Hacking Our Anxious Brain In Uncertain Times (w/Dr. Jud Brewer)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a secondary outbreak of fear, anxiety, and social contagion. Dr. Jud Brewer is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and leading researcher into the science of mindfulness, and we dive DEEP into how we can fight anxiety and panic.

Once we get warmed up, we discuss

• how ancient Buddhist psychology relates to modern ideas around positive and negative reinforcement and addictive behavior
• the role of dopamine in etching context-dependent memories
• the challenge of social media and smartphone addiction
• recognizing addiction to news during the COVID-19 crisis
• the phenomenon of “social contagion” in relation to the current pandemic and social media
• the nature of primitive limbic fear versus the higher reasoning of the prefrontal cortex (elephant and rider)
• what happens when worry becomes a habit
• the relationship of worry to anxiety
• how we can hack our brain with the BBO (Bigger Better Offer) approach with regards to habit and addiction
• insights around panic disorder
• the nature and utility of changing “reward value”
• bringing “curious awareness” online to recognize cravings and their low reward value
• addiction and it's relationship to dopamine
• the nature of selfless flow states
• fMRI data on adept meditators and the quieting of the “default mode network”
• psychedelics and the effect on default mode network
• the effectiveness of an app-based mindfulness approach on physician anxiety and physician burnout in a recent set of studies
• the nature of the psychological benefit of kindness and how the COVID-19 crisis may be a huge opportunity in disguise.

Check out Dr. Brewer's work here: https://drjud.com/

Video, links and more at zdoggmd.com/jud-brewer C

heck out ALL our COVID-19 coverage here: https://zdoggmd.com/tag/covid-19/