Dopamine Hijack: How Screens Are Rewiring Your Brain

Founder, Lifestyle Medicine Miami Beach
- Understand how constant screen exposure and highly stimulating digital content can hijack dopamine, disrupt neuroplasticity, and make it harder to focus, sleep, connect with others, and pursue meaningful goals.
- Discover how stress, sleep quality, breathing, authentic relationships, balanced nutrition, and intentional living work together to support healthy brain function and optimize your brain’s natural reward system.
- Learn how brain mapping and neuromodulation can objectively measure brain performance, identify dysfunctional patterns, and help retrain the brain toward healthier focus, emotional regulation, and cognitive flexibility.
Full Transcript
Dopamine as Pursuit, Not Pleasure 0:00
It is historically thought of as the molecule of pleasure, but it's actually the neurotransmitter of pursuit. Things that are pleasurable are often on the other side of that pursuit, But in an evolutionary sense and a healthy sense, it becomes the driver that is supposed to drive you towards your goals and your work, your relationships, Your hobbies into your life. The vast majority of my work is that screens are hijacking that pursuit neurotransmitter and now people are spending, you know, more and more time in their screens instead of letting dopamine run its course and help people live out an amazing life.
You're listening to the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast with Dr. Ivan Rusilko, brought to you by Access Lab, where we explore new perspectives at the forefront of personalized healthcare. Welcome to Lifestyle Medicine Podcast. I'm Dr. Ivan Rosilko, your host, and we're brought to you by Access Labs. If your doctor's not checking your labs, they're not a doctor. And today we got Dr Trish Lee, who is not only an amazing neuroscientist, but she's also an author and educator, And she is a specialist in all things dopamine, plasticity, everything that makes you feel a certain way.
So Dr Tish, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, of course. I'm very excited to go deep and wide. So let's do it. Oh, I like how to steal that one. But no, in all seriousness, when it comes to dopamine, this is what pretty much drives every single decision in our life. And again, When it come to business and when comes the pleasure and it becomes everything on the in between, dopamine is kind of driving us. Can you give me your one sentence synopsis about why dopamine so important? Sure. Yeah.
So it is historically thought of as the molecule of pleasure, but it's actually the neurotransmitter of pursuit. Okay. Exactly what you were saying. It is what drives us to pursue. And yes, things that are pleasurable are often on the, you know, the other side of that pursuit, in an evolutionary sense and a healthy sense, it becomes the driver that is supposed to drive you towards your goals and your work, your relationships, and hobbies into your life. The vast majority of my work is that screens are hijacking that pursuit neurotransmitter and now people are spending more and more time in their screens
How Screens Hijack the Brain 2:25
instead of letting dopamine run its course and help people live out an amazing life So when do you think the virus that is social media or technology kind of came in and kind hijacked our dopamine pleasure center? Was it back in the 80s, 90s or was it as recent as now? Well, it was 1991 to be specific with the dawn. So if you would like to specific, with dawn of the internet era, but obviously the Internet era has changed dramatically since 1991. But basically 1991 is when the Internet came on the scene and that became, you know, when people started going into screens instead of spending the majority of their life in the real world, but clearly over the last decade, especially with more and more people on social media all the time.
Um, I'm working on my next book that is, um, affectionately calling it miswired by the algorithm because now we're living in an algorithmic based environment that has literally engineered to grab our attention and keep us there. So that's relatively new within the past decade. Okay. Can you run us through where dopamine comes from? Because I mean, dopamine is kind of the end stage of it. You got the tyrosine and everything that comes after that. So when it comes to somebody who's maybe dieting improperly or getting bad sleep or has bad gut health, how does that affect how dopamine has actually built and actually manufactured?
Sure. So much of my work centers on EEG. EE is electroencephalogram. I actually like to look more at the macro, but we can dive into that. The macro is what I think of more as autonomic nervous system function or lack thereof. Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction is a main driver in everything that you just mentioned, right? So when we have gut health that's off, we know that ANS dysfunction is many times involved there. Let me back up for a second and talk about ANs dysfunction as the autonomic nervous system is the branch that is automatic in our nervous systems.
And it either is rest and digest or rest in relax, as I like to call it, or fight or flight. So in today's day and age, we are living in a fight or flight society. And even if it's, you know, minor or micro fight-or-flight, somebody cutting you off or rushing, screens themselves and the algorithm cause more fight of flight, which is called sympathetic dominance. It's the sympathetic branch.
Autonomic Nervous System and Brain Patterns 5:00
When you spend too much time in the dominant state, that is when everything is thrown off from hormones to the electrical energy in your brain, which is what I look at. Again, just come back a layer for one second and I'll throw it back over to you is that I'd look an EEG because there is an optimal brain performance pattern. flow state, right? Where you feel calm and alert. If your brain is using that electrical energy pattern, then basically the rest of your system can flow in its well-wired or its evolutionary designed state.
When that EEG, the supercomputer in your, brain when it is stuck in sympathetic dominance, than that cascading of not only electrical, energy of nerve impulses of neurotransmitters of hormones. We know there's a direct connection to gut health, that's when that cascades really disrupted in all senses. Now, so when it comes to dopamine, there's always other ones. There's serotonin, glutamate, GABA, norepinephrine, epinephrin, it goes on and on. Would you consider one more important than the other?
Because I mean, obviously dopamine is what drives us, but do you say to say, well, seratonin is also important for this and then GLAAD, GAPA. Of course. Yeah, so I usually just talk about the three what I call the happiness trifecta that I consider to be the drivers behind the rest, especially for my work when it comes to how dopamine is being disrupted through what i call a dopamine hijack because basically the screen hijacks a person's brain. It creates a miswiring which then I want people to know your brains can be rewired and it will help your whole system, but the happiness trifecta is dopamine, which is pursuit often towards pleasure.
And I can talk more about that. Serotonin, serotonins slower, it lingers around longer and it creates the feelings of joy. So like dopamine might be like, I love to box. I always talk about boxing. Have a boxing bag. Like when I go box, you know, that rush and I feel jazzed up. seratonin is like watching a sunset. And then oxytocins for connection. And we want people to feel connected to their work, their people and their hobbies. And now there's this distorted connection to influencers or to content itself.
Which we can, parasocial relationships, we dive deep into that also. But when that happiness trifecta is either broken and it's too heavy toward dopamine, that's when we really get a significant imbalance that will create that cascading effect. And just to throw one other thing over in terms of like everything else that you're talking about, mitochondrial dysfunction will show up. Mitochondria are the powerhouse of each and every cell, not only neurons, but all the other cells. And then, you know, the imbalance on a cellular level happens when we're taking about autonomic nervous system dysfunction, which creates, the total dysfunction throughout the system, all systems in the body.
What would you say some of the most important aspects of lifestyle are? Obviously, I'm a huge fan of sleep. I think sleep is the more important and complex thing that we do do. But there's hydration, there is nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, breathing exercises. If you had to pick the top, so you have the trifecta of pleasure, what would be the Trifectas of Lifestyle to kind of really normalize and find that full state? I love this question. This is great. And I do not have a preconceived answer to it.
So I'm coming up with it on the spot, but it's not rehearsed. I've got to pull three out of my brain right now. From a lifestyle standpoint, what I find is that most people are not living the authentic life that they really want to. It takes a lot of courage to live authentically. What that ends up doing is creating a loss of stress. So I would say number one is stress. You know, people are trying to make tons of money to live a lifestyle that is pleasurable, dopamine chasing, but isn't necessarily providing the joy that
The Happiness Trifecta and Lifestyle Balance 9:00
they're looking for. Right? Like I wouldn't say stress because of lack of intention in living and social media plays directly into this FOMO. Like, you know you see other people doing all these things and you're like, I want a Lamborghini. You might not even want a Lamborghini. I find myself slightly impervious to most of this, but my best friend's really into luxury. We went shopping once and I left with a luxury bag that was thousands of dollars. When I get home, I'm like, ''I don't even this bag.'' This is the idea behind intentional.
That's the only one I bought, just to be really clear, because I am like that's not me, that is her. So authentic intentional living, which reduces stress because you know what your end game is. You're setting the GPS on your life, Which then sets your actions, right? Which leads to everything else that you're talking about. I would prioritize sleep also. People underestimate what, not just quantity, but quality of sleep through EEG that I use. And I was going to go back to, okay, so I've already spoken about There's an optimal brain pattern and I started to say there's brain patterns, but then I corrected myself back to the optimal pattern.
What I was actually going to. Is that there is multiple dysfunctional brain. For many of the issues that we're talking about here that lead to a whole host of chronic health conditions. Yeah. those EEG patterns, there is one for disrupted sleep. There's one that basically screens called alpha suppression, screens contribute to the brain not being able to engage in the REM sleep cycle. The person's brain basically never gets into restorative sleep and screen time is at the core of that. People don't realize that and going back to like kind of what I was saying about stress and stress management and intentional living, many people are using their screens and whatever content that they're consuming as a mood regulation behavior.
So if you're living an intentional, authentic life, you don't really have to regulate your mood, right? And then you were able to sleep better too. And honestly, I would go back to what you also said in terms of nutrition and hydration. And just one word for everybody, it's balance, right? It's balanced. Eating really well, my son Declan runs the nonprofit that is associated with my organization. He measures all of his food, all his macros to make sure he's hitting protein, carbs, and fat. People don't even understand.
That can fuel you three to four smaller balanced meals with the macro hitting it and making sure you're drinking enough water. No, for sure. Stress in general, I think that's the worst possible thing to actually have to deal with. Not only does it spike your cortisol, so whenever I'm trying to look at somebody when it comes to anything, we're treating cancer, ED, pretty much anything under the sun, you have figure out what's stressing the system. My biggest thing, obviously, your gut is one of the most important things, and I can both agree on that one.
There's the brain, gut access, everything like that. If you have things like food sensitivities, Candida infestation, SIBO, things that can throw your neurotransmitters into just a world of chaos. Then you think like cortisol and your actual DHA and adrenal glands. I think that's one thing too. that people don't really understand is the connection between the adrenal glands and actual neurotransmitter propagation. So that's why whenever I test, I'm always making sure I look at the adrenoglands, at actual food sensitivities, then you can get into hormones like testosterone, estrogen, those other kinds of things that kind of give you the more feel-good aspects of it.
But my favorite one you mentioned was oxytocin. I got that tattoo I don' know how long ago. is because again, that the whole aspect of what oxytocin does in the brain is spectacular. Could you kind of expand on how important oxytocin is, how we create it, and why it's so good for health? Yeah, absolutely. And I just wanted to add one caveat to springboard back to what you were just talking about. This is off point professionally, but in my personal life, I had toxic mold poisoning at the steroid level where we had to move out of our house, take it to the studs.
I was very, very sick. But the only reason that I'm sharing that is everything that you just spoke about, all of mine in my body was completely disrupted. And that was a really interesting experience for me because it's insidious. You don't know how your system is being affected until you hit the threshold. It is important to have the testing in the labs because when I got my labs back with all of that, like every single thing you just mentioned, I had, you know, had SIBO, obviously I have Candida and mycotoxin, so very interesting and the lab are very revealing and then the solution is presented
Oxytocin, Loneliness, and Connection 14:00
before you. But when it comes to oxytocin, especially in today's day and age, we have an epidemic of loneliness. This is documented. People are lonelier than ever before because they are being connected in artificial ways. And this provides a reduction in the production of oxytocin, which is that neurotransmitter of connection. That connection in our life is important in The Happiness Trifecta because it's what allows us, from an evolutionary standpoint, to feel part of a tribe, right? And that provides safety and security.
That is what brings us, you know, happiness. So I really want people to really think about like how, and I always joke, You don't need a million friends. Like that's the essence of social media. You might have, 3,000 followers, but you need two or three people that you can be vulnerable enough to connect with on a really authentic level. And you know, that's why I always talk about my best friends. I have, there's eight of us that hang out all the time, but like, those are people that no matter what we share, like we're coming back for each other.
You know what I mean? So. And that's, it is, and just to have a few, just one person. So this is really important for quality of life. I'm sure you know the Blue Zones, which they changed that when they made it into a Netflix show. They called it, I am sure for SEO or whatever, Live to 100. But really cool, like, you know, what those communities showed is the connection, is, the balance is lower amounts of stress. This is what allow people to have not only longevity, but the quality of life and connection which goes back to oxytocin is a vital part of that.
And that's being disrupted, in today's day and age too. No, for sure. And again, even when it comes to things, you know, we do a lot down here with sexual health. Obviously we're looking at the hormones, first and foremost. But then it come to people coming in, well, I don't have no libido. Well, do you not have libado? Or is it because you've been watching pornography for the last X amount of times and your partner doesn't want to do something like that or they don' know? So, can you talk on the epidemic that is, because I think this whole oxytocin aspect is actually really- I can, and this is my wheelhouse.
I don't know if you know this, like 99% of the people that I work with struggle with erectile dysfunction, And this what they don´t know, is that the vast majority of times it comes from dopamine desensitization in their brain. The reward center and pathways have become desensitized from the high level stimulation. It's overstimulation. Pornographies at the top of the food chain of what are called super normal stimuli, supernormal stimuli have the brain produce higher levels of dopamine than could be found.
in real life. And the most terrifying part, I think, is that these supernormal stimuli basically capitalize on those healthy evolutionary behaviors like sexuality. Sexuality is supposed to be for procreation and legacy and tribe building, but pornography then distorts it and pulls a person into the screen, desensitizes their brain. I completed a study, which I'm now getting into a top tier journal, over 200 brain maps that It adds to the corpus of scientific literature, but it's the first brain map study on porn-induced erectile dysfunction, and it has 200 brain maps.
It's a huge number. This is just a funny little story. I hired a data scientist. And the guy told me in retrospect, he thought I was nuts when I gave him the hypotheses and he went into the back end of my brain mapping system and crunched the data and it had three statistically significant findings and adding to what we already know from the dopamine hijack literature in the scientific journal. I'm super excited to be able to add and contribute in that way. But I want people to know, like, if you do struggle with erectile dysfunction, and especially if if had all the labs done, because this is what happens when people come to me.
I've had other labs, everything is normal. And they're very frustrated because their doctor tells them you look great. You're super healthy, except for they still have erectiles dysfunction. Do their brain map. It's what I call drained brain. Drain brain pops off the page. Really? Oh, that's it. Because the last three podcasts I've had, one was a urologist, and one is a cardiovascular doctor. And we've got the whole topic of pornography and things like that. It's just very unique to hear the neuroscientist aspect of it now.
They don't know.
Pornography, Dopamine Desensitization, and ED 18:30
they just literally don' t know most times. I' ve had the conversations with those professionals. Did the people you have, do they know about the dopamine desensitization? 100%, which is great because they're all very like-minded. So they are not only agreeing with you, they' re helping to propagate it too. I love that because most people come to me and I've had conversations with other healthcare professionals where they just don't understand the magnitude of it. And because this is the, I think it's the greatest epidemic that's out there.
There's millions of men that are struggling in silence. Some of them then share with their partner. So now we have, you know, still probably in the millions of couples who are struggling and they go to everybody and try to figure it out. My program is six months later and a brain can be rewired, especially when it's behaviorally driven. When it comes to pornography consumption, the miswiring in brain, brain dysfunction is being reinforced through behavior, but unfortunately it is a compulsion, which is very difficult for people to stop.
to step away from. And that's part of, you know, what I help people do when when we start that rewiring, the goal is to create the flywheel, they can step way and the brain really does just keep moving forward then. No, which is unique. And again, neuroplasticity is something that we don't really hear about in medical school. I mean, you sit there, and you learn about different things, but the whole idea that your brain can be reprogrammed, it's very plastic and malleable. Can you kind of give us an overview of how you take a jinky brain and are able to kind sit their and rewire it from porn addiction or addiction to the screen or just overall depression?
And like, what are some of the actual modalities you do to actually fix that? Yeah, sure. So one thing I just wanted to share before I jump into that is the idea of neuro-rigidity. I don't know if you've ever really thought about rigidity versus plasticity, because that's a really important point that I try to make with people on the QEG brain maps, which is what I use, the electroencephalogram. Basically, we want to see a green brain map. The green-brain map is, what, I was talking about a calm alert brain that pretty close to flow state.
the more red the brain-map becomes, it means it's locked up. And this becomes very difficult for people to shift their brain because basically it's decreased neuroplasticity. Neuroplaticity is flexibility, malleability of the brain's performance pattern, the neural pathways. What neuro plasticity to me is, you know, I get up each day and I'm able to focus if I want to. I am able deeply concentrate for three hours if i need to And then I'm able to go have lunch and chill, right? I am not still concentrating.
I have the plasticity to be able relax for 30 minutes. And, then, I can lock in again. That's what neuroplasticity is. As I get in bed, am able sleep and get up and do it over again, rigidity is you're in this brain pattern that needs dopamine and it feels urges and cravings back to the screen just to feel okay. You know, so this is what happens when the brain becomes neuro-rigid. Now in my work, the way that I'm able to help people is the first step is to do a brain map. The brainmap you can see is your brain green, is you're brain red, right?
Is it plastic? is it in the optimized pattern? It is far away. There's two patterns that i talk about. One I call, I gave them both the names. Accidentally, you know how that goes. One I call strained brain. Strained Brain is a brain that's running too fast and too slow simultaneously. It's wired and tired, stressed and fatigued. Most people can relate to that one. most people are operating in this brain, that comes back to the reason why I say the number one thing is stress management and living a life that feels great to you because Most of the rest of this stuff takes care of itself.
The other pattern is drain brain. If you stay in strain brain and you're going back to those fast, super normal dopamine hits from pornography, especially hyper-sexualized social media secondarily, what happens is the brain tips over into drain-brain. That's too much alpha, which leads to alpha suppression, and which lead to not being able to sleep. In drain brain, it's like your brain is stuck in neutral. And it gets stuck neutral because it is looking for all of that stimulation to get it going.
This is why people struggle with erectile dysfunction, because basically it changes baseline arousal. And so these are the patterns that I see. Another thing is that all my work is measurable. So we do brain maps first, and then if a person does want to get into my program, I use neuromodulation technology. What that technology does is it provides feedback. Neurofeedback is another way to say the specific modality that i use, but it's a type of neuromojulation. So the idea is it provides feedback to the brain.
It doesn't put anything in that's always been a filter for me, not to put any thing into the, but to teach the inherently from the inside out. And so basically there's auditory and visual feedback that teaches the to make more of the optimal pattern and less of strain brain and drain brain Okay.
Neuroplasticity, Brain Mapping, and Rewiring 23:30
When you have strain brain and everything like that, do you ever do lab testing along with it? Do you find like a strain? Brain has high cortisol or drain brain has low DHEA or anything like. It does. So I actually, my husband is chiropractor. We also have a practice, it's called lead brain and spine. He does all the testing like that. Anybody who's interested in that testing that works through me, they can work with him also. But usually if a person has a provider, They can upload their documents into my secure portal and I'm able to What I do in the BrainMap session is I look at the brain map and I'm able to connect it to a person's history and to the way that they're living their life currently and any other labs or anything that have.
So yeah, yes, in strain brain, there's typically very high cortisol levels. In drain brain it's that autonomic nervous system dysfunction of cortisol that's not cascading properly across the day. So, you know, like you would see in a system that's basically conked out, right? So the labs do relate to those brain patterns, but, and also in the QEG, I can see the brain pattern for depression, for anxiety disorder, or ADHD. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. There's a distinct pattern. For trauma, there's many patterns that I identify that a person may struggle with.
No, yeah, I think it's unique because here, we mean, testing is our biggest thing and you see so many people come in with the exact things that you talk about. And there's just so much different types of diagnostics, imaging, intakes, labs, all that kind of stuff. It'd be nice to see somebody put everything together. You know what I mean? Like, if I could have what you did in here and combine it with labs with EEG and everything, it would be a fascinating study. Well, that's why I love to do it.
I've been doing this a really long time, so I'm in a little bit different position than you are. people, I don't want to overwhelm them. Many of the people that I work with, they're already overwhelmed because I used to include a lot of that. And I actually used include many other neuro therapy modalities, but I've landed on neuro modulation with neurofeedback because It is the easiest thing for a person to engage with. It's enjoyable to do and it produces results quickly. Then if a persons interested or if they already have all these labs, then I will enter into that with them for next level to be able to connect all the dots.
And that's kind of my point about my mold poisoning journey is I had new respect. for all the other labs. Um, an interesting point is that my husband is trained as chiropractor, but after that happened to me, he pivoted his work into regenerative medicine with high level technology and lab testing because of the experience that we had and the new respect for. All the information and then the modalities. So in his office, we use red light therapy, oxygen therapy. of many different types of lasers.
I'm trying to think he has like many, different like regenerative medicine modalities that he incorporates when people want a comprehensive approach with me and also with him. Well, I think that's fascinating. Again, that is what people are slowly coming to realize. The more specialized physicians and healthcare practitioners get, the less they actually know about what's going on. You know what I mean? So you sit there, you can take that 33,000 square foot view here and kind of sit down and say, okay, your depressed, let's check your brain map.
Let's your hormones. Check your food sensitivity. And mold, how many people would you guess in this country have mold toxicity right now and are going through all these symptoms that are just not informed enough? It is so high. It's so hi. I actually had the thought to pivot my work into that because it was obviously life altering for me, but I have too many missions already. But it is like so many people who have inflammation. who all of my symptoms were primarily skin based symptoms, which was interesting.
But probably because I always use most of the modalities that we're talking about here, I've always used neuromodulation as a maintenance. So my brain health actually stayed pretty healthy, but I had a lot of skin issues. There's a lotta people walking around who struggle with lower level issues that they chalk up to, like inflammation or skin problems or achy knees or psoriasis, those types of things. And, you know, they can really benefit from EEG and all the labs. Yeah, just to get it tested.
So very, very unique. First and foremost, I think what you do is fascinating. A lot of healthcare practitioners don't actually even pay attention to it. They're so quick to put an antidepressant on there, give somebody Adderall, whatever it could be. If you were to give any of your colleagues, nurses, doctors, whoever it can be, any type of advice into kind of incorporating what would it be and why? Yeah, this is a great question. So I already told you how my son Declan is running our nonprofit.
Our nonprofit is exactly that. We're putting together a short educational awareness video for healthcare professionals, for schools, if we can get it into schools too,
Testing, Mold Toxicity, and Comprehensive Care 28:30
which the bureaucracy is little bit more challenging. But what I want people to know, and it's basically going back to dopamine in screens, is that We know with the rising ADHD and anxiety, there's many books out there. Jonathan Haidt's newest book, The Anxious Generation, is just one of the newer ones that highlights it. You know that I want people to know if you struggle with more ADHD symptoms, if your not able to do the things that you want, and especially if have anxiety you have to look at your screen time.
And I want professionals to know that. Professionals don't ask kids. When kids come in, and in my next book that I told you I'm working on, I am telling my daughter's story. My daughter, she's given me permission, which is amazing because it's an amazing story, but I took her to the doctor. And she was just turned 18, so I let her go in and I walked out and she prescribed an antidepressant in the one minute I wasn't in her room. And it ended up that this kid, this young man was manipulating her on social media.
She became anorexic. The anxiety she had was from the online manipulation. So like going back to that 33,000 view, we need to look at the big view and doctors and therapists need ask kids or the parents, okay, what's going on with your screen time and make it a safe place that a kid can say, I've got this going. I love that. Well, that kind of went into my second question. If you can give just any patient out there any type of advice, and I'm sure a lot of healthcare practitioners need this advice too, what's the top two things you consider and say to help retrain your brain, reprogram the old neuroplasticity, just to make it more into that flow stick?
Yeah, I love this because I thought this. I was at the beach this weekend with my daughter and I went for beach runs every day. And I had the thought about making a video that the number two thing that you can do to regulate your brain is to use your breath. Cause people underestimate their breath. You know, they underestimate your breath, you know? So on the run, the runs were so great. Like I'm like, this is amazing. And I was really just not concentrating, but just doing it, subconsciously because it's what I do was activating, bagel state by having nice long inhales, extra long exhales.
It was real calm breathing. I could have run forever. People need to know that they can, in the moments when they feel stressed out, They can regulate their breaths. Love it. Again, you know, I've already talked about screens. You have to look at your screen time and be really willing to. Look at it and to, You know own what's going on and make changes there. But I really believe if people are stuck, they should have a brain map and realize there's technology that can rewire your brain for you. I have not come up with the perfect analogy, but it's kind of like a pacemaker, like it is not a perfect.
Analogy. Have to come with a better one because the technology is a wearable. So obviously a pace maker is. put into a person. But like if your heart rate is off, there's technology that can get the heartrate going again in the way that we need to. The same thing exists now, but people just don't know it. So like, if you do have anxiety, you struggle with focus, If you have ED, There's wearable technology That can reset and rewire your brain for you. And it's all measurable. In my work, I can see where a person began, where they are on any given day, and how far they from the optimal state.
And we can watch the gap close in real time in a few months.
Advice for Clinicians and Patients 32:00
That's great. It was funny. You were talking about this earlier about how you have neuro rigidity and neuroplasticity. it's almost like heart rate variability in away. How well can you go back and forth from being stressed or relaxed? And I think that's something that needs more exploring right there. Yeah, and not be dependent on something outside of oneself. Like when it comes to screens and especially pornography, this is what I identified in the study that I did. I can see the dopamine dependency brain pattern.
and it is dependent on an external source. That's awesome, right? So when I see that in a person's brain, it's very clear what needs to be done. And then when i help to rewire that miswiring, that's why the gap closes pretty quickly and especially then a persons able to stay away from that high-level dopamine. and reengage back into their life. I'm rebranding my work, mainly so I don't get shadow banned, because I get a shadow ban a lot for talking about the things that I do. But I am calling it Desire Rewire.
And I really want people to know, like, if your desire isn't where you want it to be, whether it's intimacy, or if it is work. People I work with are like I used to love my job, I think I need a new job. Quit until we regulate your brain, right? Like don't quit until you're in a space of clarity. So I'm calling it desire rewire. Desire rewire. Well, I love that. That's very good. Dr. Trish, why don' you tell everybody where they can find your social media, websites, things like that? Yeah, sounds great.
All roads lead out from drtrishlead.com and it's LEIGH. I just had five new web pages created for Desire Rewire. They have just gone live and I'm doing a whole full update of my website that'll be available in early November 2026. And the reason that's important is It's a resource. There's hundreds. Actually, I think there's thousands of blog posts there. Every blog post has a YouTube video. I have thousands YouTube videos that are on my YouTube channel, Dr. Trish Lee, which will also be Desire Rewire with the rebrand.
Resources and Closing Remarks 34:05
But I put out a lot of resources for people. It's available everywhere. It is a best seller in the category. So if you struggle with pornography, I want you to know you're not alone. That book has 54 brain hacks in it. it's kind of like a resource that you can use. Um, it also gives other ideas for more resources. so, you know, i really have, work hard to, um, on a mission to help people with this. I'm trying to create a lot of resources for free for people. Go to my website and then make sure you go to YouTube and get my book if I love that.
Well, thank you so much for stopping by. I mean, it's been such an honor. Again, this is the Lifestyle Medicine podcast. We're powered by Access Labs. If your doctor's not checking your labs, I'm not a doctor. You've had Dr. Trish talking to everything from dopamine to neuro-rigidity, plasticity, and everything in between. So thank so you much stop by, its been an absolute honor Of course, my pleasure. Anytime. All right guys, have a good one. Thanks for joining us today on the Lifestyle Medicine Podcast.
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