In 2012, research was published identifying brain circuits that trigger maladaptive behaviors and addictions. Since this literature on survival circuits is not well known (only 2,258 have cited it), a brief overview may be helpful to anyone treating or suffering from addiction – which is to say, most of us.
At EBT, we had already developed skills to rewire these circuits, especially because EBT’s scientific director, Igor Mitrovic, MD, as a professor of physiology, knows all about them due to his role in teaching physiology to medical and pharmacy students at UCSF knew.
One circuit collides with another
We taught participants that the brain changes through associative learning. When a fight-or-flight circuit was activated, it worked like superglue, connecting that fight-or-flight drive to whatever sensations, emotions, thoughts, behaviors, or states that were simultaneously activated at that time. After that, even small stressors could activate this wire, and the brain would reflexively release powerful biochemical drives to repeat this response. Still, I was taken aback when I discovered an elegant article on my desktop by Joseph LeDoux, professor of neuroscience and director of the Emotional Brain Institute at New York University.
Dr. LeDoux formulated a completely new way of thinking about emotions. He distinguished between basic emotions that drive us to meet our needs (what we call homeostatic emotions) and those feelings that trigger survival circuits, namely intense arousal (allostatic emotions) and biochemical chaos by taking the thinking brain offline, so that we reflexively do what the circuit tells us to do. Therefore, the circuits lead to addictive use disorders. . . or are “addiction circles”.
A brain-based, actionable approach to treating addiction
When looking at addiction through the lens of neuroscience, the out-of-control response is the “end” of a fight-or-flight survival cycle. Now, some 13 years after the publication of Dr. LeDoux, its application is severely limited.
For example, the current psychiatric diagnostic manual defines addiction based on specific characteristics, as do 12-step programs. Both were developed before neuroplasticity was demonstrated. Both have large followings and many advantages, but have not integrated the plasticity of the neural root cause of the problem—survival circuits—into their conceptual basis.
It’s time for something to change, because when we look at addiction through the lens of rewiring survival circuits, we discover new ways to empower all of us – big and small, we all carry some of these wires, have them at some point or will carry them – to enable them to use the experience of addiction to become healthier, happier and more loving people. Below are some ideas to help you reframe the way you think about addiction.
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#1 Rebirth: We can be dependent on anything.
Meredith, a woman who was in her late 40s when she joined one of my EBT support groups, commented, “I’ve always thought of addicts as ‘those other people,’ but I have a survival cycle that’s driving me out of control and that’s it too.” Pondering. Once I start, I can’t stop. She was right. This cycle of survival can take hold of anything, draining us of strength and blocking our joy.
#2 Rebirth: There is never just one addiction.
Although each of us may find a particular survival cycle more debilitating than another and choose to train that first, addiction is never a one-cycle problem. For most of us, a habit circuit, a particular behavior controlled by these wires, is the first in our series of circuits to need rewiring. However, these wires are the best friends of one or more emotional circuits. For example, a depression circuit triggers a habit circuit. Anyone under stress is likely to activate a relationship wire, often causing so much stress that it triggers a habit circuit or two. The problem is not a single circuit, but a family of them.
#3 Rebirth: Addictions come in all sizes and strengths.
To rewire these circuits, you must activate them, stay present to the strong emotions they trigger, and deliver a new message that updates the old one while the circuit is open. Permanent change (reduced likelihood of the dreaded circuit “restoration”) requires repeated and precise experiences that target the wire and its associated fear memories and co-activated core circuits (core unconscious beliefs).
Some circuits are larger and stronger than others, and in EBT we classify them as 5 circuits, 4 circuits and 3 circuits. In other words, any wire that creates a biochemical impulse so strong that the thinking brain goes offline and triggers the subsequent reflexive repetition of the response can be harmful enough and rewarding enough (all survival circuits activate the reward center) that we imagine it can be an addiction.
Instead of listing “behaviors we need to change” more adaptively, we can list survival circuits on our “to-do” list. By eliminating the neurobiological cause of the reaction, habit change can occur more easily and sustainably.
EBT and Destigmatizing Addiction
To the extent that the science of survival circuits is integrated into psychotherapy and 12-step programs, it will not change the seriousness of some strong and powerful addictions that cause suffering and death. The faster the reward comes and the stronger it is, the more addictive it is and the more likely the brain is to collapse into an allostatic state of self-destruction. Treating these addictions requires a comprehensive program that includes many levels of support, from medication to 12-step programs to psychotherapy.
However, when thinking about addiction based on neural circuits, self-condemnation and confusion can stop. Unless we acquire a powerful set of emotional resilience tools early in life, we have no way to process our toxic emotions, which can quickly turn into addictions. We all need these tools for prevention, if not treatment. EBT provides them.
Aside from a comprehensive addiction detox program, for those who are “graduates,” there is a need to learn EBT for both effective emotion regulation and to rewire any remaining circuitry that is still nagging us. Psychotherapists who learn about survival circuits and the EBT rewiring tools can’t help but incorporate them into their practice – because people change faster and rewiring usually sticks.
Yes, we all have these wires. How liberating!
Best of all, what a relief to not have to worry about being addicted to everyday patterns like scrolling on our iPhones, grogginess, perfectionism, outbursts of indignation, emotional breakdowns, overthinking, as well as medications, recreational drugs, alcohol, etc . and the most common addiction of all: food. The answer is “YES!” The solution is to find out whether it is a 3-circuit, a 4-circuit or a 5-circuit and test it.
We all live in this beautiful world together, with so much planetary and personal stress, that these wires find their way into our brains, but don’t have to stay there. We can fill them with pride, love and joy.
