Addictions are rooted in efforts to avoid or prevent unpleasant feelings or memories
When Dr. Judson Brewers patients would tell him their stories of becoming addicted, he noticed a common theme. It was as if his patients had been one of the rats in B. F. Skinners operant conditioning experiments and were describing the operant conditioning process that they had gone through: “i would have a flashback to some truamatic event” (trigger), “get drunk” (behavior), “and this was better than reliving the experience” (reward). He could line up the habit loop in their heads. Trigger, behavior, reward, repeat. The patients used these substances as a way to “medicate,” by being high or drunk, they could avoid unpleasant memories or feelings or prevent them from arising, or not remember afterword wether those memories had surfaced or not. They described their operant conditioning as a way to avoid situations, numb their pain, mask their unpleasant feelings, or just to relieve their cravings.
- Someone says the wrong thing—or she believes they do. Her OFC, unconsciously primed to recall the many times she has been attacked, insulted, and injured, interprets this stimulus as a serious aggression.
References
- Brewer, Judson. (2017). The Craving Mind Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits Chapter 2. Addiction, Straight Up (Location 493). Yale University Press. New Haven, CT.