Читать книгу Overcoming Internet Addiction For Dummies - David N. Greenfield - Страница 46

Triggers are part of every addiction. A trigger is a psychological tickle that excites the reward system in your brain, which remembers the pleasure it felt when it engaged in the addictive behavior. I say “remembers” because part of the reward system includes the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain’s limbic system that is responsible for memory. The other interesting thing to note is that a trigger can elicit an anticipation response for getting that dopamine hit, and in many cases, that anticipatory dopamine hit can be twice as innervating as the dopamine hit from the actual behavior. A trigger is a powerful reminder of a past pleasure and can lead to a complete relapse into an addiction pattern.

Relapse is straightforward — it involves the reactivation of an addiction pattern. Sometimes relapse occurs for no obvious reason, and sometimes it occurs because of a clearly identified trigger. Triggers can be reminders of the addiction or pleasure found in the behavior, or they can be an emotion or a physical need of some type, including being tired, sad, lonely, or hungry. Basically, any imbalance in our well-being can be an indirect trigger for relapse. A big trigger for Internet addicts can simply be boredom, or simply seeing their screen device.

Some of the most common triggers can be memorized using the acronym HALTS: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, or Stressed. I would add that there are many other potential triggers as well, which often include proximity to our screen device, reacting to a time of day, or having something frustrating happen to us.

It’s important to note that relapse does not mean failure. Addiction often includes many attempts at recovery before success can be achieved; with Internet and technology addiction, there is an added complexity in that one must define what constitutes a relapse. Because it would be difficult to avoid screen use completely, a different definition of relapse must be defined for each person; typically, this includes deciding on a reasonable and healthy amount of total screen use, including a time limit or avoidance of specific content areas such social media, video gaming, pornography, YouTube, or other highly compelling websites or apps. The goal here is mediated and sustainable Internet and screen use, not abstinence of all screens, because that is impractical.