Why Willpower Doesn't Work: A Neuroscientist Explains How to Rewire Your Brain
episodePreviously titled “Addiction: Why Your Brain Resists Change (Part 2)” — renamed by the publisher on Sep 22, 2026
RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
50 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 23 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Any habit that can be learned can be unlearned.
World-renowned psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and best-selling author Dr. Judson Brewer shares his groundbreaking research on what works to break cycles of addiction and anxiety. We're talking about addictions and things that people can believe aren't recoverable.
Everything's recoverable if it's a habit. Everything.
Welcome to Recoverable. I'm your host, Terry McGuire. We continue our discussion today with Dr. Judson Brewer about the neuroscience of addiction. Welcome back. And you welcome back.
Thank you.
I'm really grateful for this conversation and the gift you have for explaining it with all of your experience, all of your research, all of your studies, all of your clinical work, and you can still break it down in a way that even I can understand. So thank you. Speaking of which, let's talk briefly. I mean, I always hesitate to get really into the science of it because I don't have that kind of brain and smoke will come out of my ears, which might be visible on set. But if you can explain what actually happens in the brain when someone is in a situation that there's an addiction present.
Sure. So let's start with a definition of addiction. Okay. So continued use despite adverse consequences. That's the definition I learned in residency, and I still use today. I think it's very useful. And one thing that that highlights is it's not about a substance or a chemical or a some specific thing that we're putting into our body. It could also be a behavior. So this broadens the scope where people can can find whatever the behavior is, if it's causing adverse consequences, then they can look at it in terms of it maybe being an an addiction.
What is the scientific definition of addiction and why is it considered a habit?
And this is, you know, there are controversial elements around eating. Like can eating be an addiction when it's something that we need for survival? Well, if we're binge eating or have some eating disorder, for example, you could say, well, there's a continued use despite adverse consequences. So regardless of how we define these things, I like to think of it that way because it reminds me that addiction is along the spectrum of a habit, right? So habits are formed to help us survive. So at the far end of that spectrum is an addiction where that Habit is something that we do automatically, but it's not help helping us survive. So, what's going on in the brain? The shared element here is that when we do a behavior.
So, for example, you know, we talked in the last episode about survival, right? So our ancient ancestors go out on the savannah, they find a food, there's the trigger, they eat the food, there's the behavior, and then they're stuck. Stomach sends this dopamine signal to their brain that says, hey, lock that memory in. Remember what you found and where you found it. So that's how any habit forms, but that's also how an addiction forms. If we look at substances, for example, all substances that are abused act on the dopaminergic pathway. Now they might act in slightly different ways, but all of them tweak dopamine to some degree. So for example, cocaine affects the Dopamine transporter, whereas alcohol and benzodiazepines affected by benzodiazepine receptor, right?
So there can be different receptors, and that the details aren't that important, but the key here is that they all share this common element of a habit loop, right? Trigger behavior result, and also share the same element of dopamine. They're affecting the dopamine system in some way. Now that dopamine fires, and we've Talked last time about how, you know, dopamine fires often when we're surprised. So it it kind of fires when something surprising happens, but then it fires in anticipation. It becomes this motivation molecule to go do the thing. That's why it feels itchy, urgy, and makes us restless to go get out of our seat to go do something, right?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:56
2
What is the scientific definition of addiction and why is it considered a habit?
1:56–7:14
3
How does the brain’s habit loop (trigger‑behavior‑reward) create cravings?
7:14–15:40
4
What is the Default Mode Network and how does it drive rumination and craving?
15:40–23:11
5
Can we really rewire a brain that’s been addicted for years?
23:11–32:17
6
Why is the 21‑day habit myth wrong and how many mindful experiences really change reward value?
32:17–38:37
7
How do smartphones act as ‘pocket slot machines’ through intermittent reinforcement?
38:37–48:16
8
What is the HALT method and how does meeting a need beat feeding a want?
48:16–50:19
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
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