Habits Can Be Decoupled from Long-Term Consequences
Some newer perspectives on addiction propose that addiction is a type of habit which is disconnected from the reality of its long-term consequences.
Let’s break that down.
We are talking about habits, but specifically about bad habits instead of good ones!
Humans have all sorts of habits, and it’s part of what makes us human. Most of these habits help us as a commitment to the pursuit of our goals and motives, whether in the pursuit of love, reproduction, nurturing, or legacy.
But when looked at from a long-term perspective, some habits are detrimental to our health or the well-being of ourselves and others. These can only be described as bad habits.
We even know many habits are bad, but the long-term impact is being overridden by some short-term circuitry.
How Does This Come About?
The Brain’s Predictive Machinery Drives These Habits
According to the esteemed neuroscientist Karl Friston, the brain is essentially in the business of creating predictions of the world and aiming to minimise surprise (or uncertainty).
Without going into too much detail, something that is surprising is usually bad news, so we want to avoid surprise. A surprise is typically something that we didn’t expect in our model of the world.
We take concerted steps to minimise this surprise, and we know we’re on the right path when we have the feeling that uncertainty is being reduced, doing better than expected. Essentially, a pathway towards a goal of reduced uncertainty will feel good. Conversely, if we have an intention and we are moving in the right direction, that should feel good.
Continuing on from the work of Friston, Mark Miller and colleagues propose that this feedback loop can become disconnected from reality.
For example, taking a drug can feel good, but it’s the pathway towards taking the substance that can become habitual.
Someone may want a particular sensation (excitement, calmness, invigoration), go through some steps, and achieve that sensation. Result? The feeling of uncertainty is reduced because the person actually achieved what they wanted.
The act of working towards an intention which results in the expected outcome (the altered state of excitement or invigoration) feels good—or feels as though uncertainty has been reduced.
Uncertainty wasn’t reduced, but the sensation gave us that impression. A sort of glitch.
But why? Upon reaching this state, it was not a ‘surprise’, it was not ‘unexpected’. It was something that was expected and achieved. Boom—release of neurochemicals that tell the brain: that was good.
Therefore, one of our primary functions, which is to reduce uncertainty, was achieved. And the brain concludes: do it again! Because the feedback loop feels like a positive one, it’s possible for a habit to form. Instead of feeling anxiety, moving successfully towards a predictable altered state will become a choice that, when faced with uncertainty, comes quickly to mind again and again.
Here we have another clue: the narrowing of choices. Instead of many different creative and physical pursuits which give us a ‘natural high’ (but may require extra effort!), the habits are closing off other options. We’re narrowing the choices of how to reduce our feeling of uncertainty. And because the detrimental effects tend to be longer-term, they’re often invisible in the feedback loop—thus disconnected from reality.
Technology or Substances Provide Easy, Short-Term Gains
In the context of technology and online usage, the online world offers a predictable mini-world. This online world is easy to access (at the touch of a fingertip), a contained and predictable world that provides an altered state of mind: awe, shock, delight, surprise. Incidentally, most of the reactions on social media tend to be related to these emotions.
In the pursuit of these altered states, it becomes a quick go-to, which discounts so many other options and so many other pursuits. A habit, in the face of feelings of uncertainty.
But it’s an illusion—delusional even. This mini-world comes at a cost. As mentioned before, we haven’t developed the feedback loop to connect our behaviours with the long-term health impacts to ourselves and our society. It also comes at a cost in terms of missed pursuits in other domains.
Breaking the cycle
The way out of this situation may require a shock realisation of the long-term effects of these bad habits, an intentional widening of the alternative options available, and some deliberate roadblocks in the way of this easy pathway.
Are you ready to do something about it?
Let’s escape the dopaminferno!