How to Retrain Your Brain for Joy in Addiction Recovery With Dr. Eric Garland

Addiction can gradually disconnect people from the ordinary pleasures, relationships and experiences that once made life meaningful. In this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen help make the science of addiction recovery practical and accessible with Dr. Eric Garland, a clinical researcher, psychotherapist and leading expert in mind-body therapies for addiction and chronic pain. Dr. Garland is the developer of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, or MORE, an evidence-based treatment that combines mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy and positive psychology.

Why do alcohol and other addictive substances begin to feel more rewarding than everyday life? How are addiction, chronic pain, depression, anxiety and trauma connected? Dr. Garland explains how substance use changes the brain’s dopamine and reward systems, why cravings can become automatic, and how mindfulness can create a pause between an urge and an action. He also discusses relapse prevention, emotional pain, moderation, harm reduction and the role of meditation in 12-step recovery.

The conversation breaks down the three pillars of MORE: mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and savoring. Dr. Garland explains how mindfulness strengthens attention and awareness, how reappraisal helps people examine the consequences of their choices, and how savoring retrains the brain to experience pleasure from ordinary moments. He also shares techniques for observing cravings, “playing the tape forward,” rebuilding natural reward and using the STOP practice before engaging in an addictive behaviour.

Sonia reflects on how rediscovering simple pleasures and developing new hobbies contributed to a profound identity shift in her own sobriety. Dr. Garland shares how his personal mindfulness practice shaped his career, why recovery can involve transcending an addiction-based identity, and how people can reconnect with meaning, joy and a version of themselves that is larger than any craving, painful feeling or past behaviour.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Highlights

00:00 Dr. Eric Garland and the MORE approach02:00 How mindfulness shaped Dr. Garland’s career04:10 Addiction, chronic pain and the loss of natural reward07:00 Clinical research and the effectiveness of MORE08:00 Reducing relapse, cravings, pain and emotional distress10:00 Why people use substances to escape pain12:00 Mindfulness, reappraisal and savoring15:00 How addiction hijacks the dopamine reward system18:20 Practical ways to relearn pleasure in recovery20:00 The mindfulness loop and strengthening attention23:00 Recognizing triggers and automatic cravings25:00 Zooming into the physical experience of a craving28:00 Playing the tape forward through cognitive reappraisal30:20 Mindfulness, pain and emotional bypassing32:00 What traditional addiction treatments may be missing34:00 Finding reward in coffee, birdsong and everyday moments40:00 Sobriety, identity change and self-transcendence43:00 MORE, the 12 steps and responding to a lapse46:00 Harm reduction, moderation and opioid treatment49:00 The STOP practice for interrupting automatic behaviour53:00 Expanding MORE through training, community and technology

Dr. Garland's Links

www.moretherapy.com

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/more-therapy/id6761741739

SIS Links

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