 Ooh, wait, do I love science? And Bill Nye just dropped a massive mic when it comes to the science of addiction. Everybody, this is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And there is a massive problem going on, which is a shame because it is mental health awareness month. And this problem is that people do not fully understand addiction and it is something that is killing tens of thousands of people in the United States alone each and every year. So in season three, episode three, Bill Nye talks about the science of addiction. So first and foremost, I got to give a shout out to Alicia Nicole over on the DeFranco Now app for recommending this episode to me. Like if any of you are on the iPhone and you want a cool app to use, use the DeFranco Now app, come follow me. It's really cool, a bunch of awesome conversations going on. But anyways, she told me about this episode of Bill Nye and I'll be honest with you. I love Bill Nye growing up as a kid because I've always just loved science, but I haven't watched any of his new episodes since he came to Netflix. And I will say, the most disappointing part of this episode is that they don't have the old theme song. Like it was so catchy. It'll not a science guy. It'll not a science guy. But anyways, please do me a favor and share this video. If people don't want to listen to you or me about the science of addiction and how it's a disease, maybe, just maybe, they'll listen to Bill Nye the freaking science guy. So in this episode, obviously the topic is addiction and he asked the audience, how many of you in here have been affected by addiction? And probably 75% to 80% of the hands go up. And first, the episode starts off where he's explaining the way the neural pathways change in the brain based on rewards and reward-based learning. And it's actually kind of funny the way he starts out with the intro because he's showing how these positive rewards that we get from coffee to going on social media. And we get this positive reinforcement in the form of likes or shares or retweets or whatever it is. And then he gets some negative comments, right? And then he turns to alcohol. And he starts guzzling about all pills. And then he goes to a slot machine. And this is kind of how addiction works, right? Now, one thing I loved about this episode is that they talked about addiction as a whole. They didn't just cover drugs and alcohol. They also talked a lot about behavioral addictions, which we don't talk about enough. And behavioral addictions, we're talking about shopping, gambling, sex can be one, OK? So it's kind of cool. They actually have some correspondents who go out and about. So one of the correspondents, she actually went to a university where they're studying gambling addiction. And it was so cool. It was so, so cool. So what they had, they have an FMRI brain scan, OK? So basically, they use this really powerful magnet to kind of see what your brain's doing and how it's responding to stuff, right? So an inside this brain scan, like you're laying outside down like this, and it has a slot machine going. And what they're doing is they're monitoring your dopamine system to see how you respond to wins and losses. And here's the thing, right here, OK? It shows a difference between a normal brain and an addicted brain. As you can see, clearly, clearly, an addicted brain responds differently to stimuli than a normal brain, OK? People with an addiction, they get an excess flood of dopamine. And when this happens, the reward pathways tell this person to go, go, go, go, go. This is science, everybody. And that's why I put it right here, respect the science, OK? So after they show those studies and everything, they kind of do this round table where the correspondent is back there. And then they also have a gentleman who is like the director of psychology at one of the universities. He was actually in that Netflix documentary, Take Your Pills, as well. And then they have a lieutenant from Ohio. Those of you who didn't get the memo, Ohio has a massive heroin epidemic going on right now. And man, kudos to this guy. Kudos to him. He's talking about how they realized how bad the epidemic was. And they needed to quit locking people up and jailing them and start offering them treatment. So where he's at in that county, they're providing people with detox services, social services, helping them get back on their feet, get therapy, get treatment, and all sorts of other things, right? And check this out. Check this out for everybody who thinks that we just need to lock up all these drug offenders. He managed to save his county with this new kind of method, managed to save them half a million dollars last year. That's your money. That is taxpayer money, OK? It is far more expensive to incarcerate these people with addictions than it is to simply treat them and help them go on to live these better, successful lives. So at this round table, they're kind of talking about the stigma and what people don't understand about it. The psychology professor, he said, like, they don't have nearly enough time for them to talk about all the things people get are wrong about addiction, but the one point that he touched on is that we need to quit looking at this as a moral failing, right? Because people are just like, oh, this person just has weak willpower. Oh, they can give up if they wanted to. Oh, if they were just a better person. And that's not the case. Most people have an underlying psychological disorder, right? And think about it. This can be depression. This can be anxiety. This can be ADHD, OK? This can be bipolar, right? But one of the big ones, I hope you watched my video on adverse childhood experiences, one of the big ones is your environment growing up and traumatic experiences. These are things that are completely out of people's control, and it can make them more prone towards addiction, right? So I love how they talk about how we need to start looking at this as a mental health crisis and not this, like, criminal thing where we need to lock everybody up. Like, I see the most disheartening comments. My video on opiate withdrawal is getting more and more views. I think it just passed 40,000. There are just so many, so many comments on there. People just demonizing these ads. And it's brutal because a lot of it is from misunderstanding or not understanding, you know, the science behind this thing, OK? But anyways, I'm not going to spoil the rest of the episode for you, like, please. Like, even if you do feel like you understand addiction, like, go watch this episode on Netflix, OK? It's out now. It's available now. And like I said, too, go out and share this video. For anybody out there who doesn't understand the disease of addiction, share this video on your Facebook and social media and stuff like that. Let's try to get more people to get educated about addiction, because once people actually understand the science behind this thing, then we can start working towards more solutions, all right? But anyways, if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you are new here, I'm always making videos not only about addiction, but how to help you out with your mental health. Click that little round Subscribe button. And if you want to check out some other videos on this channel, you can click or tap on one of those thumbnails, all right? So thanks again so much for watching. Respect the science, and I will see you next time.