Looking at how the brain works.....
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Looking at how the brain works.....
I saw a recent article posted here about how your unconscious memory may play a part in leading to relapses and it got me thinking about what may or may not make sense in this area.
Part of my job is to take recent development in understanding how the brain works (neuroscience) and how it likes to solve problems and rationalise things (cognitive psychology) and apply it to certain fields, the main one being language learning.
Your memory can be split into two categories: working memory and unconscious memory. Working memory is used when you have to consciously think about something and unconscious memory when you do something automatically without thinking about it.
Think about how you can speak your mother tongue language without even thinking about it, easily and confidently. Thats your unconscious memory at play. At the same time when you are trying to learn a new language you need
to use your working memory to train yourself to be able to remember it and use it.
Then.....with regular and effective practice, the information your store in your working memory gets transferred into your unconscious memory. Ie. if you practice speaking a new language it feels hard at first and you really have to work at it but after frequent practice you begin to be able to speak it without out really thinking about it. You have the developed the skills to speak it automatically. Some people can develop these skills easier than others.
If you stop practising before you have developed this automaticity to speak without consciously thinking about it you quickly forget what you have learned but if you stop practising after you can speak fluently it takes a far, far longer time to forget the language that you have successfully learned. If your mother tongue is English and you have learned to speak French fluently then you are not going to stop thinking in French overnight. You French is not going to go away.
Another aspect of how the brain works is how it loves to solve problems. Ever see how much a toddler loves to hear a bed time story even though she only understands maybe 10% of the words. They love to try to piece it all together and work out what is going on and then delight when it comes together for them. The brain cannot stop seeking solutions to problems. You do this unconsciously. So, for example, in the language world, grammar can be taught in a way that allows the brain to figure out sentence structure rather than rote learning it like I did when I grew up in school. Yay for that!
Now....how can all of this be applied to drinking and quitting the booze?
If drinking has become an ingrained habit in your life then you have been practising drinking frequently and effectively. Your thoughts about drinking will have been transferred to your subconscious memory. That may partly explain why normal drinkers don't really think about drinking much whereas with alcoholics it always seems to be on our minds. We think about it without realising. "I can't stop thinking about drinking". We have learned these skills.
It also means that when we have problems in our lives, our brain automatically goes searching for a solution. Thats just what brains do. If our solution in the past has been to drink; or to drink first and then decide, then it should come as no surprise that when we quit and we have a hard day our brain will search for a solution and come up with the solution that has worked in the past....ie. drinking. That would explain how we can go weeks or months or even years without cravings yet think of drinking when faced with a serious problem or crisis.
It would explain why I drank last Saturday when I was stressed out. It's the alcoholic brain's solution to life's problems.
So, how to break this situation that we have created for ourselves?
If there is any truth in the above then we need to actively develop other solutions to life problems. Maybe building a support network or talking things through as a first step to resolving problems/crises. The brain's "solution" needs to automatically be "call xxx and get advice" rather than "quick, buy wine". This will take practice and it will take discipline and it will need to be a successful solution so that it becomes automatic. This is building an alternative for your brain in a crisis management situation.
The other thing is that the habit...ie. the unconscious thoughts.....to drink from day to day, need to be stopped. Just like you can't forget a language that you speak fluently you can't stop yourself thinking about booze. But you can build other stronger habits that become the first preference for your unconscious mind. Instead of "I will leave work at 6pm and hit the bar" you can think "I will finish work at 6pm and hit the gym". Obviously it will take time and practice and discipline to achieve this but it can certainly be done. It would explain how even alcoholics can stop thinking about drinking as they build new habits.
It would explain why AA works - among other things, the fellowship provides a crisis management response. "I have a problem, what will I do? hit a meeting".
It would explain why white knuckling fails....because you are not building new habits and skills and solutions in your brain to replace drinking. You are really just postponing the inevitable.
It would suggest the best way to get better is to build your support around you for crisis management. And build new habits/activities day to day to work at practising until the data to day urge to drink passes.
Anyway, just some rambling thought I had on the way to work this morning....I hope I have not bored you to death. Maybe this topic has been done to death, not sure.
Part of my job is to take recent development in understanding how the brain works (neuroscience) and how it likes to solve problems and rationalise things (cognitive psychology) and apply it to certain fields, the main one being language learning.
Your memory can be split into two categories: working memory and unconscious memory. Working memory is used when you have to consciously think about something and unconscious memory when you do something automatically without thinking about it.
Think about how you can speak your mother tongue language without even thinking about it, easily and confidently. Thats your unconscious memory at play. At the same time when you are trying to learn a new language you need
to use your working memory to train yourself to be able to remember it and use it.
Then.....with regular and effective practice, the information your store in your working memory gets transferred into your unconscious memory. Ie. if you practice speaking a new language it feels hard at first and you really have to work at it but after frequent practice you begin to be able to speak it without out really thinking about it. You have the developed the skills to speak it automatically. Some people can develop these skills easier than others.
If you stop practising before you have developed this automaticity to speak without consciously thinking about it you quickly forget what you have learned but if you stop practising after you can speak fluently it takes a far, far longer time to forget the language that you have successfully learned. If your mother tongue is English and you have learned to speak French fluently then you are not going to stop thinking in French overnight. You French is not going to go away.
Another aspect of how the brain works is how it loves to solve problems. Ever see how much a toddler loves to hear a bed time story even though she only understands maybe 10% of the words. They love to try to piece it all together and work out what is going on and then delight when it comes together for them. The brain cannot stop seeking solutions to problems. You do this unconsciously. So, for example, in the language world, grammar can be taught in a way that allows the brain to figure out sentence structure rather than rote learning it like I did when I grew up in school. Yay for that!
Now....how can all of this be applied to drinking and quitting the booze?
If drinking has become an ingrained habit in your life then you have been practising drinking frequently and effectively. Your thoughts about drinking will have been transferred to your subconscious memory. That may partly explain why normal drinkers don't really think about drinking much whereas with alcoholics it always seems to be on our minds. We think about it without realising. "I can't stop thinking about drinking". We have learned these skills.
It also means that when we have problems in our lives, our brain automatically goes searching for a solution. Thats just what brains do. If our solution in the past has been to drink; or to drink first and then decide, then it should come as no surprise that when we quit and we have a hard day our brain will search for a solution and come up with the solution that has worked in the past....ie. drinking. That would explain how we can go weeks or months or even years without cravings yet think of drinking when faced with a serious problem or crisis.
It would explain why I drank last Saturday when I was stressed out. It's the alcoholic brain's solution to life's problems.
So, how to break this situation that we have created for ourselves?
If there is any truth in the above then we need to actively develop other solutions to life problems. Maybe building a support network or talking things through as a first step to resolving problems/crises. The brain's "solution" needs to automatically be "call xxx and get advice" rather than "quick, buy wine". This will take practice and it will take discipline and it will need to be a successful solution so that it becomes automatic. This is building an alternative for your brain in a crisis management situation.
The other thing is that the habit...ie. the unconscious thoughts.....to drink from day to day, need to be stopped. Just like you can't forget a language that you speak fluently you can't stop yourself thinking about booze. But you can build other stronger habits that become the first preference for your unconscious mind. Instead of "I will leave work at 6pm and hit the bar" you can think "I will finish work at 6pm and hit the gym". Obviously it will take time and practice and discipline to achieve this but it can certainly be done. It would explain how even alcoholics can stop thinking about drinking as they build new habits.
It would explain why AA works - among other things, the fellowship provides a crisis management response. "I have a problem, what will I do? hit a meeting".
It would explain why white knuckling fails....because you are not building new habits and skills and solutions in your brain to replace drinking. You are really just postponing the inevitable.
It would suggest the best way to get better is to build your support around you for crisis management. And build new habits/activities day to day to work at practising until the data to day urge to drink passes.
Anyway, just some rambling thought I had on the way to work this morning....I hope I have not bored you to death. Maybe this topic has been done to death, not sure.
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