![]() This is done deliberately, consistently, and undistracted by appointments, television or media.Īt Le Mont, we wanted to continue this tradition in a way that made sense from a recovery point of view. There is a wonderful tradition in many Utah families of setting aside one night each week for the family to be together, and usually to engage in a fun, recreational activity. Hedonic Rehabilitation: What we did at LeMont I wonder if you/we need to learn new ways to celebrate and to reward ourselves? I call this “hedonic rehabilitation,” and there is increasing evidence that a major source of recovery resilience is setting aside time to deliberately engage in healthy, rewarding activities that compete with continued drug use, and make recovery fun. ![]() This may sounds a little strange, but a big part of recovery is practicing pleasure - engaging in healthy, rewarding activities that release normal amounts of dopamine, and restore hedonic tone. If the dopamine system is to fully recover, it is crucial to put normal dopamine releases - from normal pleasurable activities - back into the equation. Once large and fast dopamine spikes stop, brain receptors for dopamine begin to normalize.īut this takes more than abstinence. ![]() The repeated and intense use of rewarding chemicals and behaviors to the point of intoxication, and the dopamine spikes in the brain that accompany them, damage the brain’s ability to experience normal pleasure from normally pleasurable activities. This is called anhedonia.įortunately, the dopamine system can heal, and normal “hedonic tone” can be restored. One of the first steps is to remove the repeated insult of intoxication. Addiction is a dysfunction in the brain’s hedonic system - basically, a broken pleasure sense.
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