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Why it's so hard for addicts to 'just quit'

 Psychiatrist Ruth Korir during an interview at Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital on March 30, 2023. [David Gichuru, Standard]

For millions of people fighting addiction, quitting is not just a matter of willpower, and research is just beginning to show why as new evidence suggests that substance abuse causes changes in brain function.

For people like Ms Rita Gatonye a resident of Nairobi who started experimenting with drugs back in 2015, its prolonged use caused her brain to stop making enough dopamine - a chemical released in the brain when something good happens, giving an addict some form of pleasure or euphoria.

"I started experimenting with drugs as anyone would while a student at the university," she says. "The first drug I experimented with was bhang."

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