Tolerance and Withdrawal

TOLERANCE

One of the criteria for substance use disorder is tolerance, which means that a person needs to consume more of a substance over time to achieve the effects that lesser amounts no longer produce. Tolerance results in the person needing to eat more food, or more specific foods, or more individually identified trigger foods to achieve the same rewarding or pleasurable effects.

These effects are the result of releases of dopamine in the brain. When a person repeatedly does something that releases dopamine in the reward system, such as smoking a cigarette or eating a Snickers bar, the brain begins removing dopamine receptors to keep things balanced. With fewer receptors, more dopamine is needed to reach the same effect.

Withdrawal is when a person experiences unpleasant symptoms when they stop using a substance or uses the substance to avoid those symptoms. For food addiction, this could mean that a person feels anxious, irritable, or depressed when they abstain from certain foods or consumes those foods to relieve their negative mood.

When there are fewer dopamine receptors, eating even the former amounts will produce unease and unhappiness when Food Addicts don’t get their individual identified trigger food “fix.”

Tolerance and withdrawal are associated with addictive disorders.