Figuring out the cheat codes the long way
The game moment
I was playing my game, and I got to a point where I figured something out. It's not obvious. It doesn't say "do this to get a cheat code." It was something you had to figure out along the way. Oh, that does that. Oh okay, that's cool.
Is it about the cheat codes?
So when we're searching for dopamine, when we're addicted to a dopamine producer of some description (AOD, porn, gaming, all of that stuff that gives us that hit), is that about figuring out the cheat codes? Because it teaches us how to spot the cheat codes in the rest of our life.
Dopamine isn't just the feel-good chemical. It's a learning signal. It fires hardest when something turns out better than we expected (Schultz and colleagues, 1997). That "oh, that does that" moment is exactly that.
And gaming really does it. A 1998 brain-scan study found dopamine released while people played a video game, and the better they played, the more was released.
Figuring it out for ourselves
If we're not being taught the way we need to be taught, and no offence, but if people don't get the way our brain works, then we figure it out for ourselves. And by doing that, you have to go through the process to actually get the cheat code. To do your washing, to pay bills, to live, you need to figure out the cheat code so that you actually survive.
There's research behind this too. What we work out ourselves, we remember better than what we're handed. It's called the generation effect. Curiosity switches on the brain's reward circuit and its memory center together, so things we're curious about stick (Gruber and colleagues, 2014). Good games teach exactly like this: by doing, not by being told. A lot of us never got taught that way.
Why it's hard to transition
That's what makes it really hard to transition. I can almost spot where that cheat code's coming, because I've got really good at this game, and I don't want to lose it. And what you're trying to teach me in life is actually way more boring. But I know I need it.
Adults with ADHD show differences in the brain's dopamine reward pathway (Volkow and colleagues, 2009). Rewards that are far away, like a bill paid on time, pull less than the next level right now. And the brain's "wanting" is separate from its "liking", so the pull to keep going can stay strong even when the fun has worn thin.
The easy cheat codes
The easy cheat codes, the ones that cost you money and don't actually get you what you thought they would, are easy. Figuring out the cheat codes the long way, the hard way, is hard.
Those easy ones are often designed. Near-misses and unpredictable rewards are built into gambling, and into some games, because they keep the wanting system firing (Clark and colleagues, 2009).
So where do we go from here?
It's that balance. And figuring out that balance.
There's a cheat code we put in place a long while ago, and I use it quite a bit when I'm doing training and things like this. It starts when we recognise that something's a problem.
Someone in my house identified that the washing powder was a problem. But switching to liquid meant more steps, because you have to measure it out and you have to figure out how much is left in the container. So we switched to pods in a glass container, so that you can see how many are left and you can see when you need to order them again. Less steps. Cheat codes.
I never would have thought about it like that when we put it in place, but that's how I think about it now. How can I simplify an action that I have to do all the time, and has to be within the rotation of my memory for whatever reason? In this sense, the washing. It needs to be done. I need to see that it gets done. I need to see that all the steps have been taken care of, because otherwise it doesn't get done. You know, all of that sort of stuff.
So, thinking about it as: can I see it? Can I simplify it? Can I make it a thing that I might not necessarily have to think about, because my environment tells me, gives me those triggers?
There’s more to this one. Part two is about boundaries.
Finding my people
Sharing this helps me understand it, because I talk it out loud. It also means I find my people, the people this relates to.
What's a cheat code you figured out the long way?
If this sounds like you, check out the resources on my website, and join my newsletter for more in my "I was just thinking" series.
References
For the curious, here's where the research comes from.
Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0173(98)00019-8
Clark, L., Lawrence, A. J., Astley-Jones, F., & Gray, N. (2009). Gambling near-misses enhance motivation to gamble and recruit win-related brain circuitry. Neuron, 61(3), 481–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2008.12.031
Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D., & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of curiosity modulate hippocampus-dependent learning via the dopaminergic circuit. Neuron, 84(2), 486–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.060
Koepp, M. J., Gunn, R. N., Lawrence, A. D., Cunningham, V. J., Dagher, A., Jones, T., Brooks, D. J., Bench, C. J., & Grasby, P. M. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature, 393(6682), 266–268. https://doi.org/10.1038/30498
Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593–1599. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5306.1593
Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4(6), 592–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.4.6.592
Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S. (2003). The dual pathway model of AD/HD: An elaboration of neuro-developmental characteristics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 27(7), 593–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2003.08.005
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G.-J., Kollins, S. H., Wigal, T. L., Newcorn, J. H., Telang, F., ... Swanson, J. M. (2009). Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: Clinical implications. JAMA, 302(10), 1084–1091. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.1308