 Whether you like it or not, we humans are pretty much just piles of skin and bones mindlessly wandering the earth looking for the next dopamine hit. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And my whole channel is about helping you improve your mental health and I also do stuff about addiction and recovery, but mainly I just want to help you live a happier, better life. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So this video was actually inspired by a comment I got, by a channel by the name of TheBadCop69. He left this comment on one of my videos about H3H3 and it was a lengthy comment and he pretty much started out his comment by insulting me. It was fantastic and I wrote a very lengthy reply to him. But anyways, he has a lot in there, but I went over to his channel. So yesterday I made a video about James Charles and getting defensive. Like my natural state is to get defensive, right? But I manage it in a much better way than I used to. So I go over to his channel and check it out. And this dude, one of the things that he brought up in his comment was about loot boxes and gambling and addiction. And I go over to his channel, his most recent video at this time is about how Australia is about to like try to pass laws because loot boxes and video games are considered gambling, right? And let me say this, right? Like no matter what, at the end of the day, I really, really, really appreciate this guy's passion on this topic. Like that video and I'll link it down below. It's like over an hour long. I didn't watch all of it, but like just in the first five minutes, I'm like, bro, this dude is passionate about like addiction and gambling addiction and stuff like that. Like, that's awesome. Like we need more people like him, extremely passionate. So if you want to go check out his channel, there's a link to the video, go subscribe and all that kind of stuff. But one of the things that I commented on, because for those of you who don't know, I'm an addict and alcoholic in recovery. I have over six years clean now. You know, addiction is something that I'm very passionate about. But part of my recovery is looking at the source of addiction and kind of just, I'm a very analytical person. So as he's talking about loot boxes, because I'm a video game player and stuff like that, like I get it. I absolutely get it. So there's a place here in Las Vegas called Gameworks. Some of you might have it in your city or state or whatever, but it's basically this gigantic arcade. It's like Chuck E. Cheese, but a billion times better. Okay, just filled wall to wall with video games and stuff like that. And a few weeks ago, we went to my girlfriend's cousin's birthday party at Gameworks. And obviously I brought my son because he's a gamer too. And we go there and they get these little cars where they can play as much as they want, you know, for a couple hours. And my son started playing the ticket games, the games where you win tickets and you go exchange it for prizes and things like that. And as he's playing, like these games are games of chance. And he would always get so close, so close, right? And he's like, I'm going to play this again. I'm going to play this again, because he kept getting this close. And I'm sitting there. I'm like, Oh my God, like as, as a father who is a recovering addict, I'm always like keeping my eye on him. Like, are you going to develop an addiction? And I see him, I see him trying to get that, right? And basically what I was telling the bad cop 69, I'm like, Where do we draw the line? Where do we draw the line when it comes to gambling and what causes addiction and things like that? Because if you think about it, what Gameworks is doing right there, it's still the same thing. It's this game of chance. And people will keep feeding it money with the hopes that they're going to get some kind of payout. But that payout is in the form of tickets. So while some places are trying to outlaw the way loot boxes work and the gambling aspect, like do we also do this for like places like Chuck E cheese places like Gameworks, you know, and it's a very slippery slope. And this this brought up like just more of a bigger point that I wanted to talk to you all about addiction is everywhere. Addiction is literally everywhere. Like all my thumbnail, I try to put together like all of the things that can cause addiction. Addiction is basically chasing after the next dopamine hit. This is a neurotransmitter in your brain that gives you pleasure, that gives you euphoria. And it comes in a variety of different ways. So for some people is gaming and the loot boxes and things like that for some people is gambling for some people is love, it's sex, it's alcohol, it's drugs. But like you got to understand like this is everywhere. So there's a book that I haven't read yet, but I listened to a podcast about it in length. And I'll link it down in the description below. It's called sugar salts and fats, right? And this is a book written by an investigative journalist where he goes into the food industry and food industry, the food industry and different food companies have scientists, they have scientists who are there to develop recipes and formulas for their food that give you that dopamine fix. Okay. And it mainly comes from sugar, salts and fats. So what it does is it starts to rewire your pleasure pathways in your brain. So you want it more like talk about the obesity crisis in the United States. A lot of it has to do with the way the foods are created. And as I continue this video, I'm going to sound a little like 10 foil hat ish, if you will, but this is real stuff. So another great example is social media. Social media is designed to keep you hooked. Like, yes, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, all these things are free, right? But why are these some of the biggest corporations in the world because they are designed to keep you on the platform because that's how they make money from ad revenue and things like that. So the social media companies, they actually have various scientists and things like that who run tests to see what will get you hooked, the notifications on your phone, the likes, the comments, you know, the shares, the subscribers, if you will, these are all things that give you dopamine hits. You don't believe me. Let me recommend another amazing book for you. It's called The Craving Mind by Dr. Judson Brewer. He is like one of the brightest minds right now when it comes to the reward system. Okay, he's done TED talks. He went to like insane universities. I think it was like Harvard or Yale. I've done an interview with him on my channel. Like when I first started and stuff, he's an amazing guy. But in the book, The Craving Mind, he talks about, you know, being a neuroscientist and various studies where they actually hook people up. They hook people up to FMRI brain scans to see how their brains respond to social media, right? There was a there was a very old episode of NPR that he references in the book. I don't know where to find it, but there were these young teenage girls where they hooked them up to FMRI brain scans, right? And they had them on Instagram and every time they got likes and comments and things like that, you saw dopamine hits in their brain, which made them go back to more. There was another interview at a mindfulness conference I watched where they were talking about Snapchat story, not Snapchat stories, but I don't really use Snapchat anymore. But the streaks, that's what it's called the streaks, right? And people are getting dopamine hits from the streaks. These social media companies are figuring out ways to keep you on their app as much as possible. So what Snapchat did is they implemented the streaks and people young people, especially they get obsessed. They get obsessed with these streaks. They don't want to break the streak. They have competitions about the street. I remember in this interview at the conference, they were actually talking about how like there was a young woman who was going on vacation and wouldn't have access to her cell phone. So she had her friend log into her Snapchat on a daily basis to make sure she kept the street going. All right. So typically, basically, when we think about addiction, we think drugs and alcohol, right? Some people think about food. Some people think about gambling. Some people think about sex. You know what I mean? But addiction is everywhere. So we're the rewired soul, baby. What do we do here? We talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. So what's the solution to all this? Well, I'm going to make a more in-depth video on this, but there's three reasons we do this. There's three reasons why we chase that dopamine hit to get a feeling, to get rid of a feeling or to have an escape. Those are the three reasons. So I did a book review for the Russell Brand book called Recovery. I'll link that down in the description below as well. But what he talked about is how we drug addicts and alcoholics were the lucky ones, because our addiction manifested in such a way that it is completely obvious, right? So drug addicts and alcoholics, they're looking to get a feeling, get rid of a feeling or have an escape. So they turn to substances. You, on the other hand, and the people in your lives, they might be turning to social media. They might be turning to gambling. They might be turning to relationships. They might be turning to promiscuity. All of these things, just to escape the way that they are feeling or to get a different type of feeling, right? So I mentioned in the intro of this video that we are mindlessly wandering the earth looking for the next dopamine hit. Well, do you know what the opposite of mindlessness is? Mindfulness, okay? We have a really big issue with just sitting with ourselves. We have a problem sitting with our thoughts, with our feelings, with our emotions, all these things. So the practice of mindfulness helps train your brain to be okay with your present moment situation. All right? And this takes practice. I've been meditating for a little over three years now, and it takes time, but I'm no longer always looking for a way to escape the way that I feel. That's one of the reasons that I've stayed clean and sober for six years, but I have to be careful because my addiction can manifest in a multitude of different ways, all right? So basically what I was telling the bad caught 69 is, this is one of the reasons I have my channel, right? To help you improve your mental health. Like addiction is going to be everywhere. No matter what you do, no matter how many loot boxes we regulate, no matter how much we regulate drugs and alcohol, no matter how much we regulate food, people will find ways to get the dopamine hit because they have poor mental health. We are living in a time where people's mental health is worse than it's ever been before. This is why there are so many issues in our country as well as in the world, all right? So it's National Recovery Month, and I hope I educated you a little bit more about how even if you're not a drug addict or an alcoholic, you most likely have an addiction as well. So I hope you share this video, let's spread some awareness. And again, if you want to check out some of the books that I referenced down below, or if you want to check out the bad cop 69 channel, go ahead and check out down in the description box, but let's do this. So in the comments down below, let's talk about like, what do you do? What do you do to either get a feeling, get rid of a feeling, or have an escape? What is it for you? Social media, sex, drugs, alcohol, video games, loot boxes, gambling? What is it? Let's have a conversation down below in the comments, all right? But that's all I got for you today. So if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you're new here, again, I'm always making videos to help you improve your mental health. So make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon, helping me spread a message of hope you are all beautiful. And if you want to get yourself some sweet rewired soul merch, you can click or tap on that icon right there. All right. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.