Dr. Judson Brewer, Using Mindfulness to Beat Addiction
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Judson Brewer discusses how mindfulness and meditation can break addictive "habit loops" for various cravings, from substances to food and technology. He explains how curiosity and paying attention can dismantle these patterns.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Judd Brewer's Introduction and Early Meditation Journey
Transition to Psychiatry and Addiction Research
Buddhist Psychology and Craving
Mindfulness for Alcohol and Cocaine Dependence
Mindfulness for Smoking Cessation and App Development
Mindfulness for Overeating and Personal Struggles
Understanding Contraction vs. Expansion in Experience
The Importance of Curiosity in Meditation
Effortlessness of Awareness and Sensory Experience
Flow State and Selflessness
Neurofeedback Research on Meditators' Brains
The Default Mode Network Explained
Real-time Neurofeedback and Subjective Experience
Distinguishing Excitement from Happiness
The Craving Mind Book and Resources
7 Key Concepts
Habit Loop
A three-part cycle consisting of a trigger, a behavior, and a reward. This loop drives many actions, from tying shoes to addictive behaviors, and each time the behavior is indulged, the memory of the reward reinforces the loop, making it stronger.
Dependent Origination
An ancient Buddhist concept that describes a cause-and-effect chain leading to wanting, doing, getting a reward, and repeating the action. It closely parallels the modern psychological concept of operant conditioning and is referred to as 'samsara' or endless wandering.
Operant Conditioning
A modern psychological framework, based on B.F. Skinner's work, that explains reward-based learning. It posits that a trigger leads to a behavior, which is then reinforced by a reward (like a dopamine rush), increasing the likelihood of that behavior occurring again.
Factors of Awakening
A list of seven qualities described by the Buddha, with mindfulness being the first and investigation (curiosity) being the second. These factors are considered essential for 'waking up into your actual life' or achieving enlightenment.
Contraction vs. Expansion
An experiential quality of the mind where negative emotions (such as fear, anger, pride, or self-centered craving) are associated with a feeling of contraction, creating boundaries. Conversely, positive emotions like joy, curiosity, and untainted love are associated with an expansive feeling, leading to a sense of selflessness.
Default Mode Network (DMN)
A network of brain regions, including the posterior cingulate cortex, that becomes active when the mind is in a self-referential state. This includes thinking about the past or future, craving, ruminating, or engaging in self-critical thoughts. It's called the 'default mode' because it's the mind's common resting state.
Flow State
Described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, this is a selfless, effortless, timeless, and immensely joyful state, synonymous with 'being in the zone.' It occurs when one is fully immersed in an activity, characterized by an expansive quality of mind where the 'small self' gets out of the way.
7 Questions Answered
He started meditating during a highly stressful period in medical school, after a breakup and while living near his ex-fiancé. He found John Kabat-Zinn's book 'Full Catastrophe Living' and began daily practice, initially often falling asleep.
Pilot studies showed mindfulness training was as effective as gold standard cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol and cocaine dependence. For smoking cessation, it was found to be twice as effective at the end of treatment and five times better at preventing relapse four months later.
Mindfulness teaches individuals to turn toward cravings with curiosity, rather than succumbing or resisting them. By observing the physical sensations of a craving and injecting curiosity, the unpleasant valence can be flipped to pleasant, helping to dismantle the habit loop.
Beating oneself up creates a contracted feeling, which aligns with the same type of habit patterns that lead to the indulgence. This reinforces the negative loop rather than helping to move forward or learn from the experience.
The key is curiosity, not brute force concentration. Instead of forcing attention, cultivate curiosity about anything, then apply it to the breath by noticing its ever-changing nature and the effortless quality of awareness.
Excitement, often seen in early romantic relationships or anticipating a reward, has a contracted, 'dukkagenic' (suffering-causing) quality and is finite. Happiness or joy, however, is an expansive, intrinsic reward that is readily available and sustainable, unlike extrinsic excitement which can lead to addictive patterns.
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a brain network that activates during self-referential thinking, such as ruminating, craving, or thinking about past/future. Research shows that in experienced meditators, the DMN (specifically the posterior cingulate cortex) shows decreased activity both during and outside of meditation, suggesting a reduction in self-referential processing.
19 Actionable Insights
1. Cultivate Curiosity as Core Practice
Cultivate curiosity as the central quality of your meditation practice and daily awareness. This provides the energy for sustained practice and investigation, helping to break habit loops and understand your experience, rather than using brute force which is ineffective.
2. Turn Towards Cravings with Curiosity
When experiencing a craving, turn towards it with curiosity instead of succumbing or resisting. Observe what it feels like in the body, recognizing that the unpleasant sensation will pass, and injecting curiosity can flip the experience from unpleasant to pleasant.
3. Observe Your Habit Loops
Become aware of your personal ’trigger-behavior-reward’ habit loops by paying attention to what happens each time you indulge in a craving. Understanding this loop is the first step to breaking it, as indulging reinforces the habit.
4. Pay Attention While Indulging
When indulging in a craving, especially for unhealthy food or smoking, pay close attention to the actual experience (e.g., taste, sensation). This practice helps dismantle the habit loop by bringing awareness to the actual experience, potentially leading to stopping when full or realizing the experience isn’t as good as anticipated.
5. Distinguish Excitement from Joy
Learn to distinguish between ’excitement’ (often contracted, finite, and causing suffering) and ‘joy’ (expansive, wholesome, and intrinsically rewarding). Mistaking excitement for happiness can lead to suffering and compulsive, addictive behaviors, whereas seeking joy is sustainable.
6. Calibrate Contraction vs. Expansion
Calibrate your experience to notice whether you are contracting (creating boundaries, self-referential) or expanding (connecting with the world, selfless) in any given moment. Consciously choose actions that lead to expansion, as contraction leads to suffering and separation, while expansion leads to ‘flow’ states.
7. Embrace Effortless Awareness
Recognize that awareness itself is effortless; it takes no effort to know you are breathing or to feel sensations. This understanding counters the tendency to ‘win’ at meditation through brute force, making practice more natural and less effortful, with effort only required to gently return attention after distraction.
8. Let Your Senses Rip
Consciously ’let your senses rip’ by allowing yourself to effortlessly see, hear, and feel whatever is happening in the present moment, rather than being caught in compulsive thinking. This breaks through mental ‘papier-mâché,’ allowing you to experience the world directly, which feels good and is effortless.
9. Reflect on Actions (Before, During, After)
Before performing an action, reflect on it. If not possible, reflect during the action. If not possible, reflect afterwards to learn from the experience, as this systematic reflection builds wisdom, allowing you to bring awareness to actions in real-time and eventually before they occur.
10. Stop Beating Yourself Up
Avoid beating yourself up over past actions or mistakes, as self-blame is a contracting experience that reinforces negative habit patterns and doesn’t help you move forward.
11. Manage Cravings When Depleted (HALT)
Be aware that your prefrontal cortex (responsible for restraint) goes offline when you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired (HALT), making you more susceptible to cravings. Cultivate wisdom by remembering past negative consequences of indulging when depleted.
12. Mindful Indulgence Over Abstinence
Instead of aiming for complete abstinence (which can fail when cognitive control is low), practice mindful indulgence by paying attention while consuming small amounts of desired items. This is a more sustainable long-term strategy than abstinence.
13. Hone Curiosity on Everyday Objects
To develop curiosity, start by practicing it on everyday objects or experiences, such as during walking meditation by observing leaves, bark, or sidewalk patterns. This helps hone the skill of curiosity, making it easier to apply to more subtle objects like the breath.
14. Practice Expansive Loving Kindness
When practicing loving kindness meditation, focus on tapping into an expanding quality in the heart, rather than a rote or effortful process. This approach makes the practice feel more natural, expansive, and genuinely pleasant.
15. Address Doubt with Curiosity
When doubt arises during meditation (e.g., ‘Am I doing it right?’), notice it and observe its feeling (contracting or expanding), treating doubt as a teacher. Noticing doubt and its qualities can take its power away and turn it into part of the practice.
16. Apply Skinner Box to Life
Apply curiosity to observe the experiential difference between contracted states (e.g., craving, anger) and expansive states (e.g., sensory awareness). This observation helps you naturally avoid unpleasant, contracted states and gravitate towards pleasant, expansive ones, similar to a rat learning in a Skinner box.
17. Use Apps for Habit Change
Utilize apps like ‘Craving to Quit’ or ‘Eat Right Now’ to learn mindfulness skills for breaking habits. Use your phone as a tool for positive change, especially in contexts where the habit usually occurs, as it provides tools at your fingertips and allows learning in relevant contexts.
18. Start Meditation During Suffering
Start meditating when suffering or facing stress (e.g., trouble sleeping, starting stressful programs), using resources like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘Full Catastrophe Living.’ This can address suffering and stress.
19. Meditation’s Broad Life Impact
Practice daily meditation and engage in community/retreats, paying attention in daily interactions (e.g., interviewing, working with teams). This can be surprisingly helpful and can positively influence career and life decisions.
9 Key Quotes
The most famous tenants of Buddhism are the four noble truths. And the, so this first truth is that there's like an unsatisfactoriness. And the second noble truth says that the unsatisfactoriness comes from craving. And then the third noble truth says, hey, if you pay attention and let go of the craving, that's going to help a whole lot.
Judson Brewer
Each time you indulge in that craving, you reinforce a memory that says, oh, do this again.
Judson Brewer
Cravings are unpleasant, but is, what does curiosity feel like? Definitely pleasant.
Judson Brewer
When we explore gratification to its end, you know, he described it, knowledge and vision arose. And what that means is we never have this devil on our shoulder saying, oh, no, no, but you missed something. You missed something. We're like, no, dude, I checked it all out and there's nothing good here.
Judson Brewer
If we beat ourselves up over something that we've done in the past, that doesn't help us move forward. That actually reinforces similar types of habit patterns.
Judson Brewer
Try not, do or do not, there is no try.
Judson Brewer
The mind mistakes excitement for happiness.
Judson Brewer
If we try to get enlightened, we can guarantee that we won't get there.
Judson Brewer
For anybody who hasn't actually done this, it's going to sound a little Pollyanna, like that it feels good to be alive. But actually, it does feel good to be alive. And this is no other less cliche, nothing you can say about that that doesn't sound hopelessly cliche, but actually just try it. It feels better than thinking.
Dan Harris
3 Protocols
Mindfulness-Based Approach to Cravings
Judson Brewer- Identify triggers and cravings.
- Instead of reinforcing old habits by succumbing or resisting, turn toward the cravings.
- Get curious about what the cravings actually feel like in the body.
- Notice that the unpleasant sensation of craving eventually ends.
- Inject an attitude of curiosity to shift the experience from unpleasant to pleasant.
Initial Step for Smoking Cessation
Judson Brewer- Smoke as much as you want.
- Pay close attention while you are smoking.
- Notice the actual taste and physical sensations (e.g., burning) of the cigarette.
- Recognize that the experience is not as good as previously thought, leading to a 'wake-up call' and motivation to change.
Learning from Actions (Buddhist Teaching)
Judson Brewer- Before performing an action, reflect on it.
- If unable to reflect before, reflect on the action while it is happening.
- If unable to reflect during, reflect on the action afterwards to learn from the experience, without self-judgment.