Funny enough, one of the ancillary benefits of my personal therapy is I can now listen again to the music I loved in high school. Wasn’t able to listen to it for about 15 years.
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Keep this tweet below in mind the next time one of his 'studies' pops up on your feed.
Everything he posts is about achieving success (often implicitly). He conflates success with wellbeing without even understanding that there's a difference.
This difference affects how illness and wellness are defined, and so also defines what therapy should aim to achieve.
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The big overstated bit in this claim is that “cold showers and cold water exposure produce long lasting 2.5x increases in dopamine.” That 250% number comes from one 2000 study where young guys sat neck-deep in 14°C water for a full hour, and the researchers measured plasma dopamine in their blood and not dopamine in the brain.
Peripheral dopamine doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, so it doesn’t directly mean your brain’s motivation or focus circuits are getting a 2.5x boost the way the clip implies. The study also didn’t cleanly show the elevation lasting for hours afterward the way it’s often described, and an hour-long immersion is nothing like a typical 1–5 minute cold shower or plunge, so scaling those numbers down to everyday protocols is a big leap.
L-tyrosine being a precursor is true, but for most people eating enough protein doesn’t meaningfully raise dopamine unless you’re already depleted under stress. And the caffeine point is directionally okay the PET study did show higher D2/D3 receptor availability but the authors interpreted it as not increasing dopamine release itself, so the comment it makes the dopamine you already have work better is a pretty loose shorthand.
Overall the sustainable 2.5x without any crash, rivals cocaine framing is hyperbolic to say the least relative to what the actual data support.
What raises your dopamine 2.5x without a crash:
- Cold showers and cold water exposure produce long lasting 2.5x increases in dopamine
- L-tyrosine is a dopamine precursor. Caffeine increases how many dopamine receptors you have so the dopamine already floating around works better
- Picture a wave pool. Consistent waves of decent size keep rolling up and down. One giant blast sloshes the water out and you have to take time off to reset
- You don't crash from cold or caffeine. That happens when people push dopamine up with drugs
@hubermanlab
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@jesusrglez @the_mel_jar Kleinian and Lacanian, inseparable from birth. Brother/sister from anOther (m)Other.
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What we ask ourselves consciously is irrelevant. Every patient goes to therapy hoping to stay the same, with different results. Yes, even you. Now is that wounding? Yea sorry no validation for ya, sucka.
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“Our own access to what’s going on in our minds is very impoverished. […] The sense—which was overpoweringly obvious to somebody like John Locke or Descartes—that the mind is transparent to itself […] has been completely overthrown.”
—Daniel Dennett on knowledge of the mind
Literally anything addictive is non addictive if taken in accordance with a rationing regime. That’s not the point.
This statement is a tautology
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Stop saying anger is "really" something else! (my latest post)
darrenhaber.substack.com/p/w…
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I wish I knew what a neurotypical brain looks like then I might be able to figure out what a neurodivergent brain is
People sometimes insist that the neurodiversity movement is not powered by the notion of "different brains", yet:
Royal College of Psychiatrists:
“The word ‘neurodivergent’ is used to describe people whose brains function significantly differently to the general population.”
American Psychological Association:
“When a person’s neurology differs from the neurological ‘majority’.”
Royal College of Nursing:
“Neurodivergence is the term for when someone's brain processes, learns, and/or behaves differently from what is considered ‘typical’.”
Acas:
“Neurodivergent or neurodivergence – when someone’s brain works differently from what is considered more typical."
University College London:
"Being neurodivergent means having “a neurological system that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal’.”
Stanford Medicine:
“Having, relating to, or constituting a type of brain functioning that is not neurotypical.”
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust:
"Neurodivergence refers to naturally occurring differences in brain development and function."
Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust:
“When someone is neurodivergent, it means their brain works in a different way that is natural for them.”
NHS Dorset:
“The term neurodivergent simply means that your brain works differently to what may be considered ‘typical’.”
NHS Scotland:
"Neurodivergence refers to variations in brain development that are different from typical brain development.”
Cambridge Dictionary:
Neurodivergent as “having or related to a type of brain that is often considered as different from what is usual”. The entry gives autism as an example.
These are just some of the neuroessentialist definitions I came across.
The dark side of all this ADHD pop psychology and neurobiology reductionism stuff is that it is also used as a way to rationalize pretty terrible interpersonal behavior. “It wasn’t an affair it was just limerence.” Or, “I was really mean to you when you disagreed with me because of my rejection sensitivity.”
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Pathological demand avoidance is personality functioning related to compliance being prioritized over love and safety during critical developmental periods in childhood and early adulthood. Alas, it is common for people growing up with Autism and ADHD.
