love,sex,dating advice,relationships,attraction

In today’s episode Dr. Lisle & Dr. Howk answer the following questions:

1. My brother never does anything in moderation, for example if he starts working out, he’ll organize his life around it, stop all social drinking and the like. Then he will eventually feel empty and complain he’s burnt out. My question is, is he destined to live in this open-unstable roller-coaster ride, or can I give him some advice (perhaps Harry Browne style) that will help him find his place?

2. I’ve heard Dr. Howk talk about social media as a potential pleasure trap, and I was wondering if she could go into more depth on that. What are the circuits being hijacked? What advice would you give to a low-key social media addict?

In this episode, Dr. Lisle & Dr. Howk briefly discuss a recent article titled, “Harvard researchers help explain link between emotion and addictive substance use”. 

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/health/report-sadness-triggers-addictive-behavior

They discuss addiction, relapsing, channel factors, Dr. Howk shares a personal story, and we answer the following listener question:

Most of the people I know use chemicals to manage their lives as least in some aspects: coffee to wake up, alcohol for social lubrication, SSRIs when feeling down, and beta blockers for anxiety, even Adderall or cocaine for productivity and charisma and so on. Even knowing what I know, it’s hard to resist the feeling that I’m leaving some competitive advantage on the table by not partaking. I assume you would discourage the use of most if not all of these substances. It it because you think they are all net negative in the long run, or do you find the whole concept puts the cart before the horse by trying to mold emotions to fit the environment instead of working on the environment? Are there any exceptions?

In today’s show, we’ll get the Dr’s take on a recent study “Surviving and Thriving: Fundamental Social Motives Provide Purpose in Life” published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167219883604

We’ll also go over these questions:

1. Where do New Year’s resolutions come from?  Why start something Jan 1 vs. any other random day?

2.  Dr. Lisle & Dr. Howk discuss the most common New Year’s resolution:  weight loss

3. What do the Dr’s think about the work of Dr. John Sarno in curing chronic back pain using education of how the mind works as treatment? According to Dr. Sarno childhood abuse can lead to rage in the unconscious mind and brain triggers TMS or chronic pain to repress this internal rage and there have been hundreds of people who have cured their back ache after reading his book, Healing Back Pain