Seeking, Wanting and Liking

I came across this Slate piece that describes the dopamine system in the brain as the center of "seeking or wanting" and relates that to our seemingly insatiable desire for information on the internet. I think there may be something to this, in re: google searching, twitter, etc., but I'm really more interested in this construct generally: how seeking is its own reward so to speak, separate from the "liking" of the sought results; that liking or satisfaction is related to an entirely different set of chemical processes in the brain - the opioid system.

I, for one, have always thought of these two systems as the same: you seek chocolate, let's say, in order to experience the pleasure of eating chocolate. Or cigarettes, or cocaine, etc... But, what they are saying here is that the seeking behavior is stimulating in itself, and that its result is not necessarily pleasure, but more seeking behavior. And this makes sense to me, most clearly as an ex-smoker; there were certainly many times that I KNEW a cigarette would not make me feel better - when I had a cold, for instance - and yet was driven to go out and get cigarettes anyway.

This leads me to think that it may be helpful when trying to interrupt destructive behavior, or to create new more positive habits, to parse out the "seeking" from the "liking." I can think of some great potential applications for this approach around money and spending, child-rearing, self-destructive behavior, etc. What do you think?