^CategoryAddiction

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 28, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth on physicalism, Dan Falk, Dan Falk on panpsychism, eliminative materialism, Panpsychism vs eliminative materialism}

In Neuroscience Flap, Science Media Tackle “Pseudoscience” Claim

_{As the leading theory of consciousness is tarred by neuroscientists as “pseudoscience,” science media struggle to outline just WHAT science is} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 28, 2023

6

Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind}

As a child, I remember hearing a proverb, “When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own.” It means roughly: If you are overhearing loud, angry accusations, you may suddenly realize for the first time what really happened during many puzzling events — and hear honest statements of some Top People’s agendas. For example, it took a huge uproar around the top neuroscience theory, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), for some of us to realize how the “Keep abortion legal!” agenda dominates many neuroscientists’ concerns. That turn of events is hardly something that would have jumped out at most of us.* As noted here earlier, IIT is now under attack as “pseudoscience,” with top journal Nature covering the fight. And Read More ›

Young anxious woman lying in bed staring at smartphone screen at night, reading about depression symptoms in internet, phone addicted female can not stop scrolling news media before bedtime. Anxiety.

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 4, 2023

Categorized
Addiction

Tagged
addiction, Cal Newport, dopamine, Focus, social media, Work, YouTube}

Cal Newport: Overstimulation Is Ruining Your Life

_{Turns out the solution is simple: don't use things that overstimulate you.} _{Peter Biles

September 4, 2023

2

Addiction}

Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You and Deep Work, now runs a YouTube channel/podcast where he offers advice about how to live and work deeply and effectively in the digital age. I’ve consistently found his thoughts interesting, informative, and inspiring. Last week, Newport released a fifteen-minute video on “overstimulation,” and talked at some length about the chemical dopamine, and how dopamine gives us the urge to do things we think will provide us with rewards. For instance, dopamine may compel us to take another inhalation of a cigarette, yank the lever of a gambling machine in Las Vegas, or even do something as apparently benign as refreshing your email tab. While there are many opinions and Read More ›

instagram filter Himalaya mountains nepal

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 12, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Environment

Tagged
Boy Scouts, Culture, Digital media, Lawsuit, Mountains, Nature, Robert J. Marks, Technology, Trail Life, Wilderness}

Boy Scouts and Tech Addiction

_{You can't mimic the reality compared to what you see on the screen} _{News

May 12, 2023

2

Addiction, Environment}

The Boy Scouts of America once enjoyed a booming membership. But over the last decade especially, due to some policy changes, abuse scandals, and a giant lawsuit, the once great organization has seen a colossal decline. In last week’s podcast, Robert J. Marks sat down with former Boy Scout leader and his cousin Kent Marks. Together they talked about the tragic decline in the Boy Scouts program, which coincides with the enduring need to help boys navigate the many distractions and difficulties of growing up in a digitally mediated world. Today, Kent continues to lead boys on wilderness expeditions and believes that getting guys away from the screens and into the beauty of the outdoors is a key to their Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
February 21, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media

Tagged
AA, addiction, Adolescents, Asbury, CBN, Depression, god, Recovery, Revival, Robert J. Marks, social media, suicide, TikTok}

The Asbury Revival and the Cure for TikTok

_{In the age of social media addiction, young people need to know they can be imperfect and yet loved} _{Robert J. Marks

February 21, 2023

3

Addiction, Social Media}

Social media portrays a world where everybody is happy and having a good time. Everybody, of course, except for you. There must therefore be something wrong with you. You are a loser. Teenage boys without girlfriends feel like social freaks. One in three teenage girls who use social media suffers from body image issues. Social Media and Depression Young adults who use social media are three times as likely to suffer from depression. Depression can lead to suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, female suicides aged 15-24 increased by 87 percent over the past 20 years and male suicides increased by 30 percent. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says suicide is now Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
January 8, 2023

Categorized
Addiction

Tagged
Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation (Dutton 2021), Featured}

This New Year, Resolve to Dive Headfirst into Life

_{Dr. Anna Lembke urges people to abandon isolating addictions and choose honesty and relationship instead} _{Peter Biles

January 8, 2023

4

Addiction}

With the new year in full swing, people are considering resolutions and asking themselves what habits they need to change. For me, my negative habits almost entirely revolve around technology. Too much time checking social media, email, browsing Twitter and YouTube, going down the cat video abyss. Skimming news, articles, photos, and videos, diminishes the attention span and leaves one feeling empty, restless, and in greater need of a “fix.” It’s a socially acceptable drug, but no less addicting than the others. Lembke, medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, asks us in her book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (Dutton 2021), Why, in a time of unprecedented wealth, freedom, technological progress, and medical advancement, do we appear to be Read More ›

Girl is running with a dog (Beagle) on a leash in the autumn time, sunny day in forest. Copy space in nature

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
August 30, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media

Tagged
Doug Smith, Featured, Jacques Ellul on social media addiction, Social media (breaking free), Social media addiction, Tom Holland, Tom Holland and social media, Unintentional (book)}

Why Tom Holland’s Social Media Break Is A Good Idea For All Of Us

_{We don’t need Spider-Man’s “spidey sense” to see that too much social media can be “very detrimental” to mental well-being} _{Andrew McDiarmid

August 30, 2022

5

Addiction, Social Media}

This article ran at the Daily Wire (August 22, 2022) where it is available by subscription only. Last week, Spider-Man: No Way Home actor Tom Holland made the bold decision to delete Instagram and Twitter and take a break from social media. In a video shared with his 67 million Instagram followers, Holland called both of the apps overstimulating and overwhelming. “I get caught up and I spiral when I read things about me online,” Holland added, “and ultimately it’s very detrimental to my mental state.” The strength to stop something as addictive and sometimes harmful as social media is a superpower all on its own. Forget spidey sense — Holland will soon start to experience new levels of clarity, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 15, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media, Spirituality

Tagged
Andrew McDiarmid, Authentic technology concept, Big Tech's pervasive influence, Featured, Jacques Ellul, Marshall McLuhan, Robert J. Marks, Social media addiction and teens, Technological Society (book), Technology (regaining control), Technology word origin}

Taking Our Lives Back from Big Tech, a Step at a Time

_{If we don’t have the time to stop and reflect because we are too busy checking our social media…} _{News

July 15, 2022

13

Addiction, Social Media, Spirituality}

In a recent podcast, “Weaving the Technology of Our Lives” (July 14, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed tech and culture writer Andrew McDiarmid on the deep ways Big Tech governs our lives — ways of which we are often unaware — and concrete steps for taking control back: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/Mind-Matters-195-Andrew-McDiarmid.mp3 Here’s a partial transcript and notes. Additional Resources follow: Robert J. Marks: We have been talking about Jacques Ellul’s concept of technique… Andrew McDiarmid: Well, Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist, theologian, and philosopher of technology … Ellul’s lifetime spanned almost the entire 20th century, 1911 to 1994. He wrote books and articles throughout his career on how he saw technology impacting the “human adventure,” as he Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 24, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Neuroscience, Social Media

Tagged
Adolescents and social media, Amygdala vs frontal cortex, Christine Rosen, Karl D. Stephan, Social media ban on underage users, Teenagers and social media}

Should Kids Under 16 Be Banned From Social Media?

_{An internal study by Instagram found that using the platform made fully one-third of teenage girls feel worse — but they couldn’t stop} _{News

June 24, 2022

7

Addiction, Neuroscience, Social Media}

(This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog (June 20, 2022) under the title “Social Media: For adults only?” and is reprinted with permission.) Writing in National Review, cultural critic Christine Rosen recently proposed a total ban on social media for everyone under the age of 16. One can imagine all sorts of problems with this idea, ranging from enforcement issues to what it would be like living in a country where nearly all the teenagers start screaming at the same time. But let’s step back from the immediate issues and effects, and ask what the ethics of such a ban would be. Rosen cites a number of other things that we don’t let Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 1, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Featured, Fentanyl addiction, Neurostimulation therapy, Opiod addiction, Opioid recovery, Opioid withdrawal, Recovery from addiction, Rehabilitation from addiction, Robert J. Marks, Stretch (pseudonym), Suboxone}

How “Stretch” Finally Kicked the Medical Opioid Habit

_{It wasn’t easy but it was the high cost of staying alive while managing his chronic medical disorder} _{News

June 1, 2022

11

Addiction, Medicine and Health}

In a recent podcast, “A first-hand account of kicking Fentanyl addiction: reversing Hebb’s law” (May 12, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed a man who got addicted to Fentanyl as a medical drug. Some opioid addictions begin in the hospital. In the previous portion of this episode, “Stretch” told Robert J. Marks how he became addicted while seeking relief from pain stemming from operations — because “neurons that fire together wire together ( Hebb’s Law )”. Then, when he sensed that drugs were ruling his life without really dealing with the pain, he set out on the road to recovery — and was surprised to find anesthetists and nurses in the recovery group with him. Now, in Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 31, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Anonymous type recovery groups, Featured, fentanyl, J-pouch, Opiates, opioids, oxycontin, Recovery groups, Robert J. Marks, Stretch (pseudonym), Withdrawal from opioids}

Medical Opioids: The War Between Chronic Pain and Addiction

_{“Stretch” tells Robert J. Marks, the surgeries did not really work and he became addicted to the painkillers while trying to live a normal, working life} _{News

May 31, 2022

12

Addiction, Medicine and Health}

In a recent podcast, “A first-hand account of kicking Fentanyl addiction: reversing Hebb’s law” (May 12, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed a man who got addicted to Fentanyl as a medical drug. Some opioid addictions begin in the hospital. In the previous portion of this episode, “Stretch” told Robert J. Marks how he became addicted to medical doses of opioids while seeking relief from pain stemming from operations — because “neurons that fire together wire together (Hebb’s Law )”. Now he talks about the experiences that set his mind on the road to recovery. Before we get started: Robert J. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Engineering at Baylor University, has a new Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 27, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Cleveland Clinic, Donald Hebb, Featured, Fentanyl (medical addiction), Opioids (medical addiction), Robert J. Marks, Stretch (pseudonym)}

Some Opioid Addictions Begin in the Hospital

_{News

May 27, 2022

11

Addiction, Medicine and Health}

In a recent podcast, “A first-hand account of kicking Fentanyl addiction: reversing Hebb’s law” (May 12, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviews a man who got addicted to Fentanyl as a medical drug. “Stretch” tells us how he got hooked and how he finally beat the narcotic, without once going to the street for help, though his experience was challenging, to say the least. Readers may also wish to read or hear anesthesiologist Richard Hurley’s perspective here and here. Before we get started: Robert J. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Engineering at Baylor University, has a new book, coming out Non-Computable You (June, 2022), on the need for realism in another area as Read More ›

Teenagers laughing during a group counseling session for youth

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 26, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health, Psychology

Tagged
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Dopesick (Hulu series), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Emo Philips, Featured, Fentanyl (abuse of prescribed drug), Fentanyl (how administered), Life expectancy (dropping in the U.S.), oxycontin, Richard Hurley, Robert J. Marks}

What Anti-Opioid Strategies Could Really Lower the Death Toll?

_{Anesthetist Dr. Richard Hurley discussed with Robert J. Marks the value of cognitive behavior therapy — reframing the problem} _{News

May 26, 2022

15

Addiction, Medicine and Health, Psychology}

In a recent podcast, “Exercising Free Won’t in Fentanyl Addiction: Unless You Die First” (May 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed anesthesiologist and pain management expert Dr. Richard Hurley on the scourge of opioids and what information strategies might help combat it.Yesterday, they looked at highly addictive opioids like Oxycontin, Percodan and Fentanyl and the many needless deaths that result from their misuse. Today, the focus is on strategies for prevention. Note: Robert J. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Engineering at Baylor University, has a new book, coming out, Non-Computable You (June, 2022), on the need for realism in another area as well — the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Stay tuned. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/Mind-Matters-News-Episode-185-Richard-Hurley-Episode-1-rev1.mp3 Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 25, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Benjamin Libet (free will experiments), Featured, Fentanyl (in anesthesia), Fentanyl (toxicity), Fentanyl death statistics, Free won't, Richard Hurley, Robert J. Marks}

Opioids: The High Is Brief, the Death Toll Is Ghastly

_{Fentanyl has medical uses in, say, open heart operations where the patient is on life support; otherwise, it is often a one-way ticket off the planet} _{News

May 25, 2022

10

Addiction, Medicine and Health}

In a recent podcast, “Exercising Free Won’t in Fentanyl Addiction: Unless You Die First” (May 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed anaesthesiologist and pain management expert Dr. Richard Hurley on how highly addictive opiods like Oxycontin, Percodan, and Fentanyl act on the brain. Between April 2020 and April 2021, misused opioids killed over 100,000 Americans. Opioids like Fentanyl have a use in medicine but they are easy to get and subject to abuse. Note: Robert J. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Engineering at Baylor University, has a new book, coming out, Non-Computable You (June, 2022), on the need for realism in another area as well — the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Stay Read More ›