Brad Lander, PhD, LICDC-CS, is a clinical psychologist in addiction medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Talbot Hall. Dr. Lander, who has more than 30 years of experience working in the substance use disorder field, wants you to know that the greatest barrier we have to effective addiction treatment is the unrealistic expectations we hold about the capabilities of a person struggling with addiction.
Why Do Humans Do What We Do?
To understand what Dr. Lander means, we must first learn a bit about the brain and behavior. All behavior originates in and is directed by the brain, which is as true for earthworms, fish and birds as it is for humans.
A basic principle of animal behavior is “do what feels good.” This follows the premise “if it feels good, it must be good for me.” And it must be repeated. When the brain’s reward pathway is stimulated, it sets up the drive to complete the behavior compulsively. Stimulate…repeat…stimulate…repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
To demonstrate the power of the brain’s reward center in directing behavior, let’s look at the now-famous 1953 experiment by psychologists James Olds and Peter Milner at McGill University in Canada. Olds and Milner implanted electrodes into the “reward center” of rats’ brains. When a rat pressed on a lever, the brain’s reward center was stimulated (not damaged, but stimulated). Every single rat began to press the lever at a frenetic pace until they literally passed out. To the exclusion of all else—including food or water—rats would compulsively press the lever. They would even walk across an electrical grid delivering a shock to their bodies in order to do so. This explains the incredible chemical power of the brain’s reward system in directing animal behavior.
Obviously, the human brain is much more complex than the rat brain, and the human brain (unlike other animals) has a fully developed prefrontal cortex where thinking, logic and understanding occur. Yet, the same chemical reaction involved in the rat brain’s “reward center” occurs in a human brain with such powerful force that the logic and reasoning ability becomes overpowered.
From the simpler brain like that of a fish to the most complex brain of a human…we all have the same brain. In a 2014 presentation during the Judicial Symposium on Opiate Addiction, Dr. Lander explained, “If you have a fish brain and add parts to that brain, now we have an amphibian brain. We add parts to an amphibian brain, we have a reptilian brain. We add parts to a reptile brain, now we have a bird brain…” and so on. Within the human brain, Dr. Lander explains, right above the brain stem exists a “fully functioning intact squirrel brain.” It is in this location that addiction exists and persists. “If you want to treat it, you have to go after the squirrel brain.”
Dr. Lander’s description of “squirrel logic” in addiction promotes empathy for those who’ve never struggled with a substance use disorder. It’s not about the person struggling with addiction being unmotivated or unwilling to do better. It’s about this person being in the throes of the overpowering effects of substance use that take place in the “squirrel brain”—leading to repetitive, compulsive behavior (addiction) despite dire consequences.
Part two of this blog post will explain more about Dr. Lander’s “squirrel logic” and how it provides useful insight about effective addiction treatment.
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