According to addiction expert Dr Anna Lembke, our smartphones are making us dopamine junkies, with each swipe, like and tweet feeding our habit. So how do we beat our digital dependency?

How Digital Media Turned Us All Into Dopamine Addicts

In her new book, Dopamine Nation, emphasises that we are now all addicts to a degree. She calls the smartphone the “modern-day hypodermic needle”: we turn to it for quick hits, seeking attention, validation and distraction with each swipe, like and tweet. Since the turn of the millennium, behavioural (as opposed to substance) addictions have soared.

Every spare second is an opportunity to be stimulated, whether by entering the TikTok vortex, scrolling Instagram, swiping through Tinder or bingeing on porn, online gambling and e-shopping

Global depression rates have been climbing significantly in the past 30 years and, according to a World Happiness Report, people in high-income countries have become more unhappy over the past decade or so. We’ve forgotten how to be alone with our thoughts. We’re forever “interrupting ourselves”, as Lembke puts it, for a quick digital hit, meaning we rarely concentrate on taxing tasks for long or get into a creative flow.

Global Statistics

She wrote Dopamine Nation because she believes her recovering patients – whether 60-something Jacob who built a masturbation machine to satiate his sex habit; teenaged Delilah, who couldn’t get out of bed unless she was high on cannabis; or Chi, who bought thousands of cheap consumer goods online just to experience the thrill of opening the package – have “acquired a wisdom we all could benefit from"

Why Dopamine Nation

Rather than giving us pleasure itself, as is commonly thought, dopamine motivates us to do things we think will bring pleasure. As the brain’s major reward and pleasure neurotransmitter, it’s what drives us to seek pizza when we’re hungry and sex when we’re aroused. Scientists use dopamine to measure “the addictive potential of any experience,” writes Lembke. The higher the dopamine release, the more addictive the thing.

Understanding How Dopamine Works

With instant gratification and digital media taking heck over us, it's high time we realize that we should control our senses rather some tech gadget controlling it making our lives vulnerable

According to addiction expert Dr Anna Lembke, our smartphones are making us dopamine junkies, with each swipe, like and tweet feeding our habit. So how do we beat our digital dependency, asks Jamie Waters

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

Constant craving: how digital media turned us all into dopamine addicts

Cholesterol is an organic molecule, required by all cell membranes to produce steroid hormones & bile acids.About 25% of our daily “intake” of cholesterol comes from what we eat (egg yolks, meat or cheese) & 75% is made by our body. So we make most of the cholesterol. If you have too much cholesterol in your blood, it can combine with other substances in the blood to form plaque. Plaque sticks to the walls of your arteries.

What Is Cholesterol

No. Cholesterol is absolutely vital for our existence. Cholesterol is one of the main building blocks used to make cell membranes and without we would be dead.There is no such thing as “bad” cholesterol or “good” cholesterol. All cholesterol is good!The only “bad” outcome is when cholesterol ends up inside of the wall of an artery leadimg to an inflammatory cascade which can lead to

Is Cholesterol Bad?

Cholesterol is hydrophobic, so it needs to be carried around our bloodstream using a protein transporting molecule.The protein wrapped “vehicle” that transports the lipids are called lipoproteins. The ratio of lipid-to-protein in the lipoprotein structure determines its density: <ol><li>HDL: high-density lipoprotein. Sometimes called "good" because it carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver, to be removed</li><li>LDL : low-density lipoprotein. Sometimes called "bad" as it leads to the buildup of plaque in your arteries</li><li>VLDL: very low-density lipoprotein, mainly carries triglycerides</li></ol>

Lipoproteins - How Does Cholesterol Move Around

LDL carries other molecules than cholesterol (LDL-C). These extra particles are called LDL-P. For example, triglycerides (TG) are also carried within LDL-particles. Studies have indicated that if there is discordance between LDL-C and LDL-P (one low, the other high), cardiovascular disease risk tracks more closely with LDL-P than LDL-C. So risk is high if there is a discordance and LDL-P are high. Because the particles are more to blame than the actual cholesterol.

LDL-C & LDL-P

Doctors focus on lowering LDL-C. Most will recommend eating less meat & dairy products or statins. However these interventions do little to lower LDL-P.Interventions that lower LDL-P more than LDL-C include omega-3 fatty acids, exercise and Mediterranean and low carbohydrate diets. Although statins lower LDL-P, it's not significant.Sugar seems to be the most harmful food category for LDL-P. Especially when sugar combines with fat.

Lowering LDL

As I look into lowering my cholesterol, I discovered I had no idea what this even mean .... 

food

Food

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

Dr. Peter Attia Ultimate Guide on Cholesterol

"Every day invest more time and energy into good food, activity with friends, and quality sleep."

"One less hour of sleep does not equal more productivity or enjoyment."

"Every hour of sleep is a positive investment, not an expense."

<ul><li>Exercise isn’t about the total amount of sweat you produce each week, your body only cares about not being inactive for a long stretch of time. </li><li> If you sit for six hours a day, even working out for two hours afterward won’t reverse the health damage you’ve done.</li><li>Don’t sit for longer than an hour. Walk to the house five blocks away, take the stairs, not the elevator, and just get up a few times at work to move around.</li><li>Exercise alone is not enough. Working out three times a week is not enough. Being active throughout the day is what keeps you healthy.</li></ul>

Make Inactivity Your Enemy

The quality of what you eat matters far more than the overall quantity. The researchers discovered that the types of foods you consume influence your health more than your total caloric intake.

Quality Over Quantity

One less hour of sleep does not equal an extra hour of achievement or enjoyment. The exact opposite occurs. When you lose an hour of sleep, it decreases your well-being, productivity, health, and ability to think. Yet people continue to sacrifice sleep before all else.

Don't Sacrifice Sleep

<ul><li>Eating it releases dopamine, which gives you a “high” feeling and makes it addictive.</li><li>The more you eat, the more you want. You build a tolerance, meaning you have to eat more each time, in order to get that dopamine hit again.</li><li>Sugar is candy for cancer cells.</li><li>The average person consumes 150 lbs. of sugar annually.</li></ul>Treat sugar like it’s an illegal drug. Avoid added sugar wherever you can, don’t even buy unnecessary sweets and snacks, and use it very carefully when cooking.

Treat Sugar Like A Drug

<ul><li>Ask yourself if the next food you put in your mouth is a net gain or a net loss. Repeat throughout the day.</li><li>Eliminate an hour of chair time from your daily routine.</li><li>Gradually add sleep to your nightly schedule in 15-minute increments. Continue until you feel fully rested each morning.</li></ul>

Making Small Adjustments

Most people eat more carbohydrates than they need and not enough protein.<ul><li>Try to find foods that have a ratio of 1 gram of carbohydrates to 1 gram of protein.</li><li>At a minimum stay away from foods with a 5:1 ratio. Most chips are 10:1.</li></ul>

What Counts More Than Calories?

“Each ounce you consume is either a net positive or a net negative by the time it runs through your body. You don't get healthier by simply trying to eat better in general. You improve your health on a bite-by-bite basis.”

<ul><li>The total intake of fruits and vegetables is a robust indicator of your happiness.</li><li>Every time you go to the store, start by loading up on fruits and vegetables with dark vibrant colors.</li><li>When disruptions threaten your regular schedule, plan ahead to ensure you get a good night’s sleep.</li><li>As you make adjustments for better sleep, measure your progress. Note the time you get into bed and the time you wake up. Then rate your sleep quality on a 1-10 scale.</li></ul>

Staying Healthy

<ul><li>All carbohydrates convert to sugar in your bloodstream. The more refined they are the faster they convert.</li><li>Avoid processed and refined carbs as much as possible. Carbs stimulate dopamine in your brain.</li><li>Replace chips, crackers, and snack bars with nuts, seeds, apples, celery, and carrots.</li><li>Get a full hour of vigorous activity to burn calories all day long.</li></ul>

Refined Fuel

<ul><li>Make every meal last at least 20 minutes. Nothing good comes from eating fast.</li><li>Eating fast introduces extra air into your stomach.</li><li>Force yourself to put the fork down between bites.</li><li>Learn to enjoy the process of eating correctly.</li></ul>

The 20 Minute Meal Rule

<ul><li>When you are offered complimentary bread with a meal, ask for a healthy alternative or simply pass.</li><li>Eliminate one type of red or processed meat from your diet for good.</li><li>Butter is healthier than bread. A couple of pieces of bread can increase blood sugar as much as a candy bar.</li><li>Glycemic Index: Whole grain bread: 72, Mars candy bar: 69</li><li>Don’t eat your meat and potatoes.</li><li>Daily consumption of processed meat poses the highest risk.</li><li>Plate color can impact your appetite. Contrasting colors will make you tend to eat less.</li><li>Small plates; smaller waistline.</li></ul>

Food Combinations

Keep your bedroom two to four degrees cooler at night. See if it helps you fall asleep and stay asleep.If a room is too warm your body will think it is time to get up.

Keep Your Bedroom Cool

The most influential choices you make for your health occur at the grocery store.Once you put something in your cart, it is likely to end up in your stomach. Shop when you are full whenever practical.

Daily Choices

#1 "New York Times" bestselling author Tom Rath delivers a book that will improve your health for years to come in three of interconnected areas: eating, moving, and sleeping --

books

Books

longevity

Longevity

Eat Move Sleep will help make good decisions automatic more than a book this is a new way to live. From Tom Rath, author of StrengthsFinders 2.0, comes a powerful book about what people can do to lead healthier lives. Eat Move Sleep features Tom's deeply personal story, supported by practical, credible, and timeless ideas from more than a decade of research. Eat Move Sleep focuses on all three components and their interconnectedness. Comprehensive yet simple, rooted in cutting edge research, and sound advice that's valuable to everyone.

Tom Rath

Eat Move Sleep

You can improve your day right from the moment you wake up till you go to bed. Let me show you how

How to improve your day?

After you wake up go and drink a glass of water. Go for a 20 min walk or run.Have a shower.Eat clean.

How to improve your morning?

When you work then just focus on your work because you are improving your wealth now.Drink some herbal tea instead of coffee.Eat some clean lunch instead of munching on burgers.Listen to some informative material during your free time.

How to improve during work hours ?

Go to the gym.Relax by reading/meditatingEat a healthy dinner.While watching TV or playing games remember to keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

How to improve after work?

When you sleep, remember to sleep on your side.Get atleast 6 hours of sleep.

How to improve while sleeping?

I have written so much more on my website. It would be so much more beneficial for you to check it out.<a href="https://selfdevelopmentfreak.blogspot.com/2022/04/how-can-you-improve-your-day.html">Check out my website </a>

A little learning is a dangerous thing 

Let me show you how you can improve your day right from the moment you wake up till you go to bed. It will be good for you to improve your day

mindfulness

Mindfulness

habits

Habits

meditation

Meditation

How can you improve your day

Wilderness therapy has grown in popularity since the first wilderness therapy program was founded in 1988. This program was called the Aspen Achievement Academy and was located in Loa, Utah. This type of therapy is conducted outdoors and has been widely used with adolescents and young adults deemed “troubled”; many adolescents who attend wilderness therapy programs are referred from juvenile courts or have emotional and behavioral issues.

Wilderness Therapy: Description, Types, and Benefits

Wilderness therapy combines psychotherapy sessions and wilderness, and uses an outdoor milieu that is structured to provide a safe environment for clients to develop coping skills.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Wilderness Therapy: Description, Types, and Benefits - The Human Condition

In recent years, dozens of neuro-self-help books have been published that all purport to help improve brain function with just "one weird trick." With lifestyle changes, recreational drug use, prescription interventions, or the latest in fashionable electromagnetic stimulation, we can lightly embroider, severely alter, or dramatically deconstruct the brains we have. In The Tailored Brain, biologist and science writer Emily Willingham takes a different approach. There is no trick.

"One Weird Trick"

No prescription drug, perfect diet, or just-right dose of psychedelic is going to transform your mind and life forever. But there are ways to assess yourself inside and out and tailor an approach that is just right for you. This book looks at the realities of popular self-help and brain-tailoring promises, from cannabidiol to special diets to electromagnetic stimulation, and how they can (and cannot) produce results.

Brain-tailoring Promises

Willingham offers clear, actionable guidance on how treatments for epilepsy and mania might improve focus, why magnetic stimulation might help depression, and whether microdosing really improves creativity. TK also takes stock of what's outside your mind-your environment, including the people, places, and things - and explores how cultivating meaningful social relationships and a strong sense of community may help you think more clearly than any drug could. But even if we can tailor our brains, should we? Brain tailoring can often look like a plan for making your brain work the "right" way.

Actionable Guidance

Yet the idiosyncrasies and "flaws" we might perceive in our cognition are often not really flaws at all; they are different ways of thinking that contribute to the creativity and resilience of the human race. This book is unique in that Willingham also offers ways for readers to think through whether they want to tailor their brains to become something we want to be, something society expects us to be, or something we can't be because society doesn't give us the support we need. You and you alone can decide how your brain should function.

You Decide How Your Brain Functions

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

The Tailored Brain

Insomnia is one of the more common afflictions to affect the world seeing as there are more than 3 million cases each year.Insomnia itself can be characterized by a general lack of sleep.

What is Insomnia?

As mentioned before, Insomnia entails that an individual lacks the ability to sleep soundly. Additionally, Insomnia also entails symptoms such as Depression, Anxiety, or even a general lack of concentration.Insomnia is also known to affect people of all ages but is most commonly seen in people ages 60 and above as well as in Teenagers. Insomnia also has many different treatments but does not have any known cure.

Background Information

There are three fundamentally different types of Insomnia all of which affect people differentlyThe first type is known as Transient Insomnia which means that the general lack of sleep only lasts for less than a week.The second type is known as Acute Insomnia which means that the Insomnia is short-term. This could be anything between a week and a month.The last type is known as Chronic Insomnia which means that Insomnia lasts for extended periods of time. Anything that lasts more than a couple of months could be considered chronic.

The Three Different Types

There are various different situations and events that could potentially lead to Insomnia. Some of the common ones include:<ul><li>Changes in Sleeping Environments</li><li>Stress (job loss, loss of a loved one, etc)</li><li>Illnesses (especially those that increase stress)</li><li>Unhealthy Lifestyle Habits (working late, diet, etc)</li><li>Irregular Sleeping Habits</li></ul>

Causes of Insomnia

Insomnia can be diagnosed in several different ways, however, the most common ways are as follows:<ul><li>Daily Sleep Logs</li><li>Test for Low Oxygen Levels</li><li>Melatonin Sampling</li><li>Home Sleep Apnea Testing </li><li>Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan</li></ul>

How is Insomnia Diagnosed?

One of the most famous experiments regarding sleep deprivation was about a man named Randy Gardner who decided to stay up for 11 nights in order to see the effect on his body. Some of the effects include:<ul><li>Hallucinations</li><li>Inability to focus</li><li>Trouble Understanding Surroundings</li><li>Slurred Speech</li><li>Very Confused and Forgetful</li></ul>Note that Insomnia is a cycle that never ceases to persist. For that reason, a lot of the effects mentioned above can impact people with Insomnia on a daily basis.

Studies and Experiments

As can be seen, Insomnia is one of the most difficult disorders to deal with. Since Insomnia leads to disorders like Anxiety and Depression, it becomes a loop that is hard to put an end to.Due to the fact that it also has no known cure, it becomes even more difficult to deal with.Long story short, being able to sleep peacefully is a blessing and should never be taken for granted!

Key Takeaways

Types of Insomniaemedicinehealth.com/what_are_the_3_types_of_insomnia/article_em.htmCauses of Insomniahttps://www.sleepfoundation.org/insomnia/what-causes-insomnia#:~:text=Common%20causes%20of%20insomnia%20include,problems%2C%20and%20specific%20sleep%20disordersRandy Gardner Stanford Experimenthttps://www.inc.com/melissa-chu/this-stanford-experiment-reveals-what-happens-when-you-dont-sleep-for-11-days.html

Sources

Insomnia is one of the most deadly disorders that have a vast array of different impacts. With this, I hope to provide new insight into the disorder and the different impacts that it can have.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that causes difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting quality sleep. The three types of insomnia include transient insomnia (less than one week), acute insomnia (short term), and chronic insomnia (long term).

Types of Insomnia: Symptoms, Treatment, Causes, Diagnosis

In 2018, archaeologists moving bodies for reburial from a 19th-century cemetery in Birmingham to make way for the new HS2 station were puzzled to find several that had plates on their laps. Then someone remembered a curious custom from the nearby Welsh Marches – that of the village “sin-eater”.

What Does Faith Have to Offer Us?

A plate of bread and salt would be placed on the deceased’s lap while they were lying in repose. Just before the coffin was closed and the funeral cortege set off for the church, the village sin-eater arrived, ate the bread and was given some coins and a glass of ale for their trouble. The belief was that the deceased’s sins were absorbed by the salt and transferred into the bread, and then into the sin-eater.

Sin-Eater

Sin-eaters were usually elderly and destitute, and glad to have the money – not to mention the free food and drink. The price they paid was to be shunned by their community because of their macabre associations. The last known sin-eater was Richard Munslow, who died aged 73 in 1906. Sin-eating reminds us that, more than anything else, even the most staid of religions – in this case, Anglicanism – can be associated with surprisingly curious beliefs and rituals.

Sin-eating

Perhaps because of this, it has often been claimed that religious belief arises from ignorance and superstition. If that were the case, you might expect religion to gradually fade away as societies became better educated and more scientifically oriented.There are at least two reasons, however, why religions persist. One is the fact that, on average, religious people are generally happier, healthier and live longer. For better or for worse, they also have easier deaths when the time comes. The other is that religious people are more likely to feel that they belong to a community.

Ignorance & Superstition

In a survey I ran, those who reported attending religious services were depressed less frequently, felt their lives were more worthwhile, were more engaged with their local community, and felt greater trust towards others. These enormous benefits mean not only that religion has enduring appeal, but that religious practices make you “fit” in the evolutionary sense – and thus they tend to stick around.

Religious Services

Part of the reason people are attracted to religion is that its rituals – the standing, sitting and kneeling in unison, the singing, the listening to emotionally rousing sermons – trigger the brain’s endorphin system. This is the mechanism that underpins social bonding in all primates, including humans. Like opiates, endorphins produce a sense of bliss bordering on ecstasy, calmness and warmth, relaxation and trust, while elevating pain thresholds. In addition to these hedonic benefits, endorphins trigger the release of natural killer cells (part of the body’s immune system).

Religion Rituals

Endorphins also underpin the bonding of friendships and, through that, allow us to create supportive groups of like-minded individuals. This effect seems to be especially strong in the context of rituals, as has been shown experimentally in religious services in the UK and Brazil. It seems, therefore, that religions evolved to reinforce a sense of community cohesion, something that’s extremely important to our wellbeing and survival.

Context of Rituals

Our natural community size – the size of our personal social network, the number of friends we have on Facebook – is part of a relationship between group size and brain size in primates. Each species has a characteristic group size determined by the size of its brain. Ours is about 150. Not only is this the average size of personal social networks (the number of extended family and friends with whom you have meaningful relationships), but it also turns out to be the optimal size for religious congregations.

The Size of the Brain

If a congregation is smaller than about 100, it puts a heavy burden on the membership; if it is above about 200, it becomes increasingly prone to divisiveness. This seems to explain why big religions are so susceptible to fragmentation – constantly throwing up small sects (typically of a few hundred people at most) built round a charismatic leader whose wayward beliefs the hierarchy desperately tries to contain.

The Role of the Leader

Social bonding is important, of course, to many species. But there’s an aspect of religion that seems to be peculiarly human. Being able to engage in religious discussion – and hence explain the significance of the rituals and why you should take part – depends on the kinds of mind-reading, or “mentalising”, skills that play a crucial role in managing our everyday relationships. These are the skills that allow us to understand what someone else is thinking, to grasp their intentions. They allow us to utter sentences such as, “I know that you realise that Freddie believes that …”

Mind Reading and Mentalizing

To be able to do this, I have to be able to step back from the immediacy of the physical world so as to imagine the possibility that you might or might not think this, that Freddie might or might not intend whatever you thought he did, and even whether the person Freddie had in mind did or did not think what Freddie thought they did. Apes can do the first two steps in this chain, but that’s the limit. For humans, it comes easily, bringing with it an ability to imagine parallel worlds inhabited by invisible beings.

It’s a short step from there to religious ideas, which in turn lead to better bonding, which makes you more likely to survive. Survival means your superior mentalising skills will be passed on to a new generation, equally adept at religious thinking; a penchant for religion is therefore part of our genetic inheritance.

The Genetic Inheritance

But that’s not all. The same cognitive abilities that give us religion also allow us to ask why the world has to be the way it is (giving us science) and to imagine entirely fictional worlds (giving us literature). Thus, you could no more have a world where religion was cast aside as superstition than you could have one without science or stories. And that would be a very different world indeed.A History of God by Karen Armstrong (Vintage, £11.99)Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer (Basic Books, £14.35)World Religions – The Great Faiths Explored and Explained by John Bowker (DK, £19.99)

Fictional Worlds

In a world of scientific miracles, what does faith have to offer us?

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

communication

Communication

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

The big idea: do we still need religion?

Which Are You? How many emails are in your inbox? If the answer is thousands, or if you often struggle to find a file on your computer among its cluttered hard drive, then you might be classed as a digital hoarder.In the physical world, hoarding disorder has been recognised as a distinct psychiatric condition among people who accumulate excessive amounts of objects to the point that it prevents them living a normal life. Now, research has begun to recognise that hoarding can be a problem in the digital world, too.

Digital Hoarders

A case study published in the British Medical Journal in 2015 described a 47-year-old man who, as well as hoarding physical objects, took around 1,000 digital photographs every day. He would then spend many hours editing, categorising, and copying the pictures onto various external hard drives. He was autistic, and may have been a collector rather than a hoarder — but his digital OCD tendencies caused him much distress and anxiety.

A case study

The authors of this research paper defined digital hoarding as “the accumulation of digital files to the point of loss of perspective which eventually results in stress and disorganisation”. By surveying hundreds of people, my colleagues and I found that digital hoarding is common in the workplace. In a follow-up study, in which we interviewed employees in two large organisations who exhibited lots of digital hoarding behaviours, we identified four types of digital hoarder.

Accumulation

“Collectors” are organised, systematic and in control of their data. “Accidental hoarders” are disorganised, don’t know what they have, and don’t have control over it. The “hoarder by instruction” keeps data on behalf of their company (even when they could delete much of it). Finally, “anxious hoarders” have strong emotional ties to their data — and are worried about deleting it.

Hoearders types

From retaining old emails to accumulating digital files, digital hoarding is emerging as a potential problem for people.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Digital Hoarders: We’ve Identified Four Types – Which Are You? - Neuroscience News

Do you find yourself noticing faint sensations that no one else can perceive? Are you startled easily? And is your mood easily swayed by the feelings of the people around you? If so, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP), a personality profile that is of increasing interest to both scientists and armchair psychologists.

HSP persons

High sensitivity is often presented as a key contributor to depression and burnout. “A lot of people still think of it in terms of risk and vulnerability,” says Prof Corina Greven of the Radboud University medical centre in the Netherlands.The truth, however, is more complicated. Both high and low sensitivity can have advantages and disadvantages – it all depends on the context. And with a bit of self-knowledge about our place on the spectrum, we can all learn to find the right coping mechanisms to make the most of our personality profile.

Sensitivity & Vulnerability

Do you find yourself needing to withdraw during busy days, into bed or into a darkened room or any place where you can have some privacy and relief from stimulation?When people are uncomfortable in a physical environment do you tend to know what needs to be done to make it more comfortable (such as changing the lighting or the seating)?Do you find it unpleasant to have a lot going on at once?Does being very hungry create a strong reaction in you, disrupting your concentration or mood?Are you deeply moved by the arts or music?

Sensory Processing Sensitivity

Kanye West and Lorde say they are HSPs. What’s the science behind this newly popular label for understanding our ability to process feelings?

Are you anxious, introverted or just a ‘highly sensitive person’?

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