Absolutely a simplification (kinda gotta do that when you look at the brain). Affects the part I wanna look at though.

I’m actually doing addiction research now too and think that addiction is similar to chronic pain in that it results in this increased affect — people with addictive disorders feel strong cravings they can not crave, they over emphasize the good feeling on the drug and perhaps most importantly they feel awful when withdrawing. Withdrawal causes increased sensitivity to pain and negative affect and likely drives addictive behavior.

Real interesting stuff