Brain Reset by David Gillespie

Author:David Gillespie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2021-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Uncertainty is the key

The less certain and predictable our environment, the more anxious we will be. Trepidation, or anxiety in the non-medicalised sense, is our brains working as they should. We need to be on alert. We need to be sharper and we need to be focused, just as we need to be when there is the possibility but not the certainty of a reward. Dopamine does the trick.

If our lives consist of an unending and unpredictable stream of uncertain but mostly bad events, we are suffering continuous dopamine spikes, just as much as any addict. We are like the animals who were subjected to random bouts of noise, wet bedding and sloping cages. The constantly high levels of dopamine produce the same adaptive process it does for addicts. DeltaFosB ratchets up.

Once again, this is normal. It is our coping mechanism. It is our body dulling us to the effects of constant uncertainty. It is our brains trying to make life liveable as best they can. This is exactly the same way we would adapt if we lived in a high temperature environment.

Unfortunately, it does not come without a cost. Just as it does with addiction, a persistently high DeltaFosB state creates anxiety and depression. And those states in turn increase the likelihood of poor impulse control, making our lives, and those of the ones we love, even more uncertain. It doesn’t matter if the elevated DeltaFosB is produced by addiction or malevolent uncertainty, the result is the same. Worse, once we are there, the gateway effect (see page 54) means we are easier to addict in general. If we also happen to be a teenager, then the lack of GABA controls increases the likelihood of all of this significantly.

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