How do phobias develop and can they be defeated?!
Firstly, thank you so much for creating your podcast and providing so much incredible information to your listeners. My quality of life has improved dramatically over the last year thanks to what I’ve learned from you and your guests! I’m deeply grateful to all of you. My question comes up because I have 3 really annoying phobias. I’ve had one of them for as long as I can remember. Interestingly, my half sister, whom I didn’t grow up with, has a very similar phobia. The second showed up sometime in my teens, I assume as a result of a horribly unpleasant experience (okay, hundreds of spiders hatched in our house - I now do a weird seizure dance and awkward scream when confronted by spiders). The third is the most upsetting and has a bigger impact on my life. It showed up suddenly in my mid-40s, when I was driving to Yosemite and came around a curve to see an expansive view beyond a sheer drop at the edge of the road. I’d driven that same road more than once before, and I’ve driven much scarier mountain roads without a hint of discomfort. But this time, I had a full blown panic attack and *couldn’t drive the car*. I was certain the car was going to fly over the edge of the road. I’ve had the same symptoms ever since then and can’t head into the mountains without having a friend drive. It has even hit me to a lesser degree on a couple highway overpasses. How does something like that suddenly change in the brain? I could see it being a result of trauma, and I did experience the loss of my mom not long before that first episode. But she died of cancer, not a car accident or fall. Could that loss have flipped some unrelated genetic switch? My full sister, whom I did grow up with, has had this very same phobia since she was a kid. (Our brother suffers no such fears!) Most importantly, are there effective ways to reverse phobias? It would be nice to do my own spider-scooping without hyperventilating, but I’d really love to feel comfortable driving amazing mountain roads again.
Swimming and breathing
It's maybe a little trivial question but as I practice swimming, I've been thinking that for half an hour I breathe in quite quickly and intensively and then hold the breath for a second and then exhale longer than I inhale... Does that have a stress reducing effect? :) When I took up swimming a year ago, after quite a long boost, I felt a really strong self-confidence boost, especially right after swimming. Now it's not that dramatic any more but swimming is still just as enjoyable. Thanks in advance!
Protocols to Recover Weakened a Endogenous Cannibinoid System caused by chronic high dopamine stimulation
Hello Dr. Andrew Huberman, I want to preface this by mentioning I’m very fascinated by the vast amount of knowledgeable scientific literature you present to the public in a very pleasing matter, as do most people; I was taken away by your episode regarding your episode on The Effects of Cannabis on the Brain & Body so much so that I halted my Cannabis use entirely as a 19-year-old chronic user of Cannabis for roughly five years straight due to the profound impact you’ve highlighted to have on the developmental brain among many conclusive peer-reviewed studies. I also have had trouble in the past with excessive video game consumption, among other things, which I will not get into for the sake of keeping the discussion as focused as possible. I also watched your entire episode with Dr. Anna Lembke on Understanding & Treating Addiction, as well as reading her book, Dopamine Nation, which has all been very informative and includes your podcasts on dopamine as well as regarding motivation. Having all that being said, as someone who has chronically abused their endocannabinoid system in a multitude of different ways, including poor eating, sleeping, substance, libido, and overall habits, I think many other individuals can relate to this in one way or another, I was wondering what are some of the best ways to recover such compromised dopamine to get my life and routine back on track? I have found an immense amount of benefit to having access to be able to get value out of every one of your podcasts that I have watched, which I’m ever gratefully fortunate for. To conclude my question, I got the idea to ask you this question from episode # 92 on The Effects of Cannabis on the Brain & Body for the vastly profound impact that episode has had on my life since I first watched it two months ago. In this episode(timestamp 2:33:00), you mention that you plan on doing an episode on prefrontal cortex recovery to reverse the effects of cannabis and other drug use in the adolescent brain. I know how very busy you are, and I apologize for extending this inquiry than it might be required; I think myself, as well as many others, would highly benefit from recovery in regards to chronic, high dopaminergic activity abuse, and I would be everlastingly grateful to hear what your thoughts/recommendations on protocols would be on such a topic in an AMA if not an entire episode as mentioned in the episode in the reference provided. 🙏