Addiction & Pleasure
On June 23rd, 2011, I had a major aha moment. We've all had them- those moments where something about the world suddenly makes sense, and we see things in a new light. Most of the time, these are pretty minor- we figure out that salt brings out flavors, and that's why it's tasty on steak, chocolate, butter and avocados. Sometimes, they're pretty major, things like realizing that we tend to act like our favorite parent when we're happy, and our less favorite parent when we're upset. The aha moment I had on the 23rd was the major kind. Very much the major kind.
I was driving to work, listening to NPR (KALW-FM in San Francisco, to be exact), and they were talking about pleasure, addiction, what links the two together, and how does it happen (<- that's a link, it's got an audio recording and a transcript; the audio's about an hour long, I suggest you listen to it). As it turns out, it all comes down to dopamine. In short, dopamine is a brain chemical that is released when we experience pleasure, and makes us feel good. Take a run, drink a glass of cool water, and you'll get a dopamine release. Get a massage, drink alcohol, have an orgasm, shoot heroin, finish a final, get a promotion, all those things release dopamine.
(Here's where I recap the program- you can skip this if you're familiar with it.)
So that's the basis of pleasure. Where does addiction come in? Simple: we're designed to crave dopamine, so we naturally gravitate to things that give it to us. Good food, funny people, etc. However, some of these things release more dopamine than others- this is why eating a cookie isn't as awesome as having really good sex. Now, take something like heroin: it dumps a whole hell of a lot of dopamine all at once. Boom, you're high and feeling fantastic. In theory, you could get addicted to donating to charity (they actually bring this up!), but it's unheard of. Donations, while they do release dopamine, don't release nearly as much as heroin. This is why heroin is more addictive than other things.
OK, so cigarettes: Cigarettes are famously more addictive than cocaine. This is where the learned response comes in. The other half of addiction is a learned response, so if a cigarette gives you ten drags per cigarette, and there are twenty cigarettes in a pack, and you have a pack-a-day habit, you're looking at 200 reinforcements a day that each teach you that smoking makes you feel good. Cocaine, on the other hand, has two or three. So while cocaine dumps a whole hell of a lot more dopamine than a drag on a coffin nail, it takes over two and a half months to get the same number of reinforcements, even if they're a hell of a lot stronger, assuming you average three hits a day (which is a pretty stiff coke habit).
(End recap)
So that's a recap of the program. Then my own brain started thinking: if we like things that give us a dopamine shot, and we learn to associate certain actions with that dopamine (people getting over cigarette addictions by chewing toothpicks, people whose mouth waters when you talk about strawberry shortcake with perfectly-ripe strawberries and hand-whipped cream and freshly baked shortcake, people who get turned on by taking other people's clothes off, etc), then manipulating that would be a great brain hack.
Let's say I want to get into the habit of writing more. If I decide I'm going to do this by staying up an extra half hour come hell or high water and pounding out a page, I'm probably not going to like it and the habit won't last. If, however, I tell myself that I'm going to write more and I'm going to do it right after dinner, I'm going to lock my door, turn off my phone, sit down in a comfy chair with a cup of my favorite tea and a tasty cookie and won't let anyone disturb me for at least half an hour, that habit might last longer. Or if I want to exercise more- if I tell myself I'm going to run a mile because it's good for me, I'm going to spend the whole mile thinking about how much this sucks and that my lungs are wheezing and my shoe is rubbing and I should have grabbed a hat and I'm thirsty and my knee is clicking and... But if I decide to go for a run down by the beach, and when I get tired I'm going to just take a break and catch my breath and watch the waves for a bit, then that's a lot more pleasurable. I'm not doing it out of obligation, but because I enjoy running, and intentionally changing my mindset and the situation to make it enjoyable. Next time, I'm going to want to go for a run, even if I came home in exactly the same condition from the happy beach run as from the miserable run with the pinching shoe.
The key, I think, is to be aware of the dopamine rush, and to consciously make that the reward. Not literally, of course. You can't feel the tiny little glands or whatever it is in your head that actually squirt the stuff out, but you do feel the pleasure. If you really look forward to something and then get it, that in itself is a dopamine rush, so if you look forward to the rush itself, you actually increase it. A random gift from a crazy aunt out of the blue- nice. The same gift, given after months of promise for finally turning 18 (or graduating, or retiring, or whatever)? Absolutely the most awesome thing on the face of the planet.
So how does this play out, a long week later? Well... it works. It works at work- rather than telling myself I'm going to get through my email because it's more important than taking a break and getting a cup of tea and some cookies in the break room, I get myself the tea and cookies first, and then the email's much easier to get through as I savor my Earl Grey and Chips Ahoy. After a week of doing this, I don't even notice my morning email slog anymore. The key isn't to reward myself for something, incorporate that reward or somehow alter what I'm doing so I enjoy it. If that's not possible and the reward needs to wait ("Man, I'm so beat, it was a long day and I still need to drive home in miserable traffic, and I really want a beer"), I think about how awesome the reward is going to be ("Oh, man, that first sip of beer is going to be awesome! Sitting in one of those big comfy chairs in the living room, shoes off, shirt unbuttoned, just crack it open and enjoy that first cool sip..."), and get a bit of a preemptive dopamine rush. I'm using the thought of the reward to make myself feel better now. Next, the conditioned response kicks in, the thought of kicking back with a cold one gives me a little squirt of happy juice, I relax, and it's much easier to slide the bench seat back, roll the window down and my sleeves up, and crank Creedence Clearwater Revival until the gulls freak out. So that's pretty awesome.
There's a lot more that I want to apply this experiment to. Exercise, of course- it's working well for running, but that's nothing new for me- and writing, and other things that I want to make a larger part of my life. Paying bills? Well, what if I make paying bills a nice little ritual where I don't need to think about anything else for a bit? Just sit down, enjoy some new music, and get the dopamine rush that comes from the sense of control I get from knowing what my finances are. 'Cause let me tell you, knowing I won't be caught with my pants down when the AAA bill comes is pretty awesome!
In time, I hope to addict myself to things like exercising, eating well, working productively, writing more, paying bills on time, all sorts of things. It really helps to know how all this works, 'cause knowing? Knowing, my friends, isn't half the battle- it's starting the battle with a good map and the enemy's troop movements chart.
So what are you going to addict yourself to?
Ta, folks! 'Till the next rant!
I was driving to work, listening to NPR (KALW-FM in San Francisco, to be exact), and they were talking about pleasure, addiction, what links the two together, and how does it happen (<- that's a link, it's got an audio recording and a transcript; the audio's about an hour long, I suggest you listen to it). As it turns out, it all comes down to dopamine. In short, dopamine is a brain chemical that is released when we experience pleasure, and makes us feel good. Take a run, drink a glass of cool water, and you'll get a dopamine release. Get a massage, drink alcohol, have an orgasm, shoot heroin, finish a final, get a promotion, all those things release dopamine.
(Here's where I recap the program- you can skip this if you're familiar with it.)
So that's the basis of pleasure. Where does addiction come in? Simple: we're designed to crave dopamine, so we naturally gravitate to things that give it to us. Good food, funny people, etc. However, some of these things release more dopamine than others- this is why eating a cookie isn't as awesome as having really good sex. Now, take something like heroin: it dumps a whole hell of a lot of dopamine all at once. Boom, you're high and feeling fantastic. In theory, you could get addicted to donating to charity (they actually bring this up!), but it's unheard of. Donations, while they do release dopamine, don't release nearly as much as heroin. This is why heroin is more addictive than other things.
OK, so cigarettes: Cigarettes are famously more addictive than cocaine. This is where the learned response comes in. The other half of addiction is a learned response, so if a cigarette gives you ten drags per cigarette, and there are twenty cigarettes in a pack, and you have a pack-a-day habit, you're looking at 200 reinforcements a day that each teach you that smoking makes you feel good. Cocaine, on the other hand, has two or three. So while cocaine dumps a whole hell of a lot more dopamine than a drag on a coffin nail, it takes over two and a half months to get the same number of reinforcements, even if they're a hell of a lot stronger, assuming you average three hits a day (which is a pretty stiff coke habit).
(End recap)
So that's a recap of the program. Then my own brain started thinking: if we like things that give us a dopamine shot, and we learn to associate certain actions with that dopamine (people getting over cigarette addictions by chewing toothpicks, people whose mouth waters when you talk about strawberry shortcake with perfectly-ripe strawberries and hand-whipped cream and freshly baked shortcake, people who get turned on by taking other people's clothes off, etc), then manipulating that would be a great brain hack.
Let's say I want to get into the habit of writing more. If I decide I'm going to do this by staying up an extra half hour come hell or high water and pounding out a page, I'm probably not going to like it and the habit won't last. If, however, I tell myself that I'm going to write more and I'm going to do it right after dinner, I'm going to lock my door, turn off my phone, sit down in a comfy chair with a cup of my favorite tea and a tasty cookie and won't let anyone disturb me for at least half an hour, that habit might last longer. Or if I want to exercise more- if I tell myself I'm going to run a mile because it's good for me, I'm going to spend the whole mile thinking about how much this sucks and that my lungs are wheezing and my shoe is rubbing and I should have grabbed a hat and I'm thirsty and my knee is clicking and... But if I decide to go for a run down by the beach, and when I get tired I'm going to just take a break and catch my breath and watch the waves for a bit, then that's a lot more pleasurable. I'm not doing it out of obligation, but because I enjoy running, and intentionally changing my mindset and the situation to make it enjoyable. Next time, I'm going to want to go for a run, even if I came home in exactly the same condition from the happy beach run as from the miserable run with the pinching shoe.
The key, I think, is to be aware of the dopamine rush, and to consciously make that the reward. Not literally, of course. You can't feel the tiny little glands or whatever it is in your head that actually squirt the stuff out, but you do feel the pleasure. If you really look forward to something and then get it, that in itself is a dopamine rush, so if you look forward to the rush itself, you actually increase it. A random gift from a crazy aunt out of the blue- nice. The same gift, given after months of promise for finally turning 18 (or graduating, or retiring, or whatever)? Absolutely the most awesome thing on the face of the planet.
So how does this play out, a long week later? Well... it works. It works at work- rather than telling myself I'm going to get through my email because it's more important than taking a break and getting a cup of tea and some cookies in the break room, I get myself the tea and cookies first, and then the email's much easier to get through as I savor my Earl Grey and Chips Ahoy. After a week of doing this, I don't even notice my morning email slog anymore. The key isn't to reward myself for something, incorporate that reward or somehow alter what I'm doing so I enjoy it. If that's not possible and the reward needs to wait ("Man, I'm so beat, it was a long day and I still need to drive home in miserable traffic, and I really want a beer"), I think about how awesome the reward is going to be ("Oh, man, that first sip of beer is going to be awesome! Sitting in one of those big comfy chairs in the living room, shoes off, shirt unbuttoned, just crack it open and enjoy that first cool sip..."), and get a bit of a preemptive dopamine rush. I'm using the thought of the reward to make myself feel better now. Next, the conditioned response kicks in, the thought of kicking back with a cold one gives me a little squirt of happy juice, I relax, and it's much easier to slide the bench seat back, roll the window down and my sleeves up, and crank Creedence Clearwater Revival until the gulls freak out. So that's pretty awesome.
There's a lot more that I want to apply this experiment to. Exercise, of course- it's working well for running, but that's nothing new for me- and writing, and other things that I want to make a larger part of my life. Paying bills? Well, what if I make paying bills a nice little ritual where I don't need to think about anything else for a bit? Just sit down, enjoy some new music, and get the dopamine rush that comes from the sense of control I get from knowing what my finances are. 'Cause let me tell you, knowing I won't be caught with my pants down when the AAA bill comes is pretty awesome!
In time, I hope to addict myself to things like exercising, eating well, working productively, writing more, paying bills on time, all sorts of things. It really helps to know how all this works, 'cause knowing? Knowing, my friends, isn't half the battle- it's starting the battle with a good map and the enemy's troop movements chart.
So what are you going to addict yourself to?
Ta, folks! 'Till the next rant!