What is Addiction? [Gabor Maté]

Rethinking the roots of altruism For decades, researchers working to understand how altruistic behavior evolved have relied on a concept known as inclusive fitness, which holds that organisms receive an evolutionary benefit—and are able to pass on their genes—through cooperative behavior. Now Harvard scientists say the theory is mathematically flawed and unnecessarily complicates the story of altruism's evolution. In a new study, Martin Nowak, a professor of mathematics and of biology, E.O. "Our main goal is to develop a rigorous mathematical theory of evolution," Nowak said. A classic example of altruism, Nowak said, would be one animal opting to forgo reproduction to help care for a sibling's offspring. "There are two ways you can pass on your genes," Nowak explained. "One approach is to introduce a virtual quantity, which is called inclusive fitness, but the problem is that this quantity can almost never be calculated or measured," Nowak said. "The regression method is a curiously backwards approach," Allen said.

What Is Addiction? What’s the definition of addiction? An addiction is a chronic dysfunction of the brain system that involves reward, motivation, and memory. It’s about the way your body craves a substance or behavior, especially if it causes a compulsive or obsessive pursuit of “reward” and lack of concern over consequences. Someone experiencing an addiction will: be unable stay away from the substance or stop the addictive behavior display a lack of self-control have an increased desire for the substance or behavior dismiss how their behavior may be causing problems lack an emotional response Over time, addictions can seriously interfere with your daily life. That’s why it’s important for anyone who is experiencing addiction to seek help. Types What are the types? According to U.K. charity Action on Addiction, 1 in 3 people in the world have an addiction of some kind. The most well-known and serious addiction is to drugs and alcohol. The most common drug addictions are: Signs What are the signs? Causes Stages

The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety, by Bill Wilson The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety by Bill Wilson Copyright © AA Grapevine, Inc, January 1958 (Aslo see: A Letter From Bill W. on Depression, from the memoirs of Tom Pike, an early California AA member, which is strikingly similar to this AA Grapevine Article, "The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety.") I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance—urges quite appropriate to age seventeen—prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. I've recently come to believe that this can be achieved. I kept asking myself, "Why can't the Twelve Steps work to release depression?" Bill W.

10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin, famously “Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” – Mark Twain By Leo Babauta Recently, reader Rob asked me about my habit of waking at 4:30 a.m. each day, and asked me to write about the health benefits of rising early, which I thought was an excellent question. Unfortunately, there are none, that I know of. However, there are a ton of other great benefits. Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. Greet the day. How to Become an Early Riser Don’t make drastic changes.

Symptoms & Signs of Addiction Symptoms & Signs of Addiction to Alcohol or Other Drugs Continued use of alcohol or other drugs despite the negative consequences. Tolerance to alcohol or other drugs by increasingly need larger amounts to get high. Craving or a strong need to use alcohol or other drugs despite the consequences. Loss of Control over the amount of alcohol or other drugs used or the time and place of use. Physical Dependence or withdrawal symptoms when alcohol or other drugs are stopped. Source: What is Substance Abuse Treatment? Quiz Take the quiz: Do you drink alone when you are feel angry or sad? Does your drinking ever make you late for work? Does your drinking worry your family? Do you ever drink after telling yourself you won't? Do you ever forget what you did while drinking? Do you get headaches or have a hang over after drinking? Source: How to Cut Down on Your Drinking Do Special Events such as a disaster trigger or bring on symptoms? Symptoms and common reactions to a disaster may include:

Discovery of quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' corroborates theory of consciousness A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Physics of Life Reviews claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in "microtubules" inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions. Orch OR was harshly criticized from its inception, as the brain was considered too "warm, wet, and noisy" for seemingly delicate quantum processes. "The origin of consciousness reflects our place in the universe, the nature of our existence. After 20 years of skeptical criticism, "the evidence now clearly supports Orch OR," continue Hameroff and Penrose.

PsychTronics How to Cope with Uncomfortable Uncertainty Joy is not the only experience that people try to avoid, to their detriment. Many people cannot tolerate the feeling of uncertainty, and according to mounting evidence, this fear affects mood and health. Intolerance of uncertainty is linked with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, researchers confirmed in a paper in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology; their results also revealed a strong link to panic disorder. People with this fear try to feel more certain with strategies such as excessive checking, planning and reassurance seeking, worry and rumination, and avoidance of unfamiliar situations. A combination of therapeutic strategies can help people whose fear of uncertainty is holding them back.

First evidence of common brain code for space, time, distance -- ScienceDaily A new Dartmouth study provides the first evidence that people use the same brain circuitry to figure out space, time and social distances. The findings, which help reveal how our brains organize information and create our perspective of the world, appear in the Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers looked at whether there is an overlap, or a common mechanism, in the brain areas used to represent time, space and social distances. They used fMRI to analyze the brain patterns of participants while they viewed objects photographed at different distances, viewed photos of friends or acquaintances and read phrases referring to the immediate or more remote future. "The results showed that the same brain patterns that decide whether something is physically near to us versus far away also decide whether we are thinking about the near or distant future or seeing a friend versus an acquaintance," said senior author Thalia Wheatley, an associate professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

30 traits of an Empath (How to know if you're an Empath) By: Christel Broederlow What is an empath? Being an empath is when you are affected by other people’s energies, and have an innate ability to intuitively feel and perceive others. Empaths are often quiet achievers. However, they can be the exact opposite: reclusive and apparently unresponsive at the best of times. Empaths have a tendency to openly feel what is outside of them more so than what is inside of them. Empaths are more inclined to pick up another’s feelings and project it back without realizing its origin in the first place. Without a doubt, this emotional withholding can be detrimental to one’s health, for the longer one’s thoughts and/or emotions aren’t released, the more power they build. Empaths are sensitive to TV, videos, movies, news and broadcasts. You will find empaths working with people, animals or nature with a true passion and dedication to help them. They are just as expressive with body language as with words, thoughts, and feelings. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Empathic people are natural targets for sociopaths - protect yourself -- Science of the Spirit © Fotolia Olly The empathy trap: therapists and counselors almost by definition are empathic, to facilitate clients' recovery - but this quality can mean those carers are targets for sociopaths, aided by what Dr Jane & Tim McGregor call "apaths". The first UK article on this cruel sport shows how to identify and thus avoid it. People targeted by a sociopath often respond with self-deprecating comments like "I was stupid", "what was I thinking" of "I should've listened to my gut instinct". On initial contact, a sociopath will often test other people's empathy, so questions geared towards discovering if you are highly empathic or not should ring alarm bells. Sociopaths make up 25% of the prison population, committing over twice as many aggressive acts as other criminals. But not all sociopaths are found in prison. Exposure to and interaction with a sociopath in childhood can leave lifelong scars. This article is not about sociopaths per se but about surviving the harm they cause. © unknown

Your memory rewrites the past and edits it with new experiences, study finds - Science - News In the study, How your Memory Rewrites the Past, researchers looked at the exact point in time when incorrectly recalled information was implanted into an existing memory. The team found that memory rewrites the past with current information, updating recollections with new experiences. This form of editing happens in the hippocampus, working as the memory’s version of a film editor or special effects team. It does this to help us survive and adapt within constantly changing environments, and to encourage us to focus on things that are important in the present. Their results raise questions over the reliability of eyewitness court testimony, the team concluded. In the study, researchers at Northwestern University, in Chicago, asked 17 male and female participants to study 168 object locations on a computer screen with different backgrounds, such as an underwater ocean scene or an aerial view of farmland. "Our memory is not like a video camera," Ms Bridge added.

New evidence shows how chronic stress predisposes brain to mental disorders (Medical Xpress)—University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown that chronic stress generates long-term changes in the brain that may explain why people suffering chronic stress are prone to mental problems such as anxiety and mood disorders later in life. Their findings could lead to new therapies to reduce the risk of developing mental illness after stressful events. Doctors know that people with stress-related illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have abnormalities in the brain, including differences in the amount of gray matter versus white matter. Gray matter consists mostly of cells – neurons, which store and process information, and support cells called glia – while white matter is comprised of axons, which create a network of fibers that interconnect neurons. White matter gets its name from the white, fatty myelin sheath that surrounds the axons and speeds the flow of electrical signals from cell to cell. Does stress affect brain connectivity?

The Psychology of Trust in Life, Learning, and Love by Maria Popova The science of why tit-for-tat isn’t the best strategy for cooperation and why you should hear out your hunches. “When you trust people to help you, they often do,” Amanda Palmer asserted in her beautiful meditation on the art of asking without shame. But what does it really mean to “trust,” and perhaps more importantly, how can we live with the potential heartbreak that lurks in the gap between “often” and “always”? DeSteno, who has previously studied the osmosis of good and evil in all of us and the psychology of compassion and resilience, argues that matters of trust occupy an enormous amount of our mental energies and influence, directly or indirectly, practically every aspect of our everyday lives. Unlike many other puzzles we confront, questions of trust don’t just involve attempting to grasp and analyze a perplexing concept. Unlike many forms of communication, issues of trust are often characterized by a competition or battle…. The short answer is that we have to.