Thread by @jamessinka

Here's my TLDR of the @hubermanlab X Anna Lemke podcast, for all your #dopamine hits of pleasure

open.spotify.com/episode/3SLviV…

Warning, spoilers below

T9 - dopamine I'd at tonic or homeostatic levels in the brain. It's deviations from those that cause joy or sadness.

Lower levels of tonic/base dopamine is associated with depression

T10 - chronic dopamine hits (social media, sex, drugs, etc) = lower base/tonic dopamine levels AT ALL OTHER TIMES

T12 - impulsivity (reactionary) correlates to addition & lowered fear/anticipation of future consequences.

Good in battle & bed, but not with drug use

T15 - "mental illness" = traits that were useful in a different ecosystem, that in the present world/life isn't useful.

Traits useful as a caveman aren't in 2021

T17 - drug use is usually started to avoid things and escape - drug use isn't often hedonistic

T20 - life is boring now than it was 1000s of years ago, you don't even have to leave your home to survive, our basic needs are met. (So drugs often fill the gap)

Life is hard in a weird way because we don't have anything we HAVE to do, so we need to make stuff up

T22 - life is a hard, the world is a hard place, in life we often make it up

T23 - context switching is very costly/painful

T24.5 - pleasure and pain are colocated - they work in balance. The brain wants balance & will fight to maintain balance.

Feel pleasure? Brain will pain you.

T26 - the wanting more feeling is reflexive. As soon as you out down the phone, you know it'll feel meh.

Keep in mind the balance above to unhook the loop and "accept" the soon to come pain

T28.5 - broccoli just doesn't release that much dopamine

T29 - after a strong hit of dopamine, your brain downregulates and you get sad.

However, if you wait after your dopamine hit before using more Twitter/YouTube - the pain hit won't hurt

But if you keep scrolling and keep going, repeatedly without breaks, you'll put yourself into a state of dopamine deficit when you're done.

It's akin to a clinical depression & wanting to use again

T30.5 - single use is ok

Chronic use may ruin you.

Could be a person, a drug, video games, gambling, social media, etc - anything really

T32.5 - when you've become addicted to something, even after you give it up, it opens up the pathways to become addicted more easily to the next thing.

From Games to Work to Drugs. Addiction begets more addiction - the brain doesn't discriminate the source

T33 - work is heavily reward & in the culture of silicon valley.

T40 - addicts that have recovered are the prophets for how to recover from dopamine addiction.

Don't over endulge

Pleasure & pain is important to feel

Addicts in recovery need to accept that life is just a little boring.

Anxiety and boredom are coupled

Boredom is rarely experienced because we constantly distract ourselves.

But being bored is good for you. "There's nothing I have to do next" - can feel scary but important to figure out what your priorities are (this is why I dopamine fast)

T41 - instead of "trying to find your passion", stop distracting yourself & look around you.

There's important work to be done around you. It's not about me & my desire - it's about what needs to get done.

Do it - even if it's mundane

T44 - if you stop distracting yourself, and start taking care of your environment/room - you will develop a bias/bliss for action.

It'll make stumbling into your passion, effortless & spontaneous - because you just showed up every day without distracting yourself

T45 - stop playing video games, reset your dopamine pathways, then focus on your environment & they may become naturally exciting.

No one wants to do school work when you could play CoD. Put away the videogames

T48 - your brain is wired to do things on the 24hr timescale.

Just chain the days, in 6 months you'll have accomplished a lot.

Take it 1 day at a time

Connect with your environment, don't escape from it.

Days stack up

T50 - to break addiction

Stay away from the THING for 30 days, it'll reset your dopamine deficit.

T51.5 - how do you get to 30 days?

Day 1-10 sucks.

You'll feel worse before you feel better. Just make it through the first 2 weeks & you will feel better in week 3

T54 - it's doable but hard.

T56 - addicts recover, but then they relapse

Is staying clean hopefless for some people? Sadly, people will die from their disease of addiction

T58 - truely deeply addicted people may still be in a dopmaine deficit after years of their abuse. "Like the hinge on their balance is messed up"

T60 - if you have an itch, if you focused you could stop yourself from scratching.

For addicts, once they stop concentrating they reflexively fall back into it. They can not not use it.

It's like scratching a mostiquto bites in your sleep.

Like finding yourself in your phone

T62.5 - "first few days of recovery addiction are a dopamine fast"

🦾🚀

(Can confirm)

T63 - winning big releases a lot of dopamine.

The deficit after that will drive the locomotion to acquire more (and can stumble you back into addictive behavior)

Things going well can trigger some people back into addiction

T66 - "no matter how far you drive, you're always the same distance from the ditch"

T69.5 - addicts transitionally like the feelings of extreme experiences.

T70 - AA works because it's a cult.

T71 - addict need intense intimacy, casual acquaintances don't quite scratch the same dopaminergic itch

T74 - work and the persuit of knowledge is also an addiction

We are all wired for addictio

(Like @naval says the modern devil is cheap dopamine?

T75 - when on the right path, you'll feel full of pleasure (via dopamine)

This is what it can feel like when people have found "their thing"

T77 - people can become addicting to drinking water.

This one lady perished from her water addiction, plugging into the same circuits that would cause a drug user to over consume

T82.5 - when you tell the truth, it strengthens the forebrain.

It helps you think through the consequences of your actions.

Intimate connections create dopamine

Casual interactions are psychologically flat & boring

T86 - telling the truth may make it easier to not be an addict!

T94 - high dose psychedelic therapy (psilocybin, MDMA, etc) can be like many years of psychotherapy.

It helps people see a new lens to see their lives & can give perspective

T99 - the average person has misconstrued the data on psychedelics.

These experiences happen in a highly controlled clinical context

T101 - regulate, don't eliminate, your use of social media.

Social media can be helpful, but remember that social media is engineered to be a drug.

T105 - some women won't deliver their babies without phones in their hand

T107 - a single day without your phone will be sufficient at changing your relationship with it

(I'd suggest a dopamine fast to compound the phoneless day!)

T108.5 - do a dopamine fast with your friends :)

T109.5 - we're losing the ability to have a sustained thought & finishing thoughts. Constantly consuming info trains you to not think!

T113 - it's a game of pinball, you never win, you gotta keep playing

T116 - authentically try making today a good day and it'll help lead to success

T118 - align your compulsion with a greater good. You support the world & it starts to support you!

The more you give the more life will give to you

T120 - Dr. Lembke isn't on social media because she knows she'd become addicted to it.

Brilliant interview @hubermanlab !!! Thank you and hoping you double click on the concept of the #dopaminefast in future episodes/lectures