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In its most basic operation, I see a newborn’s attachment system as being like a toilet tank.  When water in the toilet tank reaches the right level, a ‘switch’ is flipped because it is full and no more water comes in until someone again flips the handle so all the tank’s water can rush out again.

A human beings internal, naturally produced opioids act behave for an infant in a similar way.  When the infant is not in need, it’s opioid receptors in its brain are full.  When the infant has a need, the opioids drain out so that the empty receptors stimulate a recognition of a need within the body-brain.  The infant will then do whatever it can, according to its development, to attract the attention of its caregiver so that whatever the need is can be met.  Once the need is met, the opioid receptors are full again (just like a full toilet tank).

Opioids are our body’s own ‘opioid’ production system.  They make us feel good from before we are born.  Opioids are in the placenta.  They are in breast milk.  They are naturally occurring in our body-brain when we do NOT have a need.

From birth, needs attract the body’s attention.  When they are unmet, they hurt.  Another chemical system in our body tells us when we are in pain:

From Webster’s online:

Main Entry: substance P

: a neuropeptide that consists of 11 amino acid residues, that is widely distributed in the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system, and that acts across nerve synapses to produce prolonged postsynaptic excitation

The “P” in substance P comes from the word PAIN.  Pain is a state of prolonged excitation in the body that does NOT feel good.  Opioids, on the other hand, spread themselves around the body-brain when we have no pain at all.

From our first dependency needs being met, our body-brain grows itself in healthy and positive directions.  When our earliest needs are not met by our attachment caregiver in such a way that our discomfort-pain can stop and our opioid system can tell us we are OK, all manner of physiological developmental changes can take place.

I suspect that our immune system receives the ‘red alert’ when our pain-comfort ratio becomes seriously disturbed, thus triggering epigentic and other changes in our development as we adapt to a world that is more harmful to us than not.  I also suspect that when researchers join together with serious intention to understand the roots of addictions and other so-called ‘mental illnesses’ as they exist in changes that happened within the foundation of our attachment system from birth, great good will come from their findings.

From Webster’s online:

Entry: opioid Function: noun Date: 1967

1 : any of a group of endogenous neural polypeptides (as an endorphin or enkephalin) that bind especially to opiate receptors and mimic some of the pharmacological properties of opiates —called also opioid peptide
2 : a synthetic drug possessing narcotic properties similar to opiates but not derived from opium; broadly : opiate

Physician-reviewed articles on opioids on Healthline.1. Opioid intoxication

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