Anna Lembke

So for example, with opioids, someone might start out using opium and

but eventually go to heroin which is about 10 times more potent and then eventually progress to fentanyl which is 50 to 100 times more potent and this would allow them to at least temporarily win that battle with their gremlins and get the the feeling that they're looking for

But another way to achieve potency is to combine two drugs to make yet a third more novel drug.

And this is done all the time.

For example, people combining opioids with things like benzodiazepines or now this new veterinary sedative Trank, which people are sadly using.

By combining two distinct drugs together, we get a new novel drug, which then changes it up for our brain receptors and allows us to overcome tolerance.

Exactly.

Or I very easily get hooked on YouTube videos, especially outtakes of American Idol.

And when I think about why on earth is American Idol so entrancing for me, well, they've figured it out, right?

They've taken music, which is already reinforcing for most people's brains, releases dopamine, feels good.

And then they've combined that with gaming and they've turned it into a competition and thereby really made a very potent drug.

Yeah, so dopamine is extremely sensitive to novelty, which is why, for example, people can get addicted to things like the news.

That's the definition of news.

It's new stuff coming your way.

But what's become so toxic about the modern world is that in order to maintain customers and keep them coming back, you've got to take the thing that they liked before and then package it as slightly new or different or better.

And the internet has absolutely mastered that, right?

These AI algorithms learn us, figure out where we've spent time before, what we've liked before, and then proffer or suggest to us things that are similar but a little bit different.

And that absolutely engages this treasure-seeking function where we keep going because we're hoping that the next hit will be something that's just a little bit better but similar to what we had before.

That's the problem we're all facing as individuals, as parents, as schools.

I mean, I don't know about you, but when I walk around and see the way that people are just glued to their phones, it just makes me really sad.