Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Smartphone Detox: How To Power Down In A Wired World
February 12, 20185:03 AM ET NPR by Michaeleen Doucleff & Alison Aubrey
If the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov were alive today, what would he say about smartphones? He might not think of them as phones at all, but instead as remarkable tools for understanding how technology can manipulate our brains.
Pavlov's own findings — from experiments he did more than a century ago, involving food, buzzers and slobbering dogs — offer key insights into why our phones have become almost an extension of our bodies, modern researchers say. The findings also provide clues to how we can break our dependence.
Pavlov originally set off to study canine digestion. But one day, he noticed something peculiar while feeding his dogs. If he played a sound — like a metronome or buzzer — before mealtimes, eventually the sound started to have a special meaning for the animals. It meant food was coming! The dogs actually started drooling when they heard the sound, even if no food was around.
Hearing the buzzer had become pleasurable.
That's exactly what's happening with smartphones, says David Greenfield, a psychologist and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut.
When we hear a ding or little ditty alerting us to a new text, email or Facebook post, cells in our brains likely release dopamine — one of the chemical transmitters in the brain's reward circuitry. That dopamine makes us feel pleasure, Greenfield says.
"That ping is telling us there is some type of reward there, waiting for us," Greenfield says.
Over time, that ping can become more powerful than the reward itself. Research on animals suggests dopamine levels in the brain can be twice as high when you anticipate the reward as when you actually receive it.
In other words, just hearing the notification can be more pleasurable than the text, email or tweet. "Smartphone notifications have turned us all into Pavlov's dogs," Greenfield says.
The average adult checks their phone 50 to 300 times each day, Greenfield says. And smartphones use psychological tricks that encourage our continued high usage — some of the same tricks slot machines use to hook gamblers.
"For example, every time you look at your phone, you don't know what you're going to find — how relevant or desirable a message is going to be," Greenfield says.
Surgeon general offers advice on fighting opioids
The Hill BY RACHEL ROUBEIN - 02/14/18 08:17 PM EST
The nation’s top doctor offered advice for lawmakers Wednesday on how to help support long-term recovery for people with an addiction, as Congress examines how to curb the opioid epidemic plaguing the country.
Connecting people with support services, such as food and housing, pays off, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Wednesday at an event hosted by The Hill.
“We’ve got to be more innovative in terms of helping folks understand that providing all these services will increase their chances of success and ultimately lower cost,” Adams said at the event, which was sponsored by Faces and Voices of Recovery and Indivior.
“That’s what I want Congress to know, that’s what I want policymakers to know — we’re not throwing good money after bad; we’re actually getting a return on investment by wrapping people with the
support services they need to be successful in recovery.”
More people now die of deaths from prescription painkillers and heroin than from car accidents. The dramatic rise in overdose deaths has sparked a nationwide debate over how to curb drug abuse.
Adams said he would “politely disagree” with those who say the country needs to move away from a law enforcement approach, saying the issue is more nuanced than that.
“We have to help law enforcement have a public health-informed approach to the way they tackle addiction, but we will never be able to remove law enforcement from the equation,” he said.
“We’ve got to figure out ways to better partner with them.”
Adams said he’s seen the toll of addiction in his own family, relating how his brother self-medicated to cope with untreated mental health issues.
“He ended up committing criminal activity to support his habit and is now in state prison a few miles away from here in Maryland because of his addiction, still not getting treatment,” Adams said, a story he called “far too common.”
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are working to craft more legislation aimed at curbing the opioid epidemic. Congress recently passed a two-year budget deal that included $6 billion over two years for the opioid and mental health crises. Now lawmakers are hammering out a follow-up to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which passed in 2016, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said at the event. He called the new bill “CARA 2.0.”
How to Talk With Teenagers About Vaping
E-cigarettes are only the latest entrant into the longstanding category of perils we might wish for our teenagers to avoid. Vaping — using an electronic cigarette to inhale vapor infused with flavor, nicotine, both or neither — holds promise as a path away from the harms of conventional cigarettes. But a report released last month by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found evidence that vaping might prompt teenagers or young adults to try cigarettes, making it a route toward smoking for a generation of teenagers whose cigarette use is at a 40-year low.
Even when vaping doesn’t lead to smoking, parents have reason to be concerned about the impact of nicotine on the developing brain and the potential health risks associated with inhaling aerosolized flavoring chemicals. Vaping is generally understood to be less risky than smoking. But not vaping is healthier than vaping.
So how do we have successful conversations with teenagers about the hazards of e-cigarettes? Here’s a guide to how you might address vaping — or almost any other form of risky business — with the teenagers in your life.
Accept That Facts Don’t Go Far
Research consistently finds that having good information doesn’t necessarily lead to making smart choices. Adolescents (and adults) routinely do things they know to be unhealthy, such as speeding, skipping sunscreen and eating fast food.
We should ensure that our teenagers are working with the facts about the potential dangers of vaping, having unprotected sex, using drugs and so on. But we should not assume that simply dropping knowledge on a teenager, especially as a way to get a conversation rolling, will get the job done.
Instead of leading with facts, consider starting with genuine curiosity. Setting judgment to the side, ask, “What’s your take on e-cigarettes?” or “Do you know kids who are vaping?” or something along those lines.
Finding out what adolescents already know and think about vaping, or any other hazardous behavior, does two things at once. First, it shapes how the rest of the exchange might go. If your teenager wrinkles her nose and says, “I tried it and thought it was weird,” you’re having one conversation; if she responds slyly, “Lots of kids are doing it — I don’t see why it’s a big deal,” you’re having another.
The Next Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting: March 9th
Wood County Prevention Coalition Community Meeting
Friday, Mar 9, 2018, 08:30 PM
Wood County Educational Services, Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition