An insightful perspective on our society today, the author weaves stories of addiction throughout to illustrate how we’re easily prone to it, and how we might pull ourselves out.
The most insightful lesson (for me) was that pain is in fact a pleasurable time-sink, due to the pleasure-pain balance our bodies strive for. Post pain, we are often flooded with euphoric hormones to compensate. Beware of becoming addicted to pain, but, when used correctly, it is a low risk powerful stimulant.
Examples can include: cold water sessions (I’d argue hot ones too), physical activity, caloric restriction (careful for adverse health effects), and learning something new. Ideally, we could do one thing everyday that was “painful” to help keep our pleasure-pain scale in balance.
“Just as pain is the price we play for pleasure, so too is pleasure our reward for pain”.
I’ll add that in our high-speed dopamine-saturated society, slow activities like yoga, meditation, and aimless mind wandering can feel painful if you’re addicted to delivering results (which itself is an addiction to pain mechanism). Over time, leaning into these activities will deliver healthier pleasure too.
Everything in moderation.
Other quotes:
- “In humans, high levels of physical activity in junior high, high school, and early adulthood predict lower levels of drug use. Exercise has also been shown to help those already addicted to stop or cut back.”
- “Pain to treat pain. Anxiety to treat anxiety. This approach is counterintuitive, and exactly opposite to what we’ve been taught over the last 150 years about how to manage disease, distress, and discomfort.
Conclusion:
- The relentless pursuit of pleasure (and avoidance of pain) leads to pain.
- Recovery begins with abstinence.
- Abstinence resets the brain’s reward pathway and with it our capacity to take joy in simpler pleasures.
- Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and consumption, a modern necessity in our dopamine-overloaded world.
- Medications can restore homeostasis, but consider what we lose by medicating away our pain.
- Pressing on the pain side resets our balance to the side of pleasure.
- Beware of getting addicted to pain.
- Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a plenty mindset.
- “Prosocial shame” (i.e., feeling shame for transgressive behaviours where appropriate) affirms that we belong to the human tribe. [Not to be confused with destructive shame, which is swept under the rug, and often a negative feedback loop unto itself.]
- Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing ourselves in it.
5/5.