Daniel Knecht

Suffer from binge eating, excessive alcohol consumption, or compulsive ABCDEFG__________?

One simple idea ended years of binge eating for Kathryn Hansen, who tried every therapeutic and psychiatric recommendation given to her. This was thanks to the pioneering work of Jack Trimpey, who wrote Rational Recovery to provide a solution for those who failed to recover from alcoholism through traditional programs and therapy.

The idea is simple but profoundly life-altering. You can apply this technique not just to alcohol consumption, but also to uncontrollable fast-food binges or excessive doom scrolling on your phone.

In a nutshell, our brains are subdivided into various regions that govern every action, thought, and feeling, down to our very will to live. The brain evolved with a higher-order thinking mechanism that makes us distinct from animals: the neocortex, especially the prefrontal cortex located at the front of it. This higher mind is the seat of consciousness. Our ability to weigh decisions, wake up at 5 AM when the alarm goes off, or organize our to-do list for the day comes from this region. This higher mind is essentially your identity. It is the real you.

Deep in the brain lies the limbic system. It is broken down into subregions that are far older in our evolutionary history. These structures evolved to ensure survival by governing hunger, emotional urges, desires, fears, pain, and pleasure. Without getting too neuroscience heavy, we can view this region as the animal brain, or the beast brain. It is necessary for survival and gives us cues to eat when hungry or drink when thirsty, all mediated by automatic processing beneath conscious awareness.

In compulsive disorders like alcoholism, binge eating, or doom scrolling, the problem is identification with the wrong brain. The higher mind, the real you, has the ability to override the animal brain. This is why meditation is so powerful for improving focus and life in general. When you meditate, you sit with impulses to eat, drink, or do anything other than remain still for twenty minutes. Practicing awareness activates the prefrontal cortex, and awareness itself is learning to separate from the animal brain.

The second important thing to realize is that the animal brain is not very smart. It often becomes irrational and destructive. A child bitten by a dog may develop a generalized fear of all dogs. A family tradition that once brought comfort can produce a lifelong emotional association. One intense experience, positive or negative, can create a deep neurological pathway that solidifies through repetition. This is why the simple thought of eating a slice of pizza can fire up the pleasure centers of the animal brain. It sends a signal that I imagine like a tennis ball being tossed in the air. At the apex, you have a choice to hit the ball or let it fall back down.

AVRT, Addictive Voice Recognition Technique, teaches that this voice is what lobs the tennis ball of desire or fear up to the higher mind. It is sneaky and tries to convince you that your survival depends on eating the pizza. It insists that you will squash the anxiety or discomfort by giving in. It tells you that you deserve it, that it is only a slice, that you should live a little. This voice is massively deceptive, and the urge that it will protect your survival was formed without your conscious input.

The same process applies when you compulsively reach for your phone. Your animal brain insists that you need to look at it to experience pleasure or fix boredom, loneliness, or anxiety. Once you recognize this addictive voice for what it is, you no longer need to follow it. For a split second, notice that the part of you deciding whether to eat the pizza or not is your higher mind. The lower brain may throw a small tantrum. Get curious about the sensation. Watch it from your higher mind. Something remarkable happens: the pangs pass, and you are left unharmed.

The number one predictor of success in life is the ability to delay gratification. When you understand the lower brain’s signals and consciously choose how to respond, your binge eating problem begins to fade.

I highly recommend listening to the audiobook or buying Brain Over Binge for more context than I can include in this short post.

See you at the top.