What is the relation between Addiction and other sources of dopamine?

Are there any studies of how stimulants that aren't part of an addicts "addiction" and whether they cause any type of regression?

I have been porn free for multiple years now, but I still can't drink alcohol, eat sugary food or gamble without the "bad pathways" flares up - sort of like they were responding to P or M. If I do drink or eat sugar, I can even go into a similar condition as when I was flatlining. Over time the intensity decreases, but I still find it shocking how severe the impact is from dopamine sources that aren't technically "part of the addiction".

I've seen a decent amount of posts here asking about video games in here like there could be a connection about dopamine kicks from gaming and stimulating the p-pathways in the brain.
It also makes me concerned about any negative impacts from having sex as well (just recently there was a post here about flatlining from sex), but maybe this is more understandable, as sexual stimuli is connected to the same system.

Have any of you had similar experiences? Or know any studies you can reference to me?
Maybe this has been studied in relation to other addictions like alcohol or drugs?

Cheers

I don't know of any studies describing what you talk about, but I have often wondered the same thing.

As far as I know, the current neurological literature on addiction indicates that internet, porn, food, and drug use, when abused, have very similar detrimental effects on the brain. The only other thing I can add is that most if not all addictions have nearly identical neurochemical pathways and are largely caused by dysfunctional glutamate; the key neurotransmitter for driving neuroplastic changes and pathological "learning".

But, I don't think this question can or should be answered with anecdotal experiences alone, people often radically oversimplify dopaminergic processes in the brain and don't know what they're talking about.

I have no clue what sort of consequences result from substituting something like porn with sugary foods. Until there are high quality studies on this subject, I don't think it's too helpful to speculate. Just do what works for you. I will say this, I think the idea of a "dopamine fast" is probably a really bad idea for most people because they'll likely just rebound harder and be worse off than when they started. The most effective and sustainable strategy is to eliminate one addiction/vice at a time, and if you must substitute porn with a pint of ice cream every week, so be it.