yasinskipsychiatry.com]