 I’ve had a few clients mention, almost in passing, that they have an addictive personality and whenever I hear that, I’m reminded of an American psychologist by the name of Dr Bruce Alexander who conducted experiments on addiction in rats, way back in the 70’s.
What he did was he created two water feeds for some caged lab rats, one was plain water, and the other was dosed with cocaine. After a short while the rats that were given the option of the cocaine took it exclusively even as they grew sick and died. If he had left this disturbing experiment alone at that point, we would have been unsurprised at the result. Cocaine is bad and addictive and this pointless experiment proved it. However, the doctor did not stop at that point. Instead, he created what he called the “Rat Park”. The Rat Park was a ratty utopia, lots of exercise equipment, interesting foods, safe spaces and, most importantly, other rats! You see, rats, like people are very social creatures by nature. They thrive in company. Into the idyllic environment he introduced the same two water feeds, one plain water and one laced with cocaine. The results did not match the previous experiment at all. The rats, by and large, wanted nothing to do with the drugged water. The experiments suggest that addiction is the result of boredom, isolation, and misery, at least in the case of rats. That matches what I have found in my practice with people though. People who have described themselves as having addictive personalities to me seem to be unhappy with themselves, stressed out by the world and isolated from the people around them. In society there seem to be two lines of thought about addiction. There is the right-wing theory that addicts are weak and suffer from some sort of moral inadequacy like being a hedonist or some sort of degenerate. Then there is the left-wing belief that addicts have been hijacked and their brains held prisoner by whatever their drug of choice may be. What I find interesting about the Rat Park experiment is that it doesn’t seem to be your morality or your brain that turns you into an addict. Addiction would appear to be largely driven by your environment and the world that many of us have found ourselves in has left us isolated and unhappy chasing a hyper-individualist dream that revolves around money and prestige. I wouldn’t dream of making light of the struggles that people can find with addiction or make light of the very real problems quitting can bring, both physically and mentally. I’m just suggesting that sometimes people find themselves looking in the wrong places for answers. Willpower is rarely the solution. The opposite of addiction isn’t sobering up or going cold turkey. It’s making strong social connections with people, being stimulated and finding joy. Together we stand, divided we fall.
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 That’s because I’m going to talk about something we all like to avoid, literally!
Procrastination. Surprisingly, the inspiration for this newsletter came the moment I sat down to write it, and to be very honest, I didn’t have any real idea what I was going to write, as I’d been putting it off all week. But once I actually sat down to write the idea came to me clearly within a minute or so. A whole week spent putting it off and as soon as I was sitting down to write, all the inspiration and motivation that I needed was there. So I’m going to share some thoughts on motivation and share my 5 best tips to build up a good procrastination busting mindset. We sometimes work ourselves into a real tizzy about some task in front of us and, from one angle it looks like that angst and worry is about nothing. And yet from the other side it can feel like an insurmountable mountain. The simple truth is that both points of view are effectively accurate. Trust me when I say this, I get at least a couple of enquiries a week from people who are having problems with procrastination or motivation. Not being able to bring ourselves to do something is one of the most common problems people come to me with. During my sessions I often talk about how it sometimes almost seems like there is another person living inside us and making (or not making) decisions for us. I know that sounds a little crazy but anyone who has found themselves reaching for a biscuit whilst telling themselves not to. Anyone who has pressed play on a video when they have a project due tomorrow knows exactly what I’m talking about. So who is that mysterious passenger in our head, the one that seems to be making the decisions for us sometimes? I usually describe it as our habits. Habits are just mental shortcuts we have taught ourselves to do, to take the heavy brain lifting so we can hopefully do things more efficiently. Our habits don’t care about the future though, they only care about the now and that can be a problem. Habits always, but always, work on a reward system. They work to provide security or pleasure for us. We avoid the bad thing, we look for the good thing. In short, the procrastination conundrum! Unfortunately, the world we live in is a bit more complicated than that. By our own doing, we live in a world where we have to worry about the paycheque in two weeks time, to put the rubbish out tomorrow or to order birthday presents for family several weeks in advance. In short, we no longer live in the day to day world of our distant ancestors and our brains just haven’t caught up yet. The trick to working around the limits of our own primitive brains. The limiting habits that avoid doing things we have difficulty working up enthusiasm for, it’s both very hard, and yet, strangely easy. Here are 5 ways I shift it, taking it from difficult to simple:
I hope you find these tips useful. As always though, if you need a little it more help to go deeper, reach out to your friendly neighbourhood hypno. We’re in this together. |
Daniel
Certified hypnotherapist. Archives
August 2024
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