Reprinted from Ximalaya Listening Notes

Lectured by a celebrity (broadcast by interpreter)

Matchmaker Dingdang | Ph.D. in Communication from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, now in Nanjing A young teacher at the university. He has long been writing under the name "Matchmaker Dingdang".

The author of the book "Crazy Addict" is Canadian psychologist and neuroscientist Mark Lewis. He was a former drug addict who took a variety of drugs. Lewis had a long battle with drugs, from smoking marijuana in high school to being convicted of stealing lab drugs. In this book, the author uses stories to vividly show his life experience of being addicted to various drugs. In the process of telling the story, he also explained from the perspective of brain science what happens inside the brain when people are addicted.

First, what made Lewis crazy and addicted?

1. The loneliness and confusion that cannot be resolved in adolescence. When Lewis was 15 years old, he left his hometown of Toronto to study in the United States. He was often bullied in school, which caused him to suffer from mild depression. So he began to engage in antisocial behavior, such as drinking a lot of alcohol, to resist this repressed emotion.

2. His family’s lack of understanding and support caused him to feel depressed and helpless.

3. The influence of school atmosphere and peers, which deepened his dependence on drugs. Lewis was in college in the 1960s. The hippie movement emerged in the United States, pursuing freedom and rebelling against tradition. However, this movement reached its extreme by taking drugs. In order to fit in with his friends' activities, he started taking heroin.

Second, what is the brain mechanism of addiction?

Simply put, addiction is a learning process. This process is the same whether you are addicted to drugs, drugs, or behavioral addiction, such as playing games, chasing stars, etc.

Step one: By trying new things, know which behavior and which drug will change your mood.

Brain scientists call this process "building a reward system." What helps you build this reward system are opioids in the brain. It can make people feel good by relieving pain and creating feelings of pleasure.

Step 2: Give meaning to something that makes you feel good and create something to look forward to.

This is related to the orbitofrontal cortex in the human brain. It will judge what makes you addicted and think that this feeling is attractive and what you want. So I look forward to getting something like this even more.

Step 3: The motivation system prompts you to take action.

The striatum produces dopamine, which prompts people to take action.

One of the consequences of this learning process is: forced repetition. That is, when you know that a certain behavior will make you feel happy, you repeat the same behavior over and over again.

Third, why is it difficult to quit?

1. Drugs will make the brain obsessively pursue a certain repetitive feeling, which will form bad habits and cause the brain to lose its plasticity and flexibility. As a result, they believe that drugs are the only thing that can bring them happiness, and there is no other choice.

2. People who are recovering from drugs often invest a lot of energy in fighting drugs, which can lead to a kind of energy self-depletion. Self-depletion can make people feel very tired and lose their ability to control themselves.

Fourth, how to cure addiction?

1. Don’t give up. Addicts should understand that the withdrawal process is repetitive and cyclical. Lewis' withdrawal process lasted for many years. He thought of various ways to help himself get rid of drug addiction. For example, receive psychotherapy, write for magazines, chat with healthy friends, or even engage in intense self-punishment. But that still didn't completely free him from drug dependence.

2. Move your eyes away from the single thing that makes you addicted, explore more possibilities, and cultivate other interests. Tell yourself the world isn't that bad. Maybe it does have a dark side, some uncertainty, some annoying rules. But it also means there are more possibilities, and the thing that makes you addicted is not the only one.

Interpretation | Matchmaker Dingdang

Broadcasting | Matchmaker Dingdang

Planning and editing | Li Xueqing

Audio editing | Qin Yaxi