#2. Rethinking Addictions, Prevention and Treatments
Professor Selena Bartlett
Neuroscientist, Professor, author, speaker, child and brain health protector and advocate. Speaking up for the silenced.
How Society Glorifies What Destroys Us and What We Can Do about it.
How many successful people have you heard on podcasts confessing that the bigger house, the flashy cars, or the next promotion didn’t bring them happiness? Instead, it led to disconnection, burnout, and soul destruction.
As Mo Gawdat, retired CBO of Google X wisely said, “The more bedrooms you have in a house, the more separated the relationships within it.” His insight is a stark reminder that in our chase for material success, we often lose what matters most—connection.
Addiction doesn’t just show up in the form of drugs or alcohol. In today’s world, addiction can manifest in the pursuit of ambition, work, power, and status. Society often rewards those who sacrifice their health, relationships, and inner peace for success. We celebrate the workaholic, praise the relentless achiever, and admire the accumulation of wealth—rarely acknowledging the emptiness that can come with it.
Understanding why we are addicted: An Ancient Mechanism for Survival
Addiction isn’t just about pleasure-seeking—it’s about self-medicating stress. For 200 million years, survival was stressful. Research from evolutionary biologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and scientists has provided a different lens to understand where addictions started.
Our ancestors had to navigate food shortages and predators and protect their families. The brain develops powerful coping mechanisms to manage this stress: natural behaviours like eating, forming social bonds, or even using plants for relief.
Today, however, these ancient coping mechanisms are being hijacked by modern rewards like drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography, and even the pursuit of power, money, and success. This "evolutionary mismatch" happens because our brains, wired for survival, now face much more intense and accessible stimuli, creating harmful cycles of addiction.
Addictions to work, power, and success tap into our evolutionary need for achievement and status. But in today’s world, that pursuit often leads to burnout, ethical compromises, and broken relationships. Whether we’re chasing material wealth or substances, addiction is part of our human nature—an ancient survival mechanism now misaligned with modern life.
How Modern Life Hijacks Our Ancient Reward Systems
This figure can be viewed in the following in-depth paper: "Evolutionary perspectives on substance and behavioural addictions: Distinct and shared pathways to understanding, prediction and prevention. Written by Adam?Hunt and colleagues Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Volume 159,?April 2024. , Psychiatry Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence,?Florence, Italy, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, ,Glasgow, UK
The Glorified Vs. The Stigmatised Addictions.
Society plays a significant role in how addictions are perceived. Some addictions, like workaholism, the pursuit of power, and extreme fitness, are glorified. We reward people for chasing success, fame, and status—even at the cost of their mental, physical, or emotional well-being. The addiction to work, power, or wealth is often seen as ambition, not dependency.
On the other hand, addictions like substance abuse, gambling, and pornography are stigmatised. People who struggle with drugs or alcohol are often seen as morally weak or lacking self-control. Yet, the brain mechanisms driving addiction to career success are the same ones fuelling addiction to substances. Society’s response, however, is vastly different. Those with stigmatised addictions face punishment and shame, while others with glorified addictions are rewarded and praised.
?But here’s the truth: whether the addiction is to success or substances, it all comes down to survival systems being hijacked by exaggerated modern stimuli.
?Possible Approaches to Prevention and Treatment of Addictions
Understanding addictions as an evolutionary mismatch allows us to tackle it in new, more effective ways. The key is recognising these behaviours for what they are and creating strategies that address the root causes (Hunt et al., 2024).
Creating Human Centred Artificial General Intelligence (HAGI) that Hits Pause and Reflection
Relentless growth pushes our planet and society to the brink, forcing us to rethink our economic models. We urgently need doughnut economics and a circular economy—systems prioritising human well-being, environmental sustainability, and resource regeneration. Why are we content with a few accumulating resources that belong to everyone? We need leaders who care about building economic systems that ensure people and the planet thrive within ecological boundaries, ultimately reducing the addictions arising from constant consumption. What happens when you ask AI to produce an image that depicts how to solve our addictions? See below. Not a bad answer!
Figure 2. HAGI. DALLE depiction of the contrast between relentless growth and a sustainable future, with a glowing brain symbolising neuroplasticity and adaptation. The pause button represents the shift toward balance and regeneration. Let's hope the tech folks set the algorithms under AGI in this direction.
Let’s be clear: AI, as it stands today, is not the solution. If AI were truly intelligent, it would help us stop our addictions to consumption and the destruction of our planet. We need to stop promoting AI as a quick fix and start addressing the root causes of our unsustainable habits. It’s time to hit pause, reflect, and create HAGI together.
Small Changes, Big Impact
While we can't change the world overnight, we can contribute to a better future by learning to say "NO" to the impulses sent to us from all sides- our evolutionary nature and a capitalist world. Small, consistent actions can make a difference.
?SAY NO OUT LOUD
Why Saying "NO" Matters?
Learning to say "no" to impulses is not just a personal victory—it’s an evolutionary step toward creating a more resilient, adaptable, and mindful species. Our ability to rewire our brains and manage stress effectively ensures that we, as humans, can pause, reflect and thrive in an increasingly complex world. The power to say "NO" to what doesn’t serve us is a fundamental building block of future survival. In this sense, we are not just surviving evolution, we are actively shaping it.
Simple Steps to Learn to Say "No"
Addiction is deeply connected to the brain’s response to stress, which triggers impulsive behaviours and makes it challenging to break unhealthy habits. Retraining the brain to say “no” is something we can practice in small, everyday ways.
However, it’s essential to acknowledge that for those facing severe addictions, this approach alone is not enough. Serious addiction requires comprehensive, professional support.
What follows is meant for the smaller moments where we feel we’ve lost control. These simple steps can help build self-regulation, impulse control, and confidence, slowly reshaping our relationship with our impulses and allowing us to regain control.
领英推荐
By strengthening the brain’s impulse control centre, you can begin to shift your habits, one step at a time, and foster a healthier, more balanced life.
Here’s how to start:
We Sync in Face to Face Connections More Than Using Zoom
Through connection, community, and love, we can help create the environment and the conditions that break the cycles of addiction in our Society and rewrite the narrative of what success truly means.
Dr Joy Hirsch from Yale School of Medicine told me on episode #159 of the Thriving Minds podcast about her recent pioneering research on measuring our inter-brain synchrony, measuring what happens when we are in face to face connections vs. zoom.
In this phenomenon, people’s brains synchronise during deep conversations, empathy, or shared experiences. Dr Hirsch continues to do breakthrough neuroscience research, demonstrating that we can accelerate our potential with others and through connections to healthy communities.
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Zoom and Face-Processing: Why Virtual Interactions Feel Different
As we rely more on virtual tools like Zoom, research shows that online interactions don’t fully replicate the social and emotional depth of in-person connections. Facial micromovements, essential for interpreting social cues, are more challenging to detect due to camera angles and screen engagement.
Webcams often distort eye contact—when you look at the camera, you lose focus on your partner's face, and when you focus on the screen, it appears you're looking away. This mismatch affects how our brains process social interactions, reducing the natural connection we experience face-to-face.
Dr Hirsch and colleagues insights open the door for exploring how technology impacts our ability to truly connect with others.
Figure 1 from the following paper:"Separable Processes for Live “In-Person” and Live “Zoom-like” Faces" Zhao, N., Zhang, X., Noah, J.A., Tiede, M. & Hirsch, J. (2023). Imaging Neuroscience, Advance Publication. Link to the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00027
We need each other not only for survival but for recovery and thriving.
Together, we can pave the way for a better future. Healing happens through connection, love, and support—not punishment and isolation. Let’s create spaces where people can come together and heal. Recognise that societal influences, trauma, and stress shape addiction. Recovery is not an individual battle; it’s a multi-generational collective effort. At our core, we’re all affected by addiction because it’s part of our evolutionary history.
Thank you for reading Being SEEN: Master Mental Health in the Digital Age.
Kind regards,
Selena
Professor Selena Bartlett
Mother, Neuroscientist, Pharmacist, Counsellor, Podcaster, Author: "BEING SEEN"
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