Guilty Pleasures

Sometime back I read about the dual control neural mechanisms in brain. Guilt and pleasure are generated by two different systems in the brain. A reward system, mainly core neural system in brain, that promotes learning and pleasure seeking a.k.a. excitatory system or accelerator, and an inhibitory system, mainly prefrontal cortex, that sends inhibitory signals against risky behaviors a.k.a. brakes or guilt.

"So, we have pleasure, and we have guilt."

These are two physically different systems in brain, and both are at play at the same time. The pleasure is maximum when the inhibitory system is relaxed and is overlooking the pleasure activity. However, it is hard to convince inhibitory system to overlook blatant violations. Afterall, it is bit difficult to convince our brain that pizza is the most nutritious food on planet. There aren’t any research studies sponsored by pizza companies concluding health and mind benefits of eating pizza either. So, we have pleasure, and we have guilt. The amounts differ depending on the makeup of our brain we are born with.

If our brain is wired such that inhibitory system is oversensitive and reward system is poor, we will end up being a pessimist and are most likely to remain unhappy in general. On the other hand, if our inhibitory system is poor or almost shut off, we will be extremely self-serving and pleasure seeking individual, a.k.a. psychopath or Comcast, if we are an internet services company. Most of us are in between.

Following is my experience with guilt and pleasure. Pleasure is maximum when I have a convincing excuse for the inhibitory system to allow the indulgence. E.g., when I am flying, I can watch movies in plane all the time without any guilt. The only guilt I get during the flight is if I fall asleep watching a movie and because of that miss any food. I usually do not like to miss airline food. Not sure why. Probably, some reward circuitry from early flying days is still at play!

My guilt reduces knowing that not just me, but the entire world is wasting time on Instagram anyway!

Guilt response is high when I lack perspective due to insufficient data. E.g., I may feel guilty of wasting too much time on YouTube and social media. However, the national average is around 2.5 hours per day. Recently, I came across a video of a group of MIT students, who are spending on an average 3 - 4 hours on social media. With that information, my usage doesn’t feel as bad now because I am not alone. My guilt reduces knowing that not just me, but the entire world is wasting time on Instagram anyway! That said, if one starts forgetting meals for couple of days, I say definitely look into it! Having a perspective helps calm down the guilt response. It also gives a motivation to do better. I can now set realistic usage limit target! And when I beat it, at least for few days, I love the reward of feeling superior to rest of the humanity!

Sometimes, small rewards also work as accelerators. Nowadays, when I go to gym, I come back and have tea with sugar, and I enjoy it. The guilt is minimum because I have a feeling that I earned that reward. But the day I don’t, I usually take tea without sugar. And occasionally, I take a weekend off for enjoyment. You got to deposit before you can withdraw! So far, the guilt cop in the brain has been happily overlooking me jumping the light and is allowing these occasional little indulgences. Besides, you may get surprised about what your reward system itself will start considering pleasure in the long run. Instead of craving for tea, you may start craving for blended juice of spinach, tomato, and carrot. Who knows! Just make sure to add ginger, black pepper, and a hint of paprika as well!

Tastes good!