• Stressors are the external triggers for the physiological stress reaction, a maelstrom of hormonal secretions and nervous discharges that involve virtually every organ and system in the body. • The most potent stressors are loss of control and uncertainty in important areas of life, whether personal or professional, economic or psychological. • Stress interacts powerfully with the biology of addiction in the brain. • Stresses such as emotional isolation or the sense that we are dominated by others change our brains in ways that increase the need for external sources of dopamine—that is, they
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