Get FREE access to the full session (and 36 others like it): https://bit.ly/hrs-twu

As addiction takes hold, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) essentially becomes dormant and deeper limbic or emotional brain centres (e.g., the ventral striatum) start running the show.

This reduces our capacity for delayed gratification and increases our compulsion, impulsivity, and motivation to engage in the addictive substance or behaviour.

Therefore, in recovery, it’s critical to get the prefrontal cortex back “online” and in communication with the limbic brain again.

During the summit, I discovered two effective ways for “activating” it - one suggested by Dr Anna Lembke from Stanford, and the other by Dr Janina Fisher, formerly of Harvard Medical School.

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The Power of Truth in Recovery:

Dr Lembke’s approach is to commit to radical truth telling - about everything in our lives.

This means committing to telling no lies whatsoever - even white lies or small ones.

This is hard because we’re natural born liars.

Lembke recommends this based on a study which found that stimulating the prefrontal cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) increased truth telling.

This, in turn, suggests the possibility of a bidirectional relationship.

In other words, in the same way that stimulating the PFC using TMS increases truth telling, maybe telling the truth also stimulates the PFC.

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How Curiosity Prevents Relapse:

Dr Fisher’s approach to stimulating the PFC is to get her clients engaged in a state of curiosity - particularly when they relapse.

Individuals struggling with addiction often feel deep shame about their behaviour.

This is problematic because shame prevents new learning and takes us into primitive areas of the brain.

When a relapse happens, the most important thing for the person affected is to learn from it - so they can avoid repeating the same mistake again in the future.

So Dr Fisher encourages her clients to view every relapse as a “golden learning opportunity.”

When they do this, it puts them into a state of curiosity about themselves and their behaviour.

This in turn, takes them out of the more primitive parts of the brain and into the prefrontal cortex.

Now they are in a position to be more objective about the addictive behaviour, learn from the mistake, and explore new possibilities for preventing the same thing happening again in the future.

Book recommendation: https://amzn.to/3PoJuIE

Paper recommendation: https://bit.ly/3t597Xs

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The Holistic Recovery Summit brings together 40 world-leading clinical psychologists, researchers, authors, and mental health practitioners, who will share with you their best practices for mind, body, social, and spiritual approaches to addiction treatment—enabling you to be at the forefront of evidence-based care.

Speakers include: Richard Schwartz, Janina Fisher, Stephen Porges, Pat Ogden, Anna Lembke, Iain McGilchrist, Laurel Parnell, Steven Hayes, and 32 others!

This online event will take place between 27th Nov - 2nd Dec 2023 and tickets are FREE for a limited time.

If you're interested in attending, please click here to register: https://bit.ly/hrs-twu