Eventually we use our creative capabilities to learn to use pleasure as a stress reliever rather than purley for survival
As the frontal lobes developed, our creative capacities eventually told us: Hey! You can use operant conditioning for more than just remembering where food is. The next time you feel stressed, why dont you try eating something good so that you will feel better? It is the same operant conditioning process, just a different trigger. Instead of a hunger signal coming from our stomach, it is an emotional signal—stress—that triggers craving to eat. Each time we perform a behavior, we reinforce its respective neural pathways (Synaptic connections are strengthened or weakened through life experiences and frequency of use), which says “great, do it again!” So we do, and it becomes a habit, a habit loop. Later, feeling stressed triggers craving to consume. Now with the same brain mechanisms, we have gone from learning to survive to literally killing ourselves through destructive habits. Obesity and smoking are currently the leading preventable causes of morbidity in the world. These processes, if understood at their core, can be used to get over bad habits and foster good ones.
References
- Brewer, Judson. (2017). The Craving Mind Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits Chapter 1. Introduction (Location 303). Yale University Press. New Haven, CT.
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