Aug 4, 2026 · 1h 1m
Addiction can outlast pleasure when cues keep wanting alive
Wanting vs Liking: Why Addiction Isn't About Pleasure | Dr. Kent Berridge
Separating dopamine-driven wanting from pleasure clarifies why relapse can persist after enjoyment fades and points toward more targeted recovery strategies.
- 1Addiction can intensify wanting through sensitized dopamine systems even when the drug or behavior no longer feels pleasurable.
- 2Environmental cues can reactivate craving years later, while relief-seeking and sensitized wanting may reinforce each other.
- 3Recovery may combine behavioral support, medications such as GLP-1 agonists, and treatments tailored to individual biology.
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Berridge explains why a smell, neighborhood, song, or imagined drug use can reactivate craving years after sobriety.
The brief
Kent Berridge’s central distinction is between wanting and liking: dopamine can intensify pursuit without producing sustained pleasure, helping explain why addiction outlasts enjoyment.
Vulnerability reflects more than exposure alone. Genetics, stress, binge patterns, and drug history can sensitize reward systems, while sex, gambling, gaming, and pornography may recruit similar mechanisms.
Relapse can begin with a smell, neighborhood, song, person, or imagined use. Years after sobriety, familiar cues may rapidly activate a sensitized brain system.
The treatment implications remain unsettled: dopamine blockade may reduce wanting without erasing pleasure, while GLP-1 medications show promise but require more individualized evidence.
Berridge closes on recovery and healthy wanting, arguing that sensitization may decline and that behavioral strategies, medication, structure, support, and purpose can work together.
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