What is the pleasure trap?

What is the pleasure trap? I absolutely love this blog post by Douglas Lisle, in which he discusses why it is so hard for us to change our behaviour. Douglas explains the pleasure trap, which pulls us in the wrong direction.

Environmental cues activate instincts, so that all animals do things that are conducive to survival and reproduction. Genes are responsible for building our bodies and our brains. Instincts are built into the neural circuits, and they are sensitive to environmental cues. We are activating information in ancient libraries built by the genetic code, which allows us to work out the correct move to make from our feelings. Feelings compel us to perform behaviours designed to ensure our genes are passed on.

Feelings are signals, telling us that something in the environment is either good for the genes, and the likelihood of their survival, or bad for them.

All creatures have a motivational system that seeks pleasure, avoids pain and conserves energy. When seeking pleasure, the main cues are food and sex. When avoiding pain, the main cues are cold, heat and predators. To conserve energy, creatures try to be as efficient as possible. Douglas also explains why drugs such as cocaine (which flood the pleasure centres of the brain with dopamine, causing euphoria) are so addictive and destructive.

Douglas then goes on to explain how supernormal stimuli can be very dangerous, causing self-destructive behaviour. Junk food activates our dopamine circuits because it is richer, with more calories per bite. This increases our pleasure for a while, but eventually we get used to it, and a process called neural adaptation causes our sensors for that stimulus to be dulled.

If we then change to eating healthily again our instincts tell us we are doing the wrong thing. This is the pleasure trap. We need to make it through to the next stage, where our sensitivity to these foods is restored several weeks later. We can use a water or juice fast to help this process.

I found this a truly fascinating talk, and one I will keep coming back to when I find myself struggling with the pleasure trap!

Project 365

I set up this website after deciding that I want to build a more creative life for myself, so I can give up my job and be in control of my own destiny.

I have set myself a goal of publishing an article on my website every day this year, to document my journey from employment to self-employment.

The name I chose was Project 365 because I see this as a year that I have dedicated to learning and self-development, as I countdown to freedom. It started on 1st January 2021, so I have 223 days to go!