And that's one of the ways in which addictions start to take hold . Uh , there's a simple way to think about this and to remember if you want to avoid this whole thing . I mean , the first one is obvious , don't do cocaine , don't try it , don't use it , certainly don't get addicted to it .
So that , that short , we can even say hyper short contingency is really what the system wants so much . So that longer contingencies of say , putting in the hard work of , you know , generating a fitness program or a professional program for yourself or a uh education program , which takes not just many days but many weeks and years . Well , none of that is going to lead to P and dopamine that are as high as the peak in dopamine associated with cocaine .
Uh , there's a simple way to think about this and to remember if you want to avoid this whole thing . I mean , the first one is obvious , don't do cocaine , don't try it , don't use it , certainly don't get addicted to it . Those are all sort of one and the same frankly , I don't know many people that , um , despite opinions to the contrary , that use cocaine recreationally , that don't at some point run into either a financial , psychological , physical or some other problem .
But that engages this progressive narrowing of the things that bring someone pleasure such that nothing else is really salient . Nothing else is really pulling them in in the way that their video games or sex or pornography or alcohol , pick your substance or you know , behavior that you see out there or uh hopefully not , but that you might suffer from an addiction to . So what's happening in addiction ?
And so this sets in motion , a vicious loop where people start pursuing peaks in dopamine that can come very fast without much effort . And that's one of the ways in which addictions start to take hold . Uh , there's a simple way to think about this and to remember if you want to avoid this whole thing .
