Origins of Addiction Part 2: Sugar, Systems 1 and 2, and Self-Sabotage

Way back in 2011, the economist and amateur psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, wrote a great book called Thinking, Fast and Slow. In it he describes two different aspects of our minds that he refers to as System 1 and System 2. As a great illustration of the difference, he talks about the difference between what happens when I say “2 + 2 = ?” vs “17 x 24 = ?”. System 1 handles the first, recognizing the pattern in 100-200 milliseconds and you are blurting out 4 before I have even finished asking the question. System 2 handles the second kind of problem, first recalling the process you need to follow to perform multiplication and then executing that process a step at a time until the answer is ready.

Neuroscience now knows that these systems exist in different physical parts of our brain. The limbic system that evolved 200+ million years ago houses our “Go” circuit, using neurotransmitters such as dopamine to get us to move to survive, as well as a fast moving circuit from our eyes that recognizes threats and triggers the Fight, Flight, or Fawn response. This system is home to many emotions as well — our visual cortex can recognize a threat in 200 milliseconds, send a signal to the amygdala within another 100 milliseconds that then signals “threat” to the adrenal system, and within 2 minutes your body is awash in adrenaline that can take as long as an hour for your body to process.

Much more recently (about 200,000 years ago), our primitive ancestors developed the frontal cortex, or what Kahneman would call System 2. This system is slow, taking seconds or longer to process, and requires a great deal of energy — it’s the part of our body that tires as we do knowledge work. This is also where our “Stop” circuit lives — it’s the part of our mind that can reason and decide that it is time to start a complex task requiring our full executive function, or to stop consuming, sending chemical signals to our Nucleus Accumbens to stop releasing dopamine. When these systems are in balance and working well, we are capable of acting in a balanced and healthy manner, but many chemicals that we might consume can both temporarily or permanently break this feedback loop.

One such balance is the constant tension between the System 1 and System 2 parts of our brain. System 1 is fast, instinctive, emotion-based — it runs on an “affective valence” system that is very primitive. The oldest, simplest animals have this system, as it provides the means and method for movement and steering, and it is how we satisfy our basic need for food. When we are satiated, we stop. When we are hungry, we move.  When our senses tell us that we are not moving towards food, we turn. When we learn a physical skill that we might call “muscle memory,” it is this mind that is in control. It can get you from your home to work in a car without your System 2 doing much more than looking at a clock and saying “it’s time to go to work.”

Habits live in System 1, and it is also where addictions start and live — perhaps the only real difference is their effect on us — habits are healthy, and addictions are not. Either way, System 1 can tip us in the direction of an action without ever being consciously aware we are doing it. Once that happens, only System 2 can wake up and realize what is happening, and then use our reasoning mind to recognize that we are about to do something we decided we did not want to do.

We like to think that we are rational — that we use our System 2 to set a goal or intention and to develop a process to achieve it, and then we engage System 1 as needed to perform the actions that move us through the physical world. Our intentions seem to us to precede our actions, and this feeds our narrative for who we are and how we act in ways that are consistent with that self image. Unfortunately, there is evidence that we act first and then construct intentions when those actions are already underway.

How sneaky is System 1? Let me give you a few personal examples that may seem familiar. I love caffeine, chocolate, and sugar — and if you put all of those things together, I really love them, so it’s not surprising that one of my favorite things is a mocha. I also love being in and working in coffee shops, and while I do appreciate working at home, I sometimes need to get out of the house for the day — going to an office is great as long as the people-energy is good, but I get more of that from a good coffee shop.

After years of habit-forming, I started realizing that after working for a while in one place, I would find myself unable to relax and focus and be as productive. I would need to move, and I would “decide” where I wanted to go and “decide” how I was going to get there. Lo and behold, all of the places I go are or have on their routes places that I would frequent to get caffeine, sugar, chocolate, or even all three wrapped up in one yummy cup of goodness.

Caffeine, sugar, and chocolate are all substances that release dopamine in our brains — that lovely molecule that motivates us to literally and figuratively get up and move towards a better future. Dopamine provides pleasure just imagining that first sip, and is already biasing your thoughts and actions towards achieving the goal. Dopamine tips the valence in your brain towards action towards stimulus or events that we perceive as “good,” we move in space and time to accomplish the task and achieve the goal.

[Funny story — I just stopped working and got up to move, went upstairs to fold my sourdough, thought about walking, then thought about mochas, and then walked downstairs to the coffee machine and ALMOST made a mocha. In fact, I can tell you now I will have one before I stop working on this blog post.]

A while back I was working hard to lose weight through combined dieting and exercise, so I was trying to eliminate sweets from my diet. I knew I needed a break, and decided to stop working and to walk to a gas station about a mile away to get a diet soda as my reward. After making the trek and filling the large cup with soda, I happened to pass by the case with donuts and cookies in it, and before I knew it, I was standing outside the gas station with the soda AND two cookies in my hand.

So, which came first, intention or action? Do I really love coffee shops because of the people energy and change of scenery and walking to gas stations because of the exercise? Or are these just places that provide safe and legal dopamine that my brain craves?

Up Next in Origins of Addiction: Satiety and the “Stop” Circuit