Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. When we consume alcohol, our body reacts to the substance by releasing artificially high levels of dopamine. Real power doesn’t need to be demonstrated or boasted. That seems like enough fuckery to contend with, but there’s more to the story.”, “Humans have what is called a triune brain, or a three-part brain. Holly has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and TechCrunch and was named in Inc’s 2019 Female Founders 100 List. If you feel like alcohol is interfering with the way you want to live, that’s enough of a reason to make a change today. When dopamine floods into the brain, it sends a signal that the activity is good for survival, and in order to make sure we repeat the behavior, our brain releases another neurochemical called glutamate to lock in the memory of the event, so that we are wired to do it again.”, “When we drink alcohol, artificially high levels of dopamine are released into the brain—a glass of wine will release more dopamine than good sex, good chocolate, or good coffee. But over time and with enough exposure, the midbrain will begin to identify alcohol as necessary for survival. That's insane, everyone knows cocaine is far more addicting than alcohol and far more dangerous. The point is that we have a really clear understanding that cocaine is toxic and addictive. This means getting our physical health back, finding a good therapist, ending or leaving abusive relationships, learning to reinhabit our bodies, changing our negative thought patterns, building support networks, finding meaning and connecting to something greater than ourselves, and so on. 1 likes. If we drink enough alcohol over a long enough period of time, this cycle locks in, and our brains identify alcohol as necessary for survival. But over time and with enough exposure, the midbrain will begin to identify alcohol as necessary for survival. Quotes By Holly Whitaker. Real power doesn’t need to be demonstrated or boasted. We are on an endless and expensive quest for wellness and vitality and youth. To boot, activities that normally relieve stress, like a bath or a brisk walk, also lose their effectiveness. If the brain is a car, the survival response (midbrain) is the gas, and the prefrontal cortex is the brake. You look for someone to share the fullness that you both already are.”, “There is the life that most of us live, and then there is the life we have buried deep inside us, the life we know we’re supposed to be living.”, “finally, someone had put into words the thing that had been screaming in me since I was first told that my failure to submit to AA was really my ego run amok. This is the cycle of addiction. We'd sometimes (or often) see our parents coked out of our minds the way we sometimes (or often) see them drunk. The HIP SOBRIETY STORY. We need to create a life we don’t need to escape. We need to create a life we don’t need to escape. Over time, when our system is assaulted by surges of dopamine, our hedonic set point goes up (requiring more dopamine to feel good), and things that used to register as pleasurable (like warm hugs or our children’s laughter) don’t release enough dopamine to hit that raised baseline. I drank green juice and I made the right sounds when I fucked men I didn't really like and I crushed it in the boardroom and traveled to Central America all by myself and my ass was yoga tight. Holly is doing great things in this world in the space of addiction recovery. At the same time, the midbrain—which thinks only about the next fifteen seconds, not tomorrow or next year—”, “becomes more powerful. When you automate some decisions or processes (through forming habits), you free up more brain power. Bleak is fertile ground. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol. Holly Whitaker Photography. When you automate some decisions or processes (through forming habits), you free up more brain power. To address all of this is an overwhelming task, but there is a sane, empowering, and balanced approach. Founder + Editor-in-Chief, The Temper. Full list below! With years of experience in the fields of healthcare and tech, she created a human centered recovery modality and virtual platform offering education, community and support services, in 2014. Facebook gives people the power to... Join Facebook to connect with Holly Whitaker Fogwell and others you may know. Our bodies are adaptive, and they adapt to an environment that expects the effects of alcohol. “Real power doesn’t come from having a million followers, good hair, a Louis Vuitton purse, a new car, a new home, a title, a partner, or anything that can be weighed, measured, or acquired. To boot, activities that normally relieve stress, like a bath or a brisk walk, also lose their effectiveness. First, the prefrontal cortex loses its strength and volume; it’s like a muscle, and the chemical component of alcohol (it’s a neurotoxin, as in it attacks gray matter or the regions of the brain involved in sensory perception, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control), along with the consistent deferral to the survival instincts, weakens its function. March 29, 2020 Holly Whitaker. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Whatever it is, the new, healthier routine needs to provide a similar reward so you are motivated to replicate it in the future. Now, I'm sure you're thinking. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of … Real power can never be taken away from you and never lost once it’s found.”, “Spending a night out drinking is akin to dismantling every piece of protection we have—our cognition, our decision making, our reaction time, our memory, our standards, our voice. We know there's no safe amount of it, no such thing as "moderate" cocaine use; we know it can hook us and rob us of everything we care about...We know we are better off not tangling with it at all.”, “Finally, my hope, because here is the part of your dating life where you no longer date to find someone to fill the emptiness. We need to address the root causes that made us turn outside ourselves in the first place. Kiosks at Disneyland would see it so our parents could make it through a day of fun, our mom's book club would be one big blow-fest and instead of "mommy juice" it would be called "mommy powder" There'd be coke-tasting parties in Napa and cocaine cellars in fancy people's homes, and everyone we know (including our pastors, nurses, teachers, coaches, bosses) would snort it. When we consume alcohol, our body reacts to the substance by releasing artificially high levels of dopamine. We are, however, preternaturally disposed to herd behavior (FOMO), with a strong desire to preserve a sense of individuality and maintain control over our decision making. Alcohol becomes the quickest way our body learns to handle anxiety (which begets more anxiety because alcohol is a depressant, and the body reacts to it by releasing cortisol and adrenaline, which means the net effect of a glass of wine is more stress, not less). Does it make me hate myself, even just a little bit?”, “Alcohol is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a disease.”, “To properly heal from addiction, we need a holistic approach. Typically, our midbrain releases dopamine when we encounter something that keeps us alive or that aids in procreation, like when we eat a piece of chocolate or have good sex. That's insane, everyone knows cocaine is far more addicting than alcohol and far more dangerous. Real power doesn’t need to be demonstrated or boasted. The brain has a hedonic set point (a term coined by Dr. Kevin McCauley), which means that it both needs a certain amount of dopamine to register pleasure, and is programmed to downgrade levels of dopamine when we receive too much pleasure. The first, his own: “You will know how to act when you know who you are.” The second, from Jesus (Gnostic Gospels of St. Thomas): “If you bring forth what is in you, what you bring forth will save … ― Holly Whitaker, Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol. Holly has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and TechCrunch and was named in Inc’s 2019 Female Founders 100 List. If we drink enough alcohol, our midbrain will eventually elevate drinking alcohol above other survival”, “behaviors. You can find my writing on this site, grab a copy of my book, Quite Like a Woman, or follow me on instagram at @holly where I try and post regularly. 1 / 3. main-echo.de; vor 35 Tagen; Frauen-Band Goat Girl: So geht guter Indierock | Foto: Holly Whitaker/Beggars/dpa . Second, for us to make and change a habit, we need a cue, a routine, and a reward, and enough repetition must occur for the process to move from something we have to think about consciously (“I need to brush my teeth,” “I don’t want to drink wine”) to something we do naturally, automatically. If it doesn’t get you off, it won’t work.”, “We’ve now established three things. If we drink enough alcohol over a long enough period of time, this cycle locks in, and our brains identify alcohol as necessary for survival. You look for someone to share the fullness that you both already are.”, “There is the life that most of us live, and then there is the life we have buried deep inside us, the life we know we’re supposed to be living.”, “finally, someone had put into words the thing that had been screaming in me since I was first told that my failure to submit to AA was really my ego run amok. Third, throughout the day, we must manage our energy so that we don’t blow out and end up in the place of no return—a hyperaroused state where the only thing that can bring us down is a glass (or a bottle) of wine. Join Facebook to connect with Holly Whittaker Leggett and others you may know. The midbrain or reptilian brain is the oldest part of our brain, where our survival instinct lives; the limbic or mammalian brain is where our emotions live; and finally the neocortex is our thinking brain.