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Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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November 16, 2014 By Admin

Self-Medication Via Your Hand-Held Devices

Self-Medication:  Is Your Hand-Held Device a  Dopamine Device?

MindfulHappiness_HandHeld_Device-Dopamine

 

Mindfulness Activities:

Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices.

Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet;   answer each question according to your personal opinions.  Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity

Be sure to complete the meditation activity noted at the end of these questions.

1) What is auto-texting?  Do you think you suffer from it? Yes or No?

2) What is auto-texting while driving a vehicle?  Do you think you suffer from it?  Yes or No?

auto-texting_mindful-happiness

3) What is sexting? Do you think you are addicted to it?  Yes or No?

4) On a scale from 0 to 10, rate how lonely or uncomfortable you feel when you are without your hand-held device.

5) If you answered “yes” to any of these three questions, what insights do you have about your addiction to your hand-held devices?

6) Have you ever contemplated WHY you must be “on” your hand-held device?  What did you come up with for an answer?

Mindful-Happiness_HandHeldDevice-Dopamine

7) Do you think you are using your hand-held device for connectivity with others as self-medication against your unpleasant feelings? Yes or No?  Do you know what feelings? – depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, or other?

8) MEDITATION ON YOUR DEVICE –  Please do this meditation activity.  

Shut OFF your hand-held dopamine device, and sit with it in front of you.  Allow the device to serve as your object of meditation.  Just sit and observe it.  Be sure it is off.  When your mind wonders off onto another thought, simply bring your attention (pure awareness) back to your device.  Notice if you work hard at just sitting looking at your device.  Clock how long you can just sit observing your device without any attempt to turn it ON to use it.  Notice if this is difficult for you.  Score (from 0 to 100) how difficult it is for you to sit (looking at your device) for at least 20 minutes without turning it ON or USING it.  A higher score (0ver 50) implies that you may be addicted to your device.  Another way to consider your level of addiction is to see HOW LONG you can just sit and look at your device without turning it on, doing something else, or using it.  If you cannot do this for at least 20 minutes, you may be addicted to the device.

9) How do you feel now that you may know the extent of your addiction to your hand-held device?   Some people experience such a strong addiction that they seek professional help from licensed helpers with expertise in habitual behavior.

May you be mindful;

May you be more calm;

May you be healthier;

May you be happier; and,

May you live with more joy and less suffering.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

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Filed Under: Activities, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured, Meditation, Meditation Activities, Mindful Awareness, MIndfulness Activities, Self Medication, Stress Reduction Tagged With: ADDICTION, AUTO TEXTING, DOPAMINE, DOPAMINE DEVICE, HAND HELD DEVICES, MEDITATION ACTIVITIES, SELF MEDICATION, SEXTING, TEXTING

September 8, 2014 By Admin

Total Human Experience in Brain Habits

Brain Habits –  Helpful Vs Unhelpful

Nora Volkow, MD, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse ( video below)  has noted that people suffering from addictions may experience some dysfunction in in brain areas related to personal motivation, reward recognition, and inhibitory controls.  Neuroscientists have utilized various brain imaging techniques to document this possibility in addicted individuals.  These finding bring us to a new look at ALL addicted behaviors as possible forms of brain-based disease (brain area, neuronal, neurotransmitter  malfunctions, habitual behaviors, and their related plasticity).  This more scientific research on addiction as disease moves well beyond common views noted in AA/12 Steps (it is a disease so it is not your fault); this more scientific research is specific to the brain’s role in developing and maintaining unhelpful, addictive habits.  Such habits often follow the escape from pain and approach to pleasure principles so well established in scientific psychology.  Core research has focused mainly on alcohol-drug addictions; however, a reinforced habit is a reinforced habit as far as brain functioning is concerned.  It is true that chemical addictions add specific molecular realities to addicted behaviors – molecular basis for instrumental and classical conditioning of habitual behaviors  leading to recognized changes in the brain’s reward centers.  All addictive behaviors – all unhelpful habits – narrow personal motivation to the rewarding effects, enhance craving for the rewarding effects, increase fear of being without the rewarding effects, and reduce one’s ability to slow or stop the habitual behavior itself.  Because people are self-medicating their moods and emotions, they tend NOT to learn more effective life coping skills (mindfulness, etc.), thus becoming even more dependent on the unhelpful habit for short-term relief of suffering and, perhaps, some intermittent joy.  It is quite common for depression, anxiety, fear, trauma, and other serious life challenges to be the emotional bases for initial self-medicating behaviors.

To assist readers in their personal efforts to attain mindful, wise mind skills – thus reducing the impact and probability of unhelpful habits and wise-mindaddictions – I am expanding this post to include more on my conceptual process about CABS-VAKGO-IS-Rels.  These letters represent: Cognition, Affect, Behavior, Sensorimotor, Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Gustatory, Olfactory, Intuitive, Spiritual, and Relational REALITIES on how humans function emotionally inside and outside of their own brain-mind and body.   This is the reality in human functioning, both helpful and unhelpful.  By focusing your attention on the various categories of human emotional experience (CABS-VAKGO-IS-Rels), you may be able to identify the areas of your brain that are helping you to maintain health and happiness AND the the areas that are moving you into poor health and more suffering.  Try to problem solve by noting what areas are your working allies to remain safe, productive, and happy as well as what areas serve as your ENEMIES.

Yes, even if you derive some brief pleasure or respite from suffering  from an unhelpful or addictive habit (via self-medication), this short-term emotional strategy ALWAYS leads to more suffering in both the original “thing” you are trying to escape AND in future addictions that simply add to your suffering and stress load. This is not difficult: find out which areas help you and which areas harm you; do more in the areas that help you, and do less in the areas that harm you.  Obtain qualified, licensed professional help as needed.

This formula may be helpful:

 Internal/External Cues/Stimuli (people, places, things, experiences) – LEAD TO } Thoughts, Beliefs, Emotions, Behaviors – LEAD TO } Consequences of the Selected Behaviors

If the consequences of the behavior are reinforcing (releasing dopamine in the brain’s reward centers) – you got what you wanted and the behavior is far more apt to continue until it becomes just about automatic (no other skills, neuronal sensitization, and brain plasticity).

Unhelpful Behaviors LEAD TO more suffering AND Helpful Behaviors LEAD TO less suffering/more happiness.

I hope you are able to use this information and wise mind skills to improve your emotional life – starting right now!

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

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Filed Under: Featured, MIndfulness, Neuroscience, Practices, Self Medication, Sensory Awareness, Training, Wise Mind Tagged With: ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, BRAIN HABITS, BURLINGTON, ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER, MONKTON, SELF MEDICATION, VERMONT, WISE MIND SKILLS

May 2, 2014 By Admin

Self-Medication in Various Areas of Suffering

My third posting on self-medication-

Comes from the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont.

mindfulhappiness_selfmedication_anthonyquintiliani Now we will turn our attention to how people become habituated to self-medication to obtain brief moments of joy and/or to avoid emotional suffering.  Recall that self-medication becomes a habit (dopamine released in reward centers of the brain) because we learn that certain behavioral responses to suffering provide us with either a short-lived experience of joy or quick avoidance of cues/situations that are associated with painful emotions.  So just how do people do this in various clinical conditions.  Well, addictions to chemical molecules and their effects is most clear: when we feel sad/depressed/lonely, we learn that a stimulant drug will improve our mood soon, and when we feel anxious/fearful we learn that a depressant drug will improve our mood soon.  What we do not yet know is that this learned pattern lays the foundation for a trap, a trap into addictions. Since we did not have wise-mind skills (mindfulness) to better cope with our pain, we used a quick-fix; however, the quick-fix will have to be repeated over and over again for an expanded duration of relief from suffering.  The sadness/depression as well as the anxiety/fear are not improved long-term and, in fact may become more severe.  As we continue to self-medicate, the addiction increases in severity – frequency, dosage, and negative life consequences will increase.

MindfulHappiness_SelfMedication_anthony-quintilianiA deeper look into depression shows us that self-medication may take on other forms of behavior beside taking mood-altering drugs.   Some depressed people learn other ways to self-medicate. They may eat more sugars and fats or they may not eat at all in an effort to improve their mood.  They may also isolate – stay in bed or at home –  to avoid situations (people, places, things) that may cause stressful challenges or more depressed affect.  They may capitalize on their fatigue by seeking lots of help and support from others to do things for them.  Although social-emotional support is often very helpful for depressed people, doing too much for them may become a source of learned helplessness, thus learned hopelessness and decreased self-esteem.   If their depression is part of a mixed condition of emotions (bipolar conditions), when in mania they may also buy many things and consume more and more as a means to improve their mood.   There are many ways to self-medicate – and all of them lead to the same place – short-term gain and long-term deterioration.

The experience of severe psychological trauma (PTSD) may offer the best examples of self-medication for anxiety.  In this condition people learn that if they avoid people, places, things that may/have been associated with traumatic cues, they may be able to avoid traumatic symptoms.  So negative reinforcement is at work – avoidance becomes a habit for short-term improvements but long-term deterioration.  In fact many clinicians believe that PTSD cannot be effectively resolved as long as the primary coping behavior is avoidance of cues associated with the traumatic experience.  Another factor complicating PTSD is the co-occurrence of depression and chemical addictions – and sometimes rage reactivity caused by limbic hyper-arrousal and emotion dysregulation.   So once again, the person may revert back to self-medicating their pain.MindfulHappiness_AnthonyQuintiliani

Another complication in self-medication is cutting and other self-destructive behaviors.  Severe depression may lead to suicidal behaviors, and severe trauma may lead to self-mutilating.  In some cases where trauma has left the person feeling numb, this is also a condition where self-medication may occur.  Some clinicians believe that when a person cuts or self-injures there is a consequential set of internal bodily reactions.  Endogenous opioids may activate, thus causing a change in sensation and emotion.  They person is no longer feeling numb.  The behavior is reinforced to repeat in the future.  There may also be a secondary effect in that people who care about the person may come to their rescue and pay more attention to them.  Perhaps be more kind to them.  Sometimes the attention is desired, and sometimes the attention is undesired.

I hope this slightly expanded posting about self-medication has helped you to see how wide-ranging it can be for people who continue to suffer from physical and emotional pain. Their primary hope for self-empowerment is learning and using evidence-based mindfulness skills in their lives and obtaining effective psychotherapy.  Of course for some, medications may also be necessary.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

 

Filed Under: Featured, Self Medication Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, SELF MEDICATION

April 20, 2014 By Admin

Self Medication – The Human Brain

Inner Workings of Self-Medication Process

 

mindfulHappiness_exploringSelfMedication_AnthonyQuintilianiTo continue our discussion about the self-medication process we will first turn to the human brain.  The human brain is the most complex system known to science.  Here, my comments will be basic.  Self-medication often has roots in the quality of our earliest childhood experiences (attachment and object relations with significant care-takers).  Insecure attachment sometimes leads to low frustration tolerance and internal self-discomfort as well as interpersonal insecurities.  Such vulnerabilities cannot well serve a person facing serious emotional challenges, especially if such challenges occur early in life.  Attachment style and personality variables may play significant roles in the realities of mind, brain, body and heart.

mindfulhappiness_SelfMedicationThe frontal/prefrontal brain areas deal mainly with executive functions; the limbic area deals mainly with survival needs and emotional reactivity as well as memory of such experiences; and, the reward centers release dopamine in the process of consciously rewarding experiences (habits) – like changing mood for the better via drug use.  Positive reinforcement occurs when consequences of behavior are desired (feeling “high”); negative reinforcement occurs when behavior leads to avoiding expected negative experiences ( depression, anxiety or reactivity especially when trauma is involved).  In these situations, unhelpful habits are born and eventually may dominate. When we are conscious of the relationship between stimulus, behavior and consequence it is operant/instrumental conditioning.  When are not conscious of the relationships (stimulus, behavior, consequence and environmental cues) it is classical conditioning.  Both forms of conditioning exist in the formation of both unhelpful habits and helpful habits.

neurotransmitter_MindfulHappinessLet’s focus on chemical addictions as a example.  Humans want to be happy and do not like to suffer any form of physical or psychological pain.  We also dislike boredom.  According to the mindfulness traditions, life gives us three core options: happiness, suffering, and boredom.  Our emotional responses to whatever life brings to us is an inside job.  When people suffer – especially when they do not have wise-mind skills for living – they want immediate relief.  We humans do strange things to control this desired clinging to joy and avoiding pain.  In fact even when we escape/avoid pain, it feels like a form of joy.  Suppose a person feels very sad/depressed; it will not take long for that person to discover that taking stimulant drugs results in  almost immediate short-term relief (an improved mood).  Suppose a person is very anxious (stressed or fearful); likewise, it will not take long to discover that taking a depressant/sedative drug reduces  the anxiety.  In both cases the person likes the consequence of their behavior; however, the improved mood does NOT last. Effects are short-lived, about the half-life of the drug being ingested.  This form of self-medicating is reliable for a while until biological and/or psychological tolerance sets in.  Consequently,  dosage and frequency of self-medicating behaviors increase as the person becomes reinforced by their drug-taking behavior.  The self-medicating habit takes on a life of its own – as a strong habit to reduce emotional suffering.  Often recovery from drug use problems begins with small, more helpful, competing habits.  In fact, early recovery may be defined as the use of newer helpful habits to weaken older self-medicating habits.

drug-rehab-centers-road-to-recoveryUse the helpful habits more and the unhelpful habits less, and we are on the way to recovery process.  It is all about motivating a person to dare to place a helpful behavior (mindfulness habits for example) against an unhelpful behavior – a self-medicating behavior that has produced some short-term relief from suffering.  In self-medication the negative state we are trying to escape from does not improve long-term, and the new behavior (drug-taking) may result in a new problem – addictions.  Recovery takes time, safety, and authentic caring in a therapeutic or helping relationship with psychotherapists, body-workers or peers in recovery.  Become aware of self-medication – fight it with helpful habits that produce lasting improvements.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

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Filed Under: Featured, Self Medication Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, SELF MEDICATION

April 12, 2014 By Admin

Self-Medication as Unhelpful Habit:

A Primary Source of Unhappiness

Self-medication to reduce or avoid pain and suffering is a major unhelpful habit in the United States. It is a desperate human effort to reduce pain and suffering in physical and psychological experiences. Therefore, we humans may be hard-wired for it. When we suffer and do not utilize effective wise mind skills, we are simply doing our best to improve this emotional moment. It will require skilled mindfulness practices to improve our happiness.MindfulHappiness_SelfMedicating

Self-medication was once thought to be caused by personality types and deep-seated learned emotional reaction to discomfort (fear, shame, unmet emotional needs, an array of desires, and strong attachment to craved objects). More current, evidence-based interpretations expand this view into the area of social-emotional reinforcement and conditioning. Outcomes are always negative in the long-term; the original emotional cause becomes more serious (anxiety, depression, traumatic symptoms, substance misuse, eating problems, digital addictions, anger, etc.), and the habit of self-medicating leads to “addiction” to whatever behavior improves the moment. The best one can hope for is very short-term relief from immediate suffering – only to be followed by repeated efforts to reduce and/or avoid more suffering. Since the process becomes a habit via both positive and negative reinforcement (reward and avoidance of punishment/suffering) – as well as brain plasticity in activated brain regions that sensitize the related behaviors- self-medicators tend to remain trapped between suffering and ONLY short-term relief from it. Since impulsive reactivity to reduce and/or avoid pain is part of this process, people who self-medicate tend not to possess effective psychosocial coping skills. Thus, self-medication is their very weak, eventually unhelpful coping skill.

Zen_Stones_by_kuzy62In future posts, we will investigate how self-medication works in the life-experience areas of substance misuse, depression, anxiety, trauma and anger. More later on this very harmful habitual behavior. It will become more clear that part of this problem relates to the automatic processes of the brain. It will take a mindful MIND to improve one’s happiness.

 

by  Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

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Filed Under: Featured, Self Medication Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, DEPRESSION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, SELF MEDICATION

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