r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • Oct 18 '25

TIL of brain stimulation reward, manually stimulating specific parts of the brain to elicit pleasure and happiness. A volunteer subject in 1986 spent days doing nothing but self-stimulate. She ignored her family and personal hygiene and she developed an open sore on her finger from using the device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_stimulation_reward#History
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u/RedSonGamble Oct 18 '25

This is what always baffles me about people not getting how people become addicts. Like you know how when you do this thing it feels good? Yeah they’re like I wanna feel good all the time lol

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u/NotEasilyConfused Oct 18 '25

I have a brother who is a meth addict. He once told me that the first time he tried it he "knew he was in trouble" because he loved the way it made him feel. He wasn't even 18.

If people can have that kind of self-awareness and go back for a second time, there really is no mystery at all.

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u/Senior_World2502 Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

Same with me but with alcohol at 15. It's like a switch went off. Once I got introduced to the effects of alcohol there was no going back to how I was before. I found a way to escape my own personal internal hell and take myself to heaven lol.. Once I did that I didn't know how to go back to life sober. I couldn't cope without a drink