Addiction – Can Mindfulness Help?
Addiction & The Brain
In these modern times, when we feel a lot of stress and overwhelm, it often appears easier to ‘numb out’ the difficult thoughts and feelings that we are faced with. Most of us have addictions of some kind. Some are healthy, some not so healthy – alcohol, drugs, social media, smoking, overeating.
The most amazing advances are being made in the area of neuroplasticity. These advances show that we can do a lot ourselves to change our brain to curb our addictions.
It would be nice to find a quick fix that would make our cravings or addictions disappear. And in some cases there are things that help such as Nicotine patches for smoking, or appetite suppressants for overeating. It would also be nice to be able to speak to a counsellor or a friend about our addiction in the hope that the cravings will disappear or become less, and that we will feel instantly better.
Mindfulness & the Brain
Whilst therapy can help, there is a mountain of evidence that suggests we can change habits and begin changing our brain with mindfulness practice. For some, mindfulness is a buzzword that is overused, but there is also a misunderstanding that mindfulness is meditation. Whilst it is beneficial to begin a mindfulness meditation practice, there are mindfulness techniques you can use in everyday life if we understand how the brain works.
At the most basic level, when we are having an unpleasant thought or feeling, we may for example, have an alcoholic drink, eat chocolate or have a cigarette. Or you may access Facebook and scroll through your feed. This makes you feel instantly better, so your brain lays down a memory of feeling better. The reward centre in the brain is then loaded up with dopamine, making us feel good. So the next time we have an unpleasant feeling we use the same solution, feeding into habit formation and further reinforcement. And whilst the short term benefit is good, the long term benefit is not. We may not be achieving what we want in our lives, or we are not facing the problem. The problem will not go away by itself, and will probably get worse.
So how can mindfulness help?
The most simple definition of Mindfulness: “paying attention, in the present moment, on purpose and non-judgementally”. John Kabat Zinn.
Mindfulness can help because it can disrupt the brain process described above – trigger -> behaviour -> reward.
Our brain works so quickly that we are not aware of what is happening – we feel stressed (trigger) -> we have an alcoholic drink -> we feel better.
By being mindful we pay attention rather than push away the unpleasant feelings of stress. Instead, ask yourself – “what’s going on for me right now? where am I feeling it in my body?”. Once we have slowed down and explored what’s going on for us we can then respond skilfully or act with awareness. No meditation required!
Mindfulness training is proven as good as CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) at helping prevent relapse for alcohol and smoking. However, if I’m making it sound easy, it’s not. It’s important to explore the underlying thoughts and feelings that trigger the behaviours we want to change. Often we are not aware of our triggers. A therapist can help us become aware so that in those moments of craving, we choose a different behaviour, and over time rewire our brain so the cravings disappear altogether!