dr norman doidge the brain that changes itself

Users develop new maps in their brains based upon photos and videos. While pornographers promise healthy pleasure and relief from sexual tension, what they often deliver is an addiction, tolerance and an eventual decrease in pleasure. You will learn that neurons that fire apart, wire apart, explaining why urges become less frequent, less intense and easier to resist the longer you abstain from using.ĭoidge goes into detail as to why internet porn addiction has become an epidemic in the US and why watching internet porn quickly becomes addictive by high-jacking your normal dopamine release. Neurons that fire together, wire together, which gives us insight into how and why certain stimuli or triggers can create an urge to use. The saying that you didn’t become addicted overnight, and that it will take practice and patience to unlearn your addictive habits and replace them with good habits, is proven true. The more we have repeated our bad habits, the more space in the brain they claim, thus making it harder for a new habit to find space. We learn how certain brain exercises can offer radical improvement in cognitive functioning in how we learn, think, perceive and remember, and that these improvements are even possible in the elderly.Ĭhanging our behaviors, unlearning a response and learning a new behavior is very possible, but it takes hard work and practice.

Doidge, a Canadian psychiatrist and award-winning science writer, recounts the accomplishments of neuroscientists involved in neuroplasticity by sharing with us eleven examples demonstrating how the human brain is extremely malleable, well into old age.ĭoidge highlights how our brain is a system of processors that process data from our senses and how these processing centers change and adapt based upon the data that enters. If you are new to recovery you have probably wondered, is it really possible to change? In “ The Brain That Changes Itself,” we learn the answer is a resounding yes.

Patrick Garnett, SMART Recovery ® Volunteer Facilitator & Regional Coordinator (IL) Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Dr norman doidge the brain that changes itself