The reward pathway in heroin addiction

The reward pathway in the brain … the purple areas are the main portion of the reward pathway, the light blue dots represent the area where opiates like heroin act. Continued use of opiates makes the body rely on the presence of the drug to maintain rewarding feelings and other normal behaviours. The person is no longer able to feel the benefits of natural rewards (food, water, sex) and can’t function normally without the drug present.

I WAS living a lie,” she says through tears in her eyes. “I suspected he was using drugs for a long time but never took the signs seriously.” When Puan Fatimah received the phone call from the police telling her that her son, Jamal, was being held on suspicion of robbery and of being a drug addict, she felt a sense of shock, and surprisingly to her, relief that the truth had finally come out.