LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE
Do you take delight in watching
films or listening to pop music? For English learners, movies, songs, and books
are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge
in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and
oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.
# 9. “The Craving Mind” (authored
by psychiatrist Judson Brewer, M.D. Ph.D.)
“When my patients told me their stories of
getting addicted, there was a common theme. It was as if they had been one of
the lab rats in Skinner’s experiments and were describing the reward-based learning process that
they had gone though:
I would have a flashback (to some traumatic
event) (TRIGGER)
=> get drunk (BEHAVIOR) => this was better than reliving the experience (REWARD)”
-
Dr. Judson Brewer found out
that most of his patients (who are suffering from all different kinds of
addiction) described their reward-based leaning as a way to avoid situations,
help numb their pain, and even mask unpleasant emotions. However, in the end,
they hit the bottom of using illegal substances and drugs, which would outweigh
the rewards of using.
“We found that when we tested patients’
reactions to stress after treatment, those who received mindfulness training seemed to help them cope with
their cues both in the lab and in real life.”
-
Mindfulness training is based
on the state of awareness when things – mostly negative – arise in one’s mind.
Patients who are practicing ‘mindfulness’ can reach the point of stepping back
from the triggers of their addiction and gradually wean themselves from their
cravings.
“There is nothing wrong with romantic love.
In modern times, just like thinking and planning, it helps humans survive. It is when we get completely
caught up in it, when things get out of control, that we crash and burn. It
is perhaps another example of not knowing how to read our stress compass – dopamine
leading us into danger instead of away from it.”
-
Romantic love is one of the
most addictive substances on Earth. However, Dr. Brewer points out that it can
become destructive when it turns into an addictive, compulsive, or uncontrolled
state.
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Do you have any chronic
addiction in life? Do you have constant crave for sweets, cigarettes, or a caffeine
fix? Are you constantly planning or thinking about the future? Have you ever been
addicted to love? I think we all might have developed big or small addictions
or obsessions at some point in life.
As for me, I have been running
for almost 30 years, which has become a huge part of my own identity. It seems like
a healthy addiction that doesn’t need a therapy, but I am currently in the
process of changing my perspectives towards my favorite thing to do: Running.
As I age, I get more twinges or jolts here and there in my decreasing muscles,
while my passion for running is becoming a painful obsession that makes me too
harsh on myself as a heartless judge.
Reading this book, I am
about to practice “mindfulness” through which I know craving is arising and
driving my behavior. I won’t get caught up in my own illusions, even it they
are the things that sound beautiful, such as love or running.
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