What would you think if I told you that addiction is a good<\/i> thing?<\/p>\n
I know. It’s a strange thing to hear from\u00a0a therapist.<\/p>\n
But consider this: without addiction, we’d never have advanced as a species. We’d still be swinging from the trees, content with our static development. And we’d probably not survive very long.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, our brains have a built-in reward system to encourage us to learn, advance, survive, and thrive. We produce a natural cocaine-like chemical called dopamine that locks our attention into a highly focussed state when we’re keen to do or learn something. And once we’ve mastered a new skill, we experience warm feelings of satisfaction caused by other chemicals called endorphins.<\/p>\n