Categories: Technology

Mapping the avenues of addiction in our brains (Podcast Episode)

Maybe you like food, maybe it’s gaming, or perhaps it’s social media. The truth is, we all have our addictive tendencies and in today’s episode, we will be exploring addiction, how it develops, why it develops, and how to overcome it.

In this episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, will be looking at addiction in a general sense, but for the sake of this podcast and its technology focus, we will mainly be focusing on addiction relating to social media, while briefly touching on some other areas such as addiction to gambling, and even crypto.

To do this we are joined by Dr. Gail Saltz, the Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the NY Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell School of medicine and host of the “How Can I Help?” podcast from iHeartRadio.

Listen to this podcast on SpotifyAnchorApple PodcastsBreakerGoogle PodcastsStitcherOvercastListen NotesPodBean, and Radio Public.

We discuss the difference is between compulsive behavior and substance addiction and their impact on our brains, what constitutes an addiction, and what you can do if you feel you have an addiction.

Dr. Saltz also explains why most addicts don’t go to psychiatrists because of their addiction, but because of the negative consequences produced by these addictions such as depression or anxiety.

In addition, we also discuss why buying and checking crypto has the potential to be an addictive compulsive behavior.

On top of that, we go into how willpower is like a muscle that you exercise and make stronger, but it takes a lot more than willpower to overcome addiction.

And finally, Dr. Saltz shares how our neurons are like roads, and when we start an addictive habit that rewards us with dopamine, like winning when gambling, this pathway is small like a country road.

But as the habit is repeated, this road becomes larger like a highway and becomes an easier road for your brain to take.

Sam Brake Guia

Sam is an energetic and passionate writer/presenter, always looking for the next adventure. In August 2016 he donated all of his possessions to charity, quit his job, and left the UK. Since then he has been on the road travelling through North, Central and South America searching for new adventures and amazing stories.

Recent Posts

This AI Copilot Doesn’t Wait for Prompts — It Thinks Like a Hacker

Hey HackerNoon, it’s Kuwguap again. A while back, I wrote about building RAWPA, my AI…

3 days ago

How Humanity Engineered Thought: From Ancient Fire Circles to ChatGPT

Delivering truth was never about facts. Throughout history, from traditions to search engines and now…

3 days ago

People who grow up around robots may develop feelings for them, lose ability to socialize: WEF ‘Summer Davos’

Will we merge ourselves so intimately with technology that it becomes so much a part…

4 days ago

City of Seville welcomes the return of Techstars Startup Weekend

Techstars Startup Weekend Seville has announced that it will celebrate its 29th edition this June…

5 days ago

Meet agentic AI: Your AI agent just leveled up to teammate (Brains Byte Back Podcast)

You’ve probably been coming across the term “agentic AI” a lot more recently, and in…

6 days ago