Dopamine – Grit, Mindset, Heroin, and Pornography
One could argue that life is nothing more than a series of chemical reactions. This is a thought that I had when I read Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve book, especially when he discussed the concept of reactivity.[1] As much as I enjoyed reading this book to discover how neurotransmitters impact my marriage, I read Daniel Liberman and Michael Long’s The Molecule of More with two questions in mind.[2] First, based on Angela Duckworth’s book Grit, and Carol Dweck’s book Mindset does dopamine play a role in the Grit and Growth Mindset factor? Secondly, how does dopamine factor into the experience of heroin addicted soldiers returning home from Vietnam which is discussed in Adam Alter’s book Irresistible.[3] Both of these questions are important to me as I work out my NPO on helping college students who habitually use pornography stop using.
According to Dweck, a person’s mindset refers to their beliefs that things such as “intelligence, personality, or character are determined at birth or can grow and develop over time.[4] Duckworth defines Grit as a combination of passion and perseverance that impacts a person’s ability to complete tasks.[5] How does dopamine impact these qualities in a person? Liberman and Long discuss the two dopamine circuits, desire and control in their chapter titled “Domination: How Far Will You Go?” They write, “Desire Dopamine makes us want things, while control dopamine “gives us the ability to construct plans—to strategize and dominate the world around us to get the things we want.”[6] Desire dopamine is where our passion comes from. Control dopamine is what provides us the perseverance or what Liberman and Long refer to as tenacity. This explains Duckworth’s concepts of grit. Liberman and Long provide us with studies using rats and manipulated dopamine levels to demonstrate desire and tenacity. Another concept that Liberman and Long discuss is that of self-efficacy; the belief that we can succeed at accomplishing something before we even do it.[7] To illustrate dopamine’s involvement in self-efficacy Liberman and Long mention people using drugs that boost dopamine. These individuals will often take on so many projects that they cannot complete simply because the increased dopamine gives them the belief that they can accomplish things. They summarize by stating “Having a confident expectation of success can make obstacles melt before your eyes.”[8] Self-efficacy then is what I would compare to Dweck’s concept of mindset.
Alter in his book Irresistible discusses how prevalent heroin use was in the Vietnam War, “35 percent of the enlisted men said they had tried heroin, and 19 percent said they were addicted.”[9]
With the wars end, the US was concerned about bringing these soldiers home, “How do you deal with a sudden influx of 100,000 heroin addicts?”[10] The US prepared by trying to detox the soldiers prior to their return, but heroin addicts have a 95% rate of relapse. A researcher was hired by the government to track these soldiers upon their return. Research showed that of the heroin addicted soldiers who returned to the U.S. only 5% relapsed. Alter suggests addiction embeds itself in memory and that removing the soldiers from the environment, the external cues, that were present when using heroin prevented them from relapsing.[11] How do Liberman and Long deal with these results? Liberman and Long acknowledge the power of cues, such as cartoons and bleach, that trigger a person’s cravings. They discuss how willpower isn’t enough to combat addictions and briefly discuss three types of psychotherapy motivational enhancement therapy, focusing on the desire for and benefits of change; cognitive behavioral therapy, focusing on identifying cues and developing strategies to resist them; and twelve-step facilitation therapy, focusing on the benefits of relationships with others and a higher power.[12] They also mention that “getting rid of triggers isn’t enough[13]” They discuss how addiction to alcohol actually changes a person’s DNA impacting the ability of their control circuits to function. This information was useful but still left me wondering about the 95% success rate that heroin addicted soldiers experienced. Given what Liberman and Long suggest, simply removing a person from their external cues should not be enough to prevent relapse. What dopaminergic reward did these soldier experience? Was going grocery shopping, going back to work, experiencing the “monotony of suburbia” and enjoying the “pleasures of home-cooked meals” enough?[14] I’m not sure how many if any of these soldiers received any therapy to arm them with tools to combat triggers, and the cravings they produce, that Long and Liberman would suggest may be necessary. I know the study of the returning Vietnam veterans did not examine dopamine, but I was disappointed that Liberman and Long did not mention this study as it leaves me with questions as I work out my NPO.
When working to design interventions to assist students wanting to stop using pornography the desire (passion) and control (perseverance) dopamine circuits may provide the grit needed to stop using pornography. Dopamine may also provide the self-efficacy (mindset) needed to believe they can succeed at quitting. Appropriate mental health counseling can help channel mindset and grit towards success. A couple lingering questions I have include, how much of a role does the student’s environment play in their ability to succeed? What kind of environment is necessary to help facilitate success?
[1] Edwin Friedman A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, (New York: Church Publishing, 2007).
[2] Daniel Liberman and Michael Long, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, (Dallas, TX: BenBella, 2019).
[3] Adam Alter, Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, (New York, NY: Penguin, 2017).
[4] Carol Dweck, Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, (Great Britian: Robinson, 2017), 6-7.
[5] Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2016), 8.
[6] Liverman and Long, 61-62.
[7] Liberman and Long, 69.
[8] Liberman and Long, 69.
[9] Alter, 47.
[10] Alter, 48.
[11] Alter 79-80.
[12] Liberman and Long, 100-105.
[13] Liberman and Long, 103.
[14] Alter, 59.
About the Author
Jeff Styer
Jeff Styer lives in Northeast Ohio's Amish Country. He has degrees in Social Work and Psychology and currently works as a professor of social work at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Jeff is married to his wife, Veronica, 25+ years. Together they have 4 beautiful children (to be honest, Jeff has 4 kids, Veronica says she is raising 5). Jeff loves the outdoors, including biking, hiking, camping, birding, and recently picked up disc golf.14 responses to “Dopamine – Grit, Mindset, Heroin, and Pornography”
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Jeff,
You ask some insightful questions at the end. I also really appreciate the Vietnam war study. That is fascinating and also horrifying at the same time. It might help explain why there are so many homeless Vietnam vets. With the accessibility of pornography from any device I wonder if there is a way to take a break from the devices for a while. Certainly, people can’t go without a phone or computer long term but I wonder if breaking the cycle for a week or even a few days might help detach the addictive cycles and give a bit of a reset.
Adam,
Abstaining from electronic devices would help. Several things I read discussed the healing that starts fairly quickly once abstaining begins. I know flip phones are inconvenient but they may be the best option. It’s also hard to abstain from computers but there are safeguards in the form of blocking and accountability software that can help.
I have heard stories of sex offenders as part of their sentence not being allowed access to the Internet. In our world that is extreme but may be possible.
Hi Jeff – I thought about you and your NPO as I was reading The Molecule of More. Are there additional books that they recommended that you’d like to follow up on in relation to your NPO?
Christy,
There are a few websites that have cataloged all the neuroscience studies related to the impact of pornography on a person’s brain. There is also a nice documentary that I watched highlighting the impact. Most of the websites I visited were run by non Christians, which I was pleased to discover that this is seen as a problem outside the church.
So to answer your question, yes there is more research in the form of books or journals that I would like to read.
Hi Jeff, Your NPO is a worthy pursuit! I was shocked when I read Lieberman and Long’s description of VR’s future role in pornography. I appreciated your mention of “getting rid of triggers is not enough.” I remember when I first started therapy, my counselor discussed the importance of creating new neural pathways. Without these, we will likely default back to old, unhealthy habits. In my case, being an angry, miserable person. In your studies concerning addiction, have you found any case studies about what type of environment helps people create new neural pathways as they journey through the healing process?
Elyse,
Glad that you are no longer the person you once were. Hard to imagine you being the way you described yourself. Much of the research I read talked about abstaining from use and really did not focus a lot on the environment. Changing the environment is so hard. I read about people that had to abstain from all electronic devices, using only a flip phone. I do think if we can begin to address the root causes that we can provide people with better support and coping skills.
Hi Jeff:
Thank you for your post.
Based on your understanding from the book “The Molecule of More,” as an advocate against pornography within the student community, what kind of environment / support is necessary to facilitate success in quitting harmful habits like pornography use?
Shela,
Great question and that is what my design Workshop has been working on figuring out. We want to figure out how to create an environment that minimizes shame, and offers support and accountability. What exactly this looks like at my university is still not clear. I still have a couple 1:1 interviews next week that should offer more insight.
Jeff, I appreciate your post and the insight into your research and NPO. How do you think changes in a person’s environment work with dopamine to help them change their behavior? When it comes to things like quitting pornography, what priority do you recommend —removing triggers or building confidence and perseverance?
Chad,
There are probably limits on how much environmental changes we can realistically create for students. It would be ideal to remove much of their access to electronics that serve as triggers but students need computers, Internet access, etc. to succeed in college. Research does show that when a person stops using porn the mental and physical impacts tend to start to return to normal. If we can’t remove all the triggers then I think building confidence will be important. Confidence in themselves and confidence in knowing they have support systems available to help them.
Hi Jeff, I appreciated your blog and all the comments so I could learn more about your important NPO. I think you’re really on to something about dressing shame. Have you seen the book Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction by Patrick Carnes? At some point it talks about the addiction cycle and the overwhelming shame of having indulged in illicit sexual activity or used pornography and that the shame itself is triggering to begin seeking behavior as a means to soothe the pain of the shame. I don’t know if there is any connection here but Simon Walker comes to mind and I wonder if you recall anything from him which may help people to integrate and become whole and so break the cycle?
Julie,
Yes Carnes is one of the pioneers in addressing sexual addictions. Thanks for making sure I was aware of his work. Honestly, I haven’t read Carnes book, my research so far has examined newer books and research studies, many of which cite Carnes. I am familiar with his idea of shame playing into the addiction cycle itself. What is interesting is that often women who view pornography will experience double shame. They experience the shame associated with viewing it, but they also experience shame related being a woman who views it. The prevailing idea is that viewing pornography is not a woman’s issue, so they are betraying/shaming their own gender.
Simon Walker – I looked over his book some and nothing jumps out immediately. However, I do think a person needs to identify their ego type and also examine the pain, past and present, in their life. The dopamine release a person experiences from viewing pornography often serves to mask pain in their lives, rejection, extreme stress, loneliness, etc.
Hi Jeff, I like how you are connecting the readings to your NPO. One of the things I wonder is if pornography is the end game for someone who views it or does it lead to other sexual activities that are illegal, such as child predatory behavior? From my limited understanding, the latter is not something that ever really goes away. Is that a misunderstanding?
Diane,
I don’t have a full answer to your question. What I can tell you is that the research I did last semester does suggest that some people will start off with softer pornography and once they become desensitized to it, they will move on to other forms such as pornography that is violent in nature. I am not sure about it leading toward a person getting involved with Child Porn or child predatory behaviors. Not exactly related to pornography, but definitely dopamine, what is interesting is the debate over the legality of child sex dolls across the world. Some argue that it will increase predatory behavior while others argue that the doll serves as a safe means to act out fantasy so that a real person is not hurt. I actually bring this concept up in my cultural and human diversity class when we discuss sexuality.